Bukhara Biennial appoints Kulapat Yantrasast as Artistic Director for its 2027 Edition

Conceived and commissioned by Gayane Umerova and the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation (ACDF), Yantrasast will succeed Diana Campbell as Artistic Director and build on the foundations established by the acclaimed inaugural biennial that drew an estimated 1.8 million visitors to the UNESCO Creative City of Crafts and Folk Art 2025.

With recent projects including the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Michael C. Rockefeller 
Wing, Dib Contemporary Art Center in Bangkok, the ilmi Science Discovery & Innovation Center in Riyadh, and forthcoming projects at the Musée du Louvre, Yantrasast sits at the  nexus of culture, exhibition making, and museumology as one of the most in-demand practitioners working in the field today. Yantrasast and ACDF collaborated on When Apricots Blossom at Palazzo Citterio during Milan Design Week 2026—shortlisted for the Fuorisalone Award, with a Special Mention from a panel of media partners and critics.

The project united international designers and Uzbek artisans around the craft traditions of Karakalpakstan and the disappearance of the Aral Sea, blending resilience, material 
culture and the stories communities carry. Bukhara Biennial is part of the long-term vision of Shavkat Mirziyoyev, President of the Republic of Uzbekistan—to preserve and protect Uzbekistan’s rich cultural heritage, and ensure that its ancient sites, living craft traditions and architectural legacy are actively restored and passed on to future generations.

As part of ACDF’s masterplan for the revitalization of Bukhara designed by Wilmotte & Associés, the biennial weaves together the city's heritage, urban fabric and artistic life to restore Bukhara’s historic place as a crossroads along the Silk Roads. Across an expanded footprint—newly restored caravanserais, madrasas, public squares and historic sites, including spaces open to the public for the first time—Yantrasast will build on the biennial’s commitment to reviving Bukhara’s architectural and cultural heritage.

Central to the biennial’s identity is its model of creative exchange conceived by Gayane 
Umerova, where international artists collaborate with Uzbek master artisans to produce 
site-specific commissions, all made in Uzbekistan. More than 70 such works defined the 2025 edition. In 2027, this framework expands further, drawing artists into dialogue not 
only with craftspeople, but with ecologists, historians, economists and cultural 
practitioners, examining how collaboration can contribute to lasting renewal in Bukhara 
and beyond.

“Following the extraordinary response to the inaugural edition of Bukhara Biennial, we are delighted to welcome Kulapat Yantrasast as Artistic Director for 2027,” said Gayane 
Umerova, Chairperson of the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation. “The 2025 edition showed how contemporary art and craft can open new conversations 
around heritage, community, and cultural identity, while reconnecting Bukhara with its 
historic role as a center of intellectual and creative exchange along the Silk Roads. 
Kulapat brings a deeply humanistic and cross-disciplinary vision—one that understands 
architecture, craft, ecology, scholarship, and artistic practice not as separate fields, but 
as interconnected ways of shaping how we live together and imagine the future. We look forward to what he will build here.”

"Uzbekistan claimed me on my first visit—not through its monuments, but through its 
people: their stories, their generosity, and the quiet confidence of a culture that has 
always belonged to the world. The 2025 edition was remarkable, reawakening Bukhara's role as a true center of cultural exchange. My ambition for 2027 is to deepen that conversation—to treat infrastructure itself as culture, where caravanserais, madrasas, hammams, public squares, and gardens become living rooms for ideas exchanged between artists, artisans, ecologists, and scholars. The biennial is an invitation to let art and culture do what they do best: deepen life, honor place, and make sustainability a shared inheritance rather than a distant ambition. This is long work. The biennial in 2027 will end; Bukhara will keep going. What matters to me is that every commission, every restored building, every garden we touch, every encounter between an artisan and a participant is a seed planted for the generations who will inherit this city." Kulapat Yantrasast, Artistic Director, Bukhara Biennial

As with the first edition, the 2027 biennial will unfold across different disciplines—visual 
art, craft, architecture, performance, research and public programming—reinforcing its 
distinctive position as a platform where artistic and artisanal practice come together. The  curatorial theme will be announced later this year.

Kulapat Yantrasast is the founder and creative director of WHY Architecture, the internationally recognized practice known for shaping some of the world’s most influential cultural institutions. Recent projects include the transformation of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Michael C. Rockefeller Wing, which reopened in 2025, along with major new cultural institutions including the Dib Contemporary Art Center in Bangkok and the ilmi Science Discovery & Innovation Center in Riyadh. WHY has also been selected by the Musée du Louvre to design its new Department of Byzantine and Eastern Christian Art and the renovation of the museum’s Roman Antiquities trail.
The firm is currently designing the National Museum of India in New Delhi, an ambitious national cultural project expected to become the largest museum in the world when completed.

The commission reflects WHY’s expanding global role in museum architecture and its collaborations with leading cultural institutions across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. At the center of Yantrasast’s philosophy is what he often describes as architectural acupuncture—precise interventions that unlock new cultural energy within institutions and cities. Founded in Los Angeles in 2004, WHY Architecture operates internationally with studios dedicated to Architecture, Museums, Landscape, and Experience, reflecting Yantrasast’s belief that cultural institutions must integrate architecture, exhibition, environment, and narrative.

Raised in Bangkok and educated at the University of Tokyo, where he received both his M.Arch. and PhD, Yantrasast later worked closely with Pritzker Prize–winning architect Tadao Ando, contributing to major cultural projects including the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. He is the recipient of Thailand’s Silpathorn Award and currently serves on the boards of the Pulitzer Arts Foundation and The Noguchi Museum. In 2026 he was named a Medalist in the  second edition of the Art Basel Awards, in the Cross Disciplinary Creator category.

Gayane Umerova is dedicated to developing the culture sector in Uzbekistan. Head of the Department of Creative Economy and Tourism of the Administration of the President  of the Republic of Uzbekistan and Chairperson of the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development  Foundation (ACDF), Gayane Umerova is at the helm of building Uzbekistan’s cultural infrastructure. 

Her efforts are bringing the nation’s art, artists, and cultural heritage into the global spotlight. Currently, she has worked on the restoration and development of the Centre for Contemporary  Arts Tashkent (CCA Tashkent), opening on September 6, 2026 and poised to become a new  cultural hub for the region. She is driving the construction of the new National Museum of  Uzbekistan designed by Tadao Ando.

Gayane Umerova commissioned the inaugural Bukhara Biennial (September 5–November 20,  2025), which welcomed 1.8 million visitors to the city. She also spearheaded the inaugural Aral  Culture Summit (April 4–6, 2025), the second edition of which will be held on September 11–13, 2026, bringing together global experts to work towards ecological and cultural renewal for the  region.

Gayane Umerova was central in encouraging UNESCO to make the landmark decision to host its  43rd session of the UNESCO General Conference in Samarkand from 30 October to 13 November  2025. She has served as commissioner for the Uzbekistan Pavilion at the Venice Biennale Arte and  Architettura since 2021, as well as for Uzbekistan’s participation in Expo 2025 Osaka, among other  significant projects, including When Apricots Blossom, an immersive design exhibition at Milan  Design Week 2026. She is also the commissioner and co-curator of Instruments of the Mind, a landmark exhibition by  Vyacheslav Akhunov at Palazzo Franchetti, presented as an official collateral exhibition of the 61st  International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. Committed to boosting Uzbekistan’s  prominence on the international cultural scene, Umerova serves as Chairperson of the National  Commission of Uzbekistan on UNESCO Affairs under the Cabinet of Ministers. In April 2025, she  was awarded France’s Order of Arts and Literature and named a LACMA Global Ambassador. Her 
commitment to public service is evident in her dedication to creating opportunities for young  people in Uzbekistan’s cultural sector and fostering a cultural economy that unites communities  and generations.

Main Image: Kulapat Yantrasast and Gayane Umerova, photo courtesy of the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation