Ahead of her show at Pirelli HangarBicocca, a site for art exhibitions in Italy, Saodat Ismailova shares her influences and artistic trajectory in post-Soviet Uzbekistan. “While I never use traditional music from Central Asia in my artworks, it has been very important for my development as an artist too,” she explains. “In 2004, I was commissioned by the Aga Khan Music Programme (AKMP) to make 10 documentaries about traditional musicians in the region. It was a 7-year project, and it taught me about working with people in the field. It also meant I got to know the Central Asian region, as most traditional musicians don’t live in urban spaces but rather small towns and villages. It’s one thing to learn about culture from reading books or from what your grandmother says, but the physical experience of crossing lands is totally different. You understand that there is unity, be it in terms of language or a common historical space.”