GG Yuldashev

Aziz Yuldashev restores the blue ceramic tilework on Samarkand's ancient domes, cutting and setting pieces fired to match originals six centuries old, on scaffolding overseen by the strictest foreman in the trade, who also happens to be his father-in-law. He is the reason the whole crew now plays: he taught the apprentices first, then the senior restorers, then, eventually, the foreman, until the scaffolding's lunch break turned into a running tournament with its own house rules nobody remembers agreeing to. At the table he keeps a builder's rhythm, fitting each move into place the way a tile settles against its neighbour, and a match rarely slows once he has found his line, the way an unfinished mosaic never waits once the kiln has been booked.