Central Asia enters the radar of the contemporary art world

First edition in September

In Bukhara, art is a dish that unites: the biennial that changes the rules

Diana Campbell's curatorial vision: the event is a platform for future generations

13 July 2025

Diana Campbell. Photography by Nafisa Parpieva. Image courtesy of Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation

5' min read

The Bukhara Biennial "(Recipes for Broken Hearts)" from 5 September to 20 November will present over 70 site-specific contemporary projects. Each work was conceived through collaboration between local artisans and artists from Uzbekistan, Central Asia and around the world and are made in Uzbekistan. With visual artworks, architecture-inspired installations, performances, poetry and culinary experiences, Diana Campbell's curatorial vision embraces Uzbekistan's recognition of craft and culinary acts as art forms, dismantling hierarchies through an expanded, multi-sensory journey. She tells us about it in this interview.

The title is very catchy can you explain its meaning?
Doing research on Uzbekistan through food, a fundamental part of understanding any culture, I came across a legend that Ibn Sina, the Bukhara-born father of modern medicine, invented palov (plov, in Uzbek), the national rice dish of Uzbekistan, as a recipe to heal the broken heart of a prince who could not marry the daughter of an artisan. I was moved by the role of creativity in the healing of a broken heart and pushed me to do something about the fact that the woman in this story was reduced to her father's profession and neither of them was invited to eat palov. I wanted to do something to solve the problem of the way artists are presented while artisans are reduced to being described for what they do - potter, woodcarver, etc. - and I wanted to do something to solve the problem of the way artists are presented while artisans are reduced to being described for what they do.

Aziza Kadyri, «Don’t Miss the Cue», installation view Biennale Venezia 2024

How can a biennial help to change this situation? Taking a cue from Bukhara's role in the history of the global spice trade and exploring food as a means to build unity, how does food become an emotional medium in the practice of the artists present at the biennale?
Food is a journey through time. I mourn the loss of my grandmother, but I meet her every time I eat certain dishes. When I eat food from Guam, where she came from, I can see how Japanese, Spanish and Mexican influences enter everything we find local on this tiny island in Micronesia, three and a half hours from Japan. Forced migrations can leave people nostalgic for the taste of home. Then they can invent new recipes to remember where they came from, a bit like the Korean community in Uzbekistan, forcibly relocated by Stalin, who use Uzbek carrots like cabbage (which does not grow easily in Uzbekistan) in Korea. We are delighted to work with Korean monk chef Jeong Kwan to examine the role of food, spirituality and healing in relation to this and other stories. Time can be savoured through fermentation and slow cooking, just as time is a necessary ingredient to heal a broken heart.

The inaugural edition of the biennial,' the statement says, 'provides a platform for future generations', through which initiatives?
Uzbekistan is a very young country: over 60 per cent of the population is under 35 years old. We work with emerging artists from Uzbekistan, many of whom have never worked with a curator before, supporting them in making new work and taking them with us to India, Korea and other contexts to help them learn about other emerging art scenes, especially in Asia. We have an art history symposium curated by a young Uzbek PhD student at Harvard University, which is bringing together Uzbek and Central Asian historians to write their history. Most of the books I read about Central Asia are written by white men and we are taking this opportunity to increase the diversity of who is being heard, read and quoted.

Dipinto di Saule Suleimenova (Kazakhstan) progetto per la Bukhara Biennial, in collaborazione con Shiru Shakar (Uzbekistan), 2025.

How does the Bukhara Biennial stand out in the international calendar of art biennials?
It is not a biennial with a heavy opening: there are events every weekend and everyone is invited. It is a unique project in which a city is restored through an art event thanks to the vision of Gayane Umerova, commissioner and president of the Foundation for the Development of Art and Culture of Uzbekistan, and architect Wael al Awar, and artisans are enabled not to be reduced to the desires of bargain tourists, but to elevate their skills and ideas by collaborating with artists in a more equitable manner than is normally the case in the art world, which emphasises the artist with the ideas and erases the creators. We have planned the biennial in such a way that we hope most people will be able to come during the ten weeks it is open. The opening is on Friday evening and, thanks to the international art calendar, you can fly to Uzbekistan directly from Seoul if you are there for Frieze Seoul. The Istanbul Biennial will open in mid-September and you can fly to Bukhara directly from Istanbul. We have no secret vernissage days: this is a public event that animates the public space of Bukhara and we look forward to welcoming everyone.

Should the Biennale support national art, i.e. the art of the Central Asian region?
Yes. As with agriculture, you need to flourish from the soil in which you are planted. Most of the artists are from Uzbekistan and Central Asia - and it is they who inspire the seeds of ideas that have grown from the nourishment of the Uzbek community hosting this exhibition. I learn from my Uzbek and Central Asian collaborators every day - and we have a flat fee structure whereby local and international artists are paid equally, so that the focus does not go to international participants at the expense of local artists.

The Biennial will highlight local talent. Can you share some highlights?
The Bukhara Biennial will highlight exceptional Uzbek talent. Tashkent-based artist Munisa Kholkhujaeva will present several installations exploring healing and memory, including an upside-down floral chandelier, a tea ceremony for emotional reflection and a mausoleum-inspired planter installation symbolising renewal. Bukharian artist Oyjon Khayrullaeva will create mosaic sculptures of human organs at all Biennial sites, combining them with healing recipes handed down by Bukharian grandmothers. The Korean-Uzbek artist Daria Kim explores the Korean diaspora in Uzbekistan, animating works by artists of the Korean diaspora and addressing the heartbreak of erasure to tell the story of migration. The Biennale also promotes collaborations between international artists and Uzbek artisans, such as Uzbek chefs Bahriddin Chustiy and Pavel Georganov who will collaborate with artist Carsten Höller on a unique Uzbek culinary experience, while craftsman Bakhtiyor Bobomurodov and Marina Perez Simão collaborate to create a ceramic mosaic celestial map in a caravanserai, inspired by Uzbekistan's astronomical heritage. Other Uzbek artists present are Aziza Azim, Behzod Boltaev, Gulnoza Irgasheva, Hassan Kurbanbaev, Davlat Toshev and many other talents with interesting projects.