Bonus Episode: Uzbekistan Biennale 2013 and 2025

00:00:06: I'm Isenia Benin, and this is a bonus episode of Art Unquoted podcast.

00:00:17: Over the course last year in two thousand twenty-five i came across many themes and quotes celebrating The inaugural Bukara Biennial which took place from September until November themed recipes for broken hearts Which generated significant hype as its major cultural event transforming the UNESCO city into contemporary art hub.

00:00:39: The Buchara Biennel was curated by the U.S.-American Diana Campbell and produced by the Uzbekistan Art & Culture Development Foundation showcased more than seventy site-specific works in historic Karavanzerais and Madrasas.

00:00:54: In many online articles, including art review which published on May twenty ninth two thousand twenty five Uzbekiston will be launching Buchara biennial –the country's first international biennal.

00:01:07: Hype Art announced on their blog on September, twenty-four Uzbekistan to launch its own art biennial in two thousand twenty five.

00:01:16: In anticipation and while reading and being asked about Uzbekestan's first international Biennel I had you take a pause.

00:01:25: is it really the First in Its Country's Own Biennel or The Countries' First Major International Arts Show as many are talking About?

00:01:33: Questions arose How does the contemporary movement of art being showcased in Uzbekistan and how will it echo abroad?

00:01:42: And although I couldn't attend the Bukhara Biennial, i was compelled to share an encounter with yet another biennial not only as someone who was born and raised in Uzbekistan until the end but is an observer curator and podcaster.

00:02:00: For those who are familiar It is a country that has a rich, two-thousand five hundred year history.

00:02:07: As the heart of ancient Silk Road with cities like Samarkand and Bukhara it was ruled by the Persian empires Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan but became a hub for Islamic culture under Timurids Following Russian conquest in the nineteenth century in Soviet rule.

00:02:23: it gained independence in nineteen ninety one With its first president Islam Karimov until his passing in twenty sixteen.

00:02:32: Uzbek is the language spoken by Uzbeks.

00:02:34: Russian Language Is The Country's Second Official Language.

00:02:38: Growing up in a place of contradictions, I attended the Pyotlid Sheikovsky Music Academy while studying Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin at school.

00:02:47: A walk through ancient architecture of Samarkand and Bucharest.

00:02:50: as child then my family moved to Germany And left their childhood behind For decades.

00:02:56: i didn't return But in two thousand thirteen I received an invitation to give a lecture at the seventh Tashkent International Biennial of Contemporary Arts.

00:03:06: After nearly twenty-four years, i was going home!

00:03:12: The two thousand thirteenth biennel was extraordinary –the style.

00:03:15: UZ art week organized by Gulnar Karimov, the daughter of the president islam karimov ,was unlike anything had experienced.

00:03:24: Artists were accommodated in the Uzbekistan Hotel, we had interpreters chauffeurs.

00:03:29: A vibrant program day-in and out was taking place with back to back openings & site visits.

00:03:35: Every morning a bus was waiting escorting us through art openings or gallows followed by police security who often will stop traffic for us to arrive at our next destination swiftly.

00:03:47: The program extended to visit the historical resistance square in Samarkand and attend a press conference with international fashion designers, actors and cinematographers.

00:03:57: Gulnara Karimova being most important participant and simultaneously host sitting at center of the elongated table placed on stage.

00:04:08: The conference message had little to do with more complex reality in Uzbekistan.

00:04:13: everyone was polite and quiet journalists participants and the interpreters.

00:04:19: All quite spectacular!

00:04:22: Until one morning there were no interpreters waiting gleefully in a hotel lobby, no chauffeurs sitting smoking cigarettes in their cars No buses waiting patiently outside of the hotel For brief moment – collective silence.

00:04:36: And then panic started to arise Artists trying to figure out what you do how to get artwork safely back home.

00:04:45: As it naturally happens, over the course of that week relationships with other artists were made and as a situation remained unclear I was asked to help them in sorting their things out due to language barrier.

00:04:59: When speaking to hotel staff for anyone whom i have previously corresponded.

00:05:07: The moment the hotel staff saw me approaching their helping desk, they disappeared in vapor.

00:05:13: I felt that was a spectator on edge of spectacle.

00:05:18: One of my Uzbek family members who lived in Tashkent and spoke Uzbek helped to arrange that concerned artist will have artworks return safely through home countries.

00:05:29: We didn't understand what had happened until we returned home Me & Berlin, other artists scattered across world And then we saw the news.

00:05:38: Gulnara Karimova had been placed under house arrest, allegedly by her own father!

00:05:45: The sudden silence and disappearance of infrastructure —the collective amnesia— it all made sense.

00:05:51: now… The biennial hadn't ended... It simply was

00:05:56: erased.".

00:05:58: The two-thousand-thirteen biennal taught me something about the fragility of cultural exchange but also told me something Because despite the rapture, despite political drama The art remains.

00:06:13: Conversations happened.

00:06:15: Connections were made.

00:06:16: They couldn't erase that.

00:06:18: And perhaps thats what we need to remember That Art persists.

00:06:22: Stories persist Even when spectacle collapses Even when interpreters disappear Work endures And when we return, whether it's your place or to a memory We bring our own plurality with us.

00:06:37: We become the bridge between what was and might be.

00:06:42: Uzbekistan opened a window for me twice Once as child again an adult.

00:06:48: The windows closed then open again.