Central Asia enters the radar of the contemporary art world

New geographies of art

The protagonists of the Bukhara Biennial

From sculpted pomegranates to embroidered murals, from ritual performances to kilometre-long tapestries: the works of Central Asian artists interweave aesthetics, identity and territory

by Maria Adelaide Marchesoni

30 July 2025

Gulnur Mukazhanova, «Post Nomadic Reality #0-41», 2021, fine merino wool, felted by hand (260 x 400 cm)

5' min read

Key points

Collaborations between artists and craftsmen
Uzbek and neighbouring artists

5' min read

The works of Central Asian artists narrate a world of complex identities, revisited traditions and reflections on society, economics, politics and gender roles. Artists from this vast region are today the protagonists of cultural conversations, mixing historical roots and contemporary tensions in symbolic works. An example of this are the more than 70 site-specific projects of the Bukhara Biennial, "Recipes for Broken Hearts" on the agenda from 5 September to 11 November, which also tell the story of the country and are conceived through collaborations between local craftsmen and artists from Uzbekistan, other Central Asian countries and around the world.

Collaborations between artists and craftsmen

International artists who will participate in the event include Antony Gormley, Subodh Gupta, Carsten Höller, Dana Awartani, the Italian-Senegalese Binta Diaw, Erika Verzutti to name but a few. Their presence at the Biennial will foster a mix of interdisciplinary conversations and creative collaborations that will interweave many spiritual and cultural traditions aimed at fostering Uzbekistan's craftsmanship, and there will be no lack - as the title of the biennial reminds us - of gastronomic interventions as art forms, dismantling hierarchies through a multi-sensory journey.

Saule Suleimenova , «Drokpa. Üsh Kelin/Three Brides», plastic bags on polyethylene, 2021

There will be several food-inspired projects, including an installation by the art collectiveSlavs and Tatars and the Uzbek ceramist Abdullo Narzullaev focusing on the melon as a divine gift, according to a local Uzbek legend, artist Samah Hijawi (Jordan/Belgium) and Ahmad Arabov (Uzbekistan) created a 15-metre embroidered mural tracing the movement of food and spices traded along the Silk Roads. Lebanese artistTarek Atoui (recently concluded exhibition at Hangar Bicocca) will engage with Uzbek musicians in a contemporary celebration of living traditions that links his long-term engagement with the way musical traditions migrate across Asia, the Arab world and beyond, with performances and workshops taking place from 21 to 23 September.

Another collaboration with a local craftsman is that of Brazilian artist Erika Verzutti (she works with Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York with prices ranging from 35 thousand to 250 thousand dollars) who will create the wooden sculpture 'Tower of Pomegranate' in collaboration with local craftsman Shonazar Jumaev. "The pomegranate," Erika Verzutti explains to Arteconomy24, "is a form that fosters a rich dialogue between my sculptural vocabulary and the local traditions of Bukhara; traditionally, the pomegranate symbolises fertility, abundance and prosperity, often associated with life, rebirth and good fortune thanks to its many seeds that represent abundance and continuity. The sculpture is located in a public space, near a traditional Bukharian wooden column supporting the architecture of a carpet shop. This is the first time the artist has realised his series of pomegranates - previously cast in bronze or modelled in ceramic - in wood, working with the Bukharian master carver Shonazar Jumaev. Together Erika Verzutti and Shonazar Jumaev chose to "leave the surfaces half-finished, drawing attention to the process itself - the gesture, the doing, the touching". The aim of this inaugural edition of the biennial is to showcase local and neighbouring talents.

Erika Verzutti, «Tower of Pomegranate»

Uzbek and neighbouring artists

Among the many talents that the Biennial will highlight, some have already had visibility in our country, such as Aziza Kadyri, who represented Uzbekistan at the last Biennial (at East Contemporary, Milan, prices from 2,000 to 30,000 euros for the most complex installations). For the biennial, Aziza is working on two projects, a large site-specific installation for the exterior of one of the madrasas realised in collaboration with the artisan Yulduz Mukhiddinova and a digital and interactive work with the 3D animator Mathieu Bissonnette, for a caravanserai.

The textile tradition is present in the works of Gulnur Mukazhanova, born in Kazakhstan and living in Berlin, who exhibited in Venice in the exhibition 'Memory of Hope' (from Galerie Michael Janssen, Berlin, Chicago, prices from 9,000 to 35,000 euros).

She hails from Bukhara Oyjon Khayrullaeva, whose work is a combination of photography and digital collage that can be seen on her Instagram account (@janajaaan) using the city's history as a source. For the Biennale, she will present a video in which her grandmother and aunt share ancestral knowledge about traditional remedies, including the use of mud from Bukhara's crumbling walls for skin healing. Her work is an example of how contemporary art in the region continues to be deeply rooted in tradition while exploring new interdisciplinary narratives.

Desires (Himali Singh Soin & David Soin Tappeser, India/UK) will present a monumental ikat tapestry made in collaboration with the weavers of the city of Margilan. Several kilometres long, the ikat will serve as a textile artery connecting the beginning and end of an evolving and growing cultural quarter. The motif on the ikat refers to both the disappearance of the blue tiles of Bukhara's mosques and the evaporation of the Aral Sea. Every full moon, a ritual to invoke water will accompany the vast tapestry.

Munisa Kholkhujaeva (Tashkent, 1997), combines traditional Central Asian motifs with a contemporary visual language in her works and is gaining increasing international recognition at dOCUMENTA 15 presented her textile-based amulet creation performance 'TUMOR' as part of the 'DAVRA' collective, (from Mehran Contemporary prices from EUR 2,500 to EUR 15,000, depending on the medium and complexity).

Dipinto di Yunus Farmonov del progetto «Hylozoic/Desires (Himali Singh Soin & David Soin Tappeser)» alla Biennale di Bukhara, in collaborazione con Rasuljon Mirzaakhmedov, Margilan Crafts Development Centre, 2025

She hails from Almaty, Kazakhstan Saule Suleimenova, born in 1970, an artist working in various fields, from painting to graphic design to public art. In her work, Suleimenova explores the construct of collective memory and researches archives and photographs, as well as the semiotics of contemporary cities and the history of Qazaqstan (Kazakhstan). Her most recent series, entitled 'Cellophane Paintings', is made from used plastic bags and consists of motifs ranging from the socio-political to the personal (at Andalukova Gallery, Dubai, the series of works in plastic bags ranges between $2,000 and $18,000 depending on size).

Gulnur Mukazhanova, born in Kazakhstan and resident in Berlin for more than ten years, exhibits the tradition of textile art. Mukazhanova belongs to a generation of Central Asian artists that emerged on the international scene thanks to the Central Asia Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2005-2013), which investigated the post-Soviet artistic identities of countries such as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Growing up between the collapse of the Soviet Union and the birth of independent Kazakhstan, her work reflects a fluid identity that mixes memory and modernity. Recovering nomadic traditions and everyday materials introduced during the Soviet era, Mukazhanova combines local textiles with Chinese fabrics, creating complex and evocative visual surfaces that evoke the vast horizons of the Eurasian steppes (at Galerie Michael Janssen, Berlin, her textile works range between €9,000 and €29,000). His works in fine hand felted merino wool, brocade, lurex, velvet, brooches

Instead, Bekhbaatar Enkhtur, born in 1994, is originally from Mongolia and will be among the protagonists of the Biennale. He draws inspiration for his works from the ancient Shiite tradition and they are made of malleable organic materials such as raw clay and beeswax. The Shi'a work for the Biennale is made of tin and some works are made of fabric (from Matèria, Rome, prices from one thousand to 40 thousand euro).

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