The Dying Sea & the Desert of Salt

A three hour journey through the Karakum Desert brought us to the rubble strewn city of Nukus, wasteland capital of the autonomous Republic of Karakalpakstan in Eastern Uzbekistan. The air lacking the moisture necessary for clouds to form, the sun blazed through a sky layered in deepening hues of blue. Shade a rare commodity in the perfectly flat, thinly spread city, machine gun wielding guards perspired outside the hulking Council of Ministers building, a child with a goitre the size of a pomegranate circling us on his bicycle.

“Ullo, ullo,” he squawked excitedly.


In the bustling bazaar, graven faced traders endeavoured to sell whatever they could lay their hands on. Old before their time, babushkas in socks and sandals with swollen bellies and clumps of hair missing peddled the cheapest brands of loose cigarettes. Drained bottles of vodka at their sides, skullcap clad men lay passed out beside tin shacks. The gold teeth of the younger women were nothing but a sign of endemic malnutrition here, which coupled with a lack of calcium meant that teeth fell like snow in Karakalpakstan, especially during pregnancy.

Once a thriving agricultural centre, Karakalpakstan is now one of the sickest places on Earth. Respiratory illness, tuberculosis and oesophageal cancers rife, birth defects and infant mortality rates are amongst the highest in the world. The deliberate destruction of the Aral Sea has caused toxic dust-storms so vast they are visible from space, ravaging a half a million kilometre square area. These storms used to hit once every five years, but now come ten times a year.

Yet it was in this shutdown ecosystem that a remarkable collection of art had survived precisely because of its inhospitable location. Risking denouncement as an “enemy of the people,” obsessive Ukrainian born art collector Igor Savitsky spirited away thousands of avant-garde pieces banned in the Soviet Union.

A fusion of Dada and Cubism, a piece entitled “On His Knees” is one of the only surviving works by Lev Galperin. No longer permitted to leave the Motherland after returning in 1921, he eked out a meagre existence. His paintings regarded as counter-revolutionary, he was arrested on Christmas Day of 1934 and sentenced to five years hard labour. During his trial, Galperin dared to voice his scepticism regarding the Soviet system and the state of art in the union. His death certificate simply reads, “Cause of death: execution by shooting”.