Bukhara Biennial: Recipes for Broken Hearts
The inaugural Bukhara Biennial, Recipes for Broken Hearts, takes place from 5 September to 20 November 2025, presenting one of Central Asia’s most ambitious cultural initiatives to date. Over ten weeks, newly commissioned site-specific artworks, performances, workshops and culinary activations will unfold across Bukhara’s historic sites in a multi-sensory celebration of art, craft and food.
Commissioned by Gayane Umerova and curated by Diana Campbell, the biennial features over 70 projects created in Uzbekistan through collaborations between local artisans and international artists, chefs and designers including Laila Gohar, Subodh Gupta, Carsten Höller, Jeong Kwan, Elena Reygadas, Tavares Strachan, among others.
Programme highlights
The biennial’s evolving programme includes talks with leading artists, full-moon concerts, chef-led events, artisan workshops, a symposium on art history, poetry readings and more.
Inspired by the Uzbek term oshqozon (“stomach” or “vessel for preparing food”), the Café Oshqozon anchors the curatorial concept, treating the biennial as a body nourished by communal feasts of art and storytelling. International and Uzbek chefs alternate each weekend to create menus tied to narrative traditions, while ceramic mosaics by Abdurauf Taxirov and Oyjon Khayrullaeva connect the biennial’s sites as organs of a single body.
Culinary highlights include:
Jeong Kwan (South Korea) marking the opening and closing with meditative acts of fermentation.
Elena Reygadas (Mexico) exploring the migration of ingredients such as tomato and pepper.
Fatmata Binta (Sierra Leone) examining nomadic food cultures and drought-resistant grains.
Carsten Höller, Coen Dieleman, Bahriddin Chustiy and Pavel Georganov merging science, art and cuisine.
Laila Gohar’s pavilion of salt and navat sugar crystals.
Slavs and Tatars and Abdullo Narzullaev’s melon installation.
Delcy Morelos and Abdulnabil Kamalov’s spice-and-clay woven sculpture.
Samah Hijawi and Ahmad Arabov’s 15-metre embroidered mural mapping Silk Road spice routes.
Subodh Gupta collaborates with Pavel Georganov on a dome installation of enamel dishes housing a culinary experience linking Uzbekistan and India. The biennial closes with the Rice Cultures Festival (16–20 November), co-curated with Marie Hélène Pereira, bringing together global rice traditions from West African Jollof to Bukharan Palov.
Spaces of learning and collaboration
The House of Softness, located in the 16th-century Gavkushon Madrasa, becomes the biennial’s learning hub, hosting workshops, symposiums and performances under a protective canopy installation by Suchi Reddy. Craft workshops include masterclasses on ebru led by miniature painter Davlat Toshev.
Other highlights:
Shakuntala Kulkarni’s installation with the Bukhara Philharmonic, blending body language, music and film.
Majid al Remaihi’s collaboration with puppeteers, reinterpreting the folkloric figure of Nasreddin.
Tarek Atoui’s performances with Uzbek musicians (21–23 September).
Hylozoic/Desires’ kilometres-long ikat tapestry and full-moon musical rituals.
The Craft of Mending Symposium (6–8 October), exploring Uzbekistan’s role in transregional cultural exchange.
Poetry programme (16–20 November), curated by Katya García-Antón, celebrating Bukhara’s legacy as a city of poets from Rumi to Langston Hughes.
Cultural district and legacy
Events unfold across newly restored landmarks — Khoja-Gavkushon Ensemble, Ayozjon, Ulugbek Tamokifurush, Ahmadjon and Fothullajon Caravanserais, Rashid Madrasa — forming the first phase of a new cultural district for Bukhara, a UNESCO Creative City of Crafts and Folk Art.
The biennial builds on seven years of work by the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation, led by commissioner Umerova, which has supported artisans across the country. This first edition marks the beginning of a long-term plan to preserve heritage and expand cultural infrastructure, including a fine art museum, music school, studios and a digital archive.
Bukhara Biennial: Recipes for Broken Hearts runs 5 September – 20 November 2025 with free admission. More information: bukharabiennial.uz/en
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