Bukhara Biennial to launch in Uzbekistan in September 2025

Curated by Artistic Director Diana Campbell, Recipes for Broken Hearts will mark the biennial’s debut edition, a 10-week-long interdisciplinary experience spanning visual, culinary and performance art, textiles, crafts, music, dance and architecture. The event will serve as a platform to spotlight Uzbek artists and artisans, some of whom will collaborate with internationally recognised artists, including Antony Gormley (UK), Laila Gohar(Egypt), Himali Singh Soin (India) and David Soin Tappeser (Germany), Subodh Gupta (India), Bekhbaatar Enkhtur (Mongolia), Wael Shawky (Egypt), Delcy Morelos (Colombia), and Marina Simão (Brazil).   

The Biennial will be one of the largest international initiatives in the field of contemporary art in Central Asia and a major transformative and evolving platform to engage with Uzbekistan’s art and cultural heritage. Building on Bukhara’s rich history as an important intellectual and economic centre for production on the Silk Roads and as a hub for cultural exchange between Asia, Africa, and Latin America in the twentieth century, the event will showcase a multitude of disciplines with a strong focus on craft.  

Conceived by Artistic Director Diana Campbell, the curatorial concept and title of the biennial’s first edition – Recipes for Broken Hearts – takes the form of an expanded feast to explore the healing power of art and culture through communal participation and will look at time as a key ingredient in art, cooking and healing. The theme is derived from a widely known legend claiming that the recipe of the staple Uzbek dish, palov, was invented by polymath and father of modern medicine, Ibn Sina, to mend the broken heart of a prince who could not marry the daughter of a craftsman. Inspired by this story, Recipes for Broken Hearts will emphasise the importance of shared experiences and collective healing, while fostering connection and collaboration between local and international artists and artisans. To explore food as a means of building togetherness, Uzbek and international chefs will be invited to showcase the craft of cooking, alternating each weekend of the biennial and bringing in flavours from different culinary traditions to understand the complexity of the world in the context of Bukhara’s history with the global spice trade. 

​​P​articipants from Uzbekistan confirmed to date include Aziza Azim; Behzod Boltaev; Gulnoza Irgasheva; Oyjon Khayrullaeva; Hassan Kurbanbaev and Korean-Uzbek multidisciplinary artist Daria Kim, whose project will engage with the many histories of the Korean diaspora in Uzbekistan, preserved through Nuron Gallery’s collection of approximately 1,400 works by Korean-Uzbek artists. Additionally, miniature painter Davlat Toshev will collaborate with students he teaches in Bukhara, among them children with special needs. Further international artists announced this year ​​include Gabriel Chaile (Argentina); Shakuntala Kulkarni (India); Liu Chuang (China); Kei Imatsu(Japan); Pakui Hardware (Lithuania); Nomin Zezegmaa (Germany/Mongolia) and Binta Diaw (Senegal-Italy); and international collective Slavs and Tatars. All commissions, including works by international artists, will be made in Uzbekistan and the entire biennial will provide an open-for-all forum with free admission.      

Artistic Director Diana Campbell, who is also the Artistic Director of the Dhaka-based Samdani Art Foundation and is the Chief Curator of the Dhaka Art Summit, comments: ‘For centuries, religious and cultural traditions from all corners of the world have commingled in Bukhara, resulting in a rich atmosphere of learning, craft and artistic production

‘It has always been a place where people came together to find togetherness in the quest ​​for a more meaningful life through a search for spiritual, intellectual, and worldly knowledge. Recipes for Broken Hearts will emphasise this legacy by revitalising some of the extraordinary sites that were essential to developing the culture that we celebrate today, bringing them back into the pulse of life of the city through an interdisciplinary event which goes beyond the traditional notions of an art biennial.’ 

The Bukhara Biennial will be the first event to take place in a renewed historic district in the city, which is undergoing a major conservation and revitalisation project led by architect Wael Al Awar of design studio waiwai, who is also Creative Director of Architecture for the biennial’s debut edition, with landscape design by VOGT Landscape Architects. 

waiwai’s approach to the conservation of this district responds to Bukhara’s continued reuse of old spaces and materials and how the architecture has reacted over time to the landscape. For thousands of years, the city has been open to influences from across Asia and beyond, and the district will embody this intellectual and cultural heritage. 

Wael Al Awar, Creative Director of Architecture for the 2025 Bukhara Biennial and architect of the city’s renewed historic district, comments: ‘The historic heart of Bukhara and its collection of architectural landmarks tell the story of a city that for centuries has embraced invention from around the world to create something new. In its revitalised form, which we will inaugurate with the biennial, this historic district will invite audiences in Uzbekistan and internationally to reconnect with the history and culture of this remarkable place.’

Curated by Diana Campbell with Wael Al Awar as Creative Director of Architecture, the biennial’s inaugural edition will take place across sites including Fayzulla Khodjaev House-Museum, Miri-Arab Madrasah, Magoki Attori Mosque, Kalyan Minaret and the Olimjon Caravanserai.

The initiative is spearheaded by the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation, which promotes and preserves Uzbek art and culture through national and international initiatives, including the restoration of heritage sites in Uzbekistan, the development of artist-driven spaces and collaborations with museums and institutions internationally. 

Commissioner of the Bukhara Biennial and chairperson of the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation Gayane Umerova comments: ‘We are thrilled to welcome creatives, thinkers, and visitors from all over the world to Uzbekistan, inviting them to engage with our vibrant culture and rich legacy. Building upon ACDF’s extensive work promoting Uzbek artists, designers, and artisans abroad, we are honoured to finally bring the world to Uzbekistan for the first major international biennial in our country. For many centuries, Bukhara was a global hub of trade, arts, crafts, and scholarship; and today, it is part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network for Craft and Folk Art. Informed by its glorious past and optimism for the future, Bukhara is the perfect location to launch this new international platform for interdisciplinary and cross-cultural exchange.’ 

Recipes for Broken Hearts will take place from 5th September to 20th November 2025. The programme, guest curators, and complete list of artists and chefs, half of which will be from Uzbekistan and Central Asia, will be announced in 2025.  

Main Image: Caravanserai Ahmadjon in Bukhara, courtesy of Rafal Sliwa