Bukhara Biennial spearheads cultural blossoming of the city as well as the wider Uzbekistan

A contemporary art festival, the Bukhara Biennial was conceived by the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation (ACDF) and forms part of a broader plan to revitalise Uzbekistan’s living heritage as well as establish a permanent cultural district in the historic city. Its first theme, “Recipes for Broken Hearts”, was inspired by Uzbekistan’s national dish, plov. A hearty meal of rice layered with meat, spices and vegetables, the ideas of healing and restoration imbued in plov were the conceptual crux of the gastronomy, art, craft, architecture, music and performance on display.

Gormley’s Close (2025) – created from mud bricks with Uzbek artist Temur Jumaev – channelled the theme by exploring vulnerability, communal recovery and a reconnection to ancestral roots. Jeong Kwan’s kimchi was woven into a collaborative culinary performance with Indian artist Subodh Gupta. Blending Korean temple food with Bihari fare, the hybrid meal was served inside Gupta’s pavilion-like installation, Salt Carried With the Wind (2024-25), situated outside the Ayozjon Caravanserai, one of four in an interconnected complex, on a site once occupied by Bukhara’s spice market.

All through the event, the locations were significant, as the Bukhara Biennial was designed to house site-specific installations, soundscapes and performances not in purpose-built, white-cube galleries, but in restored or adapted caravanserais (merchant inns), madrasas (educational institutions), trading domes and mosques. While fellow Silk Road stopover Samarkand and the national capital, Tashkent, are undergoing their own cultural transformations, this preservation-first approach is what sets Bukhara apart.