BUKHARA.- The inaugural edition of the Bukhara Biennial, Recipes for Broken Hearts, opened its doors to the public today, Friday September 5 until November 20, with over seventy site-specific commissions by more than 200 participants from 39 countries and six continents. Commissioned and spearheaded by Gayane Umerova, Chairperson of the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation (ACDF) and curated by Artistic Director Diana Campbell, the debut edition unveils works, performances and installations born through collaborations between artists and artisans.

Conceived as a living body nourished through shared experiences, Recipes for Broken Hearts will see, among other events, ambitious culinary activations unfold over the ten-week period at the biennial’s Café Oshqozon. Meaning ‘stomach’ and ‘vessel for cooking’ in Uzbek, the café will feature menus by renowned international and local chefs inspired by recipes for physical and emotional healing and the spirit of conviviality, allowing you to taste the biennial themes and looking at shared meals and recipes as a form of learning. The activations at Café Oshqozon will celebrate the rich cultural exchanges that define the region, exploring how food, tradition and history converge. Throughout the biennial, Uzbek chefs Bahriddin Chustiy and Pavel Georganov will introduce a menu titled Brutalist Bukhara together with Brutalisten’s Coen Dieleman and Carsten Höller, with seasonal changes in ingredients and flavours. Mexican chef Elena Reygadas will trace the journey of the tomato and chili from the Americas to Central Asia (September 23-24), now staples of Uzbek cuisine. Sierra Leonean chef Fatmata Binta’s menu focuses on sorghum, a drought-resistant grain vital both to African communities and to the people of Karakalpakstan in Uzbekistan. Launching October 10-11, the dishes explore how itinerant traditions adapt to place and climate, sustaining life and identity across continents. Korean Buddhist monk Jeong Kwan will ferment kimchi over the duration of the biennial in the sixteenth-century Khoja Kalon Mosque, in collaboration with the Koryo-saram community. In parallel, Jeong Kwan will host meditation sessions atop the site’s remains before returning for the closing week of the biennial to join the Chefs programme. Together with Subodh Gupta, Jeong Kwan will celebrate vegetarian traditions connecting Korean temple cuisine and the rich heritage of Bihari vegetarian food, incorporating the fermented kimchi and doenjang (soybean paste) from November 18 to 20. The Bukhara Biennial website lists all participants in the Chefs programme, with events alternating each weekend of the biennial. Co-curated by Diana Campbell and Marie Hélène Pereira, the Rice Cultures Festival (November 16–20), will mark the close of the biennial, celebrating rice traditions from across the world, with an Emir-style feast of paella, jollof, pulao and palov.

Under the leadership of its Commissioner, Gayane Umerova, the Bukhara Biennial marks the start of the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation’s (ACDF) long-term commitment to reviving Bukhara’s historic role as a hub for creative production, exchange and intellectual studies.

Following the path of the ancient Shakhrud Canal, the biennial forms a constellation of site-specific projects produced in Uzbekistan by ACDF. Spanning a 500-metre area of the old city of Bukhara, the biennial transforms newly restored historic landmarks within a future Cultural District, including four caravanserais, the Fathullajon, Ayozjon, Ahmadjon, and Mirzo Ulugbek Tamakifurush, connected by a vast floor installation imagined by Marina Perez Simão with mosaic master Bakhtiyar Babamuradov. Across the walls of all six biennial sites Oyjon Khayrullaeva with mosaic masters Raxmon Toirov and Rauf Taxirov present mosaic human organs, while a kilometers-long ikat tapestry by Hylozoic/ Desires (Himali Singh Soin and David Soin Tappeser), woven by ikat masters led by Rasuljon Mirzaahmedov, runs through the biennial like an artery, tracing the disappearance of the Aral Sea. A music ritual with karnay performers will accompany the work each full moon in September, October and November. Engaging with Uzbek musicians in a contemporary celebration of living tradition, Tarek Atoui will debut a sculptural instrument featuring nine traditional Uzbek horns crafted by instrument maker Sharif Ostanov, bringing to the biennial evening performances and workshops (September 21–23).

Works that inspire awe will occupy the Khoja Kalon Mosque. Antony Gormley in collaboration with Bukharian restorer Temur Jumaev and his team present a labyrinth of twice life-sized bodies made using an a thousand-year-old mud architecture technique still thriving in Bukhara. Within metres, Delcy Morelos’ spiderweb-like architectural structure, interwoven through columns, is painted with a turmeric mix and infused with a fragrant blend of spices prepared by a family of Bukharian spice merchants. The Rashid Madrasa will offer the tools needed to process, mourn and memorialise through projects by Igshaan Adams in collaboration with Bukharian and South African weavers; and Munisa Kholkhujaeva in collaboration with Anton Nozhenko. In the Gavkushon Madrasa, the House of Softness will stage talks, workshops and events throughout the duration of the biennial, serving as a platform for learning and reflection. Highlights include a panel talk on Women of Central Asia (September 6); Behind the Commissions Artist Talks (September 22); The Craft of Mending (October 6–8), a Central Asia history symposium curated by Uzbek art historian and Harvard University scholar Aziza Izamova, examining Uzbekistan’s cross-cultural heritage with 30 scholars specializing in Central Asian history; a performative poetry programme curated by Katya García-Antón (November 16–20), timed with the closing week of the biennial; and the BBBB Curatorial School held in collaboration with the Delfina Foundation. Designed to foster shared learning, critical reflection, and long-term professional relationships through a collaborative and peer-driven approach, the school will culminate in a major exhibition in an international venue in Spring 2026, co-curated by six participants aged under 30.

Coinciding with the biennial, the Bukhara Archive, a multimedia exhibition curated by ACDF with the support of architect Wael Al Awar, will open in the twelfth-century Magoki Attori, a former mosque and one of the city’s most storied landmarks. Further projects include the AlMusalla Prize, an international architecture competition for the design of a Musalla, a space for prayer and contemplation inaugurated on the site of the Islamic Arts Biennale, and the Nationwide Children’s Library pop-up at the nineteenth-century Pochakul Khoja Mosque.

The complete programme and participant list can be found on the Bukhara Biennial website.