Bukhara (Uzbekistan). The first Bukhara Biennale (September 5-November 20, 2025) is held in the historic center of the city. Located on the Silk Roads, it was the first site in Uzbekistan to be listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993. One of the finest examples of an Islamic city in Central Asia, the site has recently undergone major renovation work, including the pedestrianization of the city center and the reopening of several monuments for the biennial.
In addition to this heritage gem, the artistic direction of the biennial has placed intangible heritage at the heart of its curatorial project. This reflects the country’s dynamism in this area, with 16 UNESCO intangible heritage listings since 2008. Placed under the aegis of the Art & Culture Development Foundation (ACDF), a government organization chaired by Gayane Umerova and the American curator Diana Campbell, the biennial impresses with the coherence of its artistic direction, through more than 70 works designed in situ by as many artists from around forty countries. Far from any superficial narrative posture, vernacular traditions have been integrated organically into the works, all commissioned and produced on site, with local artisans and from materials produced on the territory.
A work recycled in art school
Close (2024-2025) (see ill.) is thus the result of a collaboration between the British artist Antony Gormley and the Uzbek artisan Temur Jumaev, both credited in the biennial catalog. The work is presented as a monumental installation in the interior courtyard of the Khoja Kalon mosque, dating from the end of the 16th century. Recalling, at first glance, the configuration of funerary steles, the different units actually evoke various postures of the human body, according to the pixelated style characteristic of Gormley’s sculptures. These figures are made of large bricks made from earth taken on site, mixed with straw, using a traditional technique of crushing and fermentation. Once dismantled, these bricks will be used to build an art school in Bukhara, in accordance with Gormley’s wishes.
The other works explore various traditions, such as tapestry, ceramics, performing arts, and culinary arts. The title of the biennial, “Recipes for Broken Hearts”, refers to the palov (Or plov), Uzbek rice pilaf dish that Avicenna, a 10th-century physician and scholar from the Bukhara region, is said to have invented as a medicinal remedy for a lovesick prince. Listed as UNESCO intangible heritage since 2016, the palov was served to all the guests during the opening of the biennial.
This matrix innovation, curatorial as well as artistic, is accompanied by an inspired art of staging, where the works dialogue with each other and with historical sites without ever clashing with them. It also embodies the centuries-old cultural melting pot that is Uzbekistan: a crossroads of civilizations, currents of thought and migratory flows.
This careful scenography highlights the Uzbek artistic scene as well as local crafts, with more than a hundred artisans involved. Among the twenty artists from the country selected, several revelations stand out, notably Aziza Kadyri, with her textile and kinetic installation Cut From the Same Cloth (2024-2025), and Oyjon Khayrullaeva, with Eight Lives (2024–2025), ceramic mosaics inspired by the mausoleums of Samarkand and their shades of blue.
Free for all, the biennial is already a public success with 500,000 visitors in the first month. This success is all the more notable given the country’s limited resources: with a young population of around 37 million inhabitants, comparable to that of Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan has a GDP ten times lower. This calibrated success results from progressive learning, nourished in particular by the ten editions of the “Tashkent International Biennale of Contemporary Art” (since 2001) and by the experience of Diana Campbell, artistic director of the Dhaka Art Summit for more than ten years.
Despite a still authoritarian regime, the cultural centralization carried out by the ACDF made it possible to carry out an inspired project thanks to an integrated and synergistic approach. At the heart of the country’s cultural diplomacy strategy, the Bukhara Biennale notably benefited from the support of Saudi Arabia. The organization, for the first time outside Paris, of the UNESCO General Assembly in Samarkand in November 2025, two weeks before the closing of the biennial, testifies to Uzbekistan’s desire to grow in international power.
