From 6 to 11 November 2017, Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, hosted the first edition of the International Festival of Decorative and Applied Arts, organised by the Academy of Arts of Uzbekistan. Seventy artists from eleven countries took part. Eleven of them were Italian and came with the Progetto Angeli, created by Aida Abdullaeva to bring Italy’s masters of the applied arts to Tashkent. Davide was one of them.
Davide’s works reached Tashkent with Aida: a black and gold silk dress bearing the maison’s crest, the scarves, the leaflets and a Fashion catalogue.
The festival opened outdoors, on the steps of the Academy of Arts’ Central Exhibition Hall, with dancers in embroidered dresses. Inside, beneath traditional Uzbek robes hung high above, were historical costumes, glass, ceramics, wood and silk.
In Davide’s space the dress stood on its mannequin, beside a carved wooden table with the scarves and their black box with the gold plaque.
Aida wore one of the maison’s scarves, and with it around her neck she answered questions from the Uzbekistan 24 television channel.
“Our scarf on live TV! Satisfaction.”
In Joi Magazine, Franco Mancinelli wrote about the festival and mentioned Davide’s silks.
“In the silk section, with scarves, there were artistic works by Davide Cristofaro, Paola Zannoni and Miguel Angel Acosta Lara, which aroused great interest in everyone.”
The festival closed with a gala evening for the Academy’s twentieth anniversary, with awards and diplomas for the participants. Aida Abdullaeva presented the first Angeli Prize to the president of the Academy, Akmal Nur. Davide received the certificate of participation signed by Aida and the Academy’s certificate signed by Akmal Nur.
A few months later, between 3 and 10 April 2018, Davide looked back on those days on Instagram, one post after another. The last one showed the scarf’s black box.
“A dream can become a long-term goal, but it is never achievable in a few years. Turning a dream into reality requires a long and winding path, along which many sacrifices must be made.”
