This fall, the old Central Asian city of Bukhara, which for centuries was a stop on the Silk Route of 4,000 miles about which goods and ideas spread over the continent again will become a lively hub of cultural exchange. For 10 weeks, Starting on Sept. 5, The uzbek city will host its first art biennial, an event that will bring together a mix of international artists – including the British sculptor antony gormley and the colombian multidisciplinary artist delcyes master’s, and uzbek Ones BUKHOHID BUKHOHID BUKHOHIHIHIHIHID BUKHOHIHIHIHIHID Karimov, for site specific exhibitions, workshops and feasts.
Commissioned by the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation, the Bukhara Biennial is supervised by the American curator Diana Campbell, 41. Among the local makers she invited to participate, the Korean Uzbek designer Jenia Kim, 33, whose 11-year-old clothing and accessories is known is known Flower-Flower factories that are Knipperfloods. Button flowers. (Malia Obama and the Spanish pop star Rosalía have both pieces of worn pieces.) “If you bind a square fabric around something, the space around the Knoop petals,” Kim recently explained for her new boutique in the Chorsu Bazaar, the oldest market in Tashent, Uzbekistan’s capital. She calls these details Tugun – The word translates into “bundle” into English – because they were inspired by the fabric packages that Uzbeks often use to transport their possessions. They also refer to the long journey to the west that made her grandparents in the 1930s, when they belonged to the 172,000 Soviet Koreans who were forced to resquare themselves in then unpopulated areas of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Kim is a designer “who thinks as an artist,” said Campbell, adding that she was attracted to the way Kim’s pieces reflect the history of Korean migrants in Uzbekistan.
Earlier this month, the two women worked together to organize a meeting in Kim’s store in honor of both the upcoming biennial in Bukhara, about 350 miles southwest of Tashkent, and Nowruz, or Persian New Year, which is broadly celebrated in Uzbekistan around the Spring Equinox. Kim sent each guest a Google Maps -pin to help them find the boutique, which is tucked away between stalls that sell everything, from vegetables to sneakers. After everyone had investigated the space and caught up with food outside, she gave every guest a small pull -stream bag and led the group to the massive dome -shaped main building of the Bazaar. On the second floor they stopped at the stall of the merchant Shamshakul Azizov, where he Filled the bags with herbs for the visitors to take home.
Those present: Among the group of 12 people was a surprising guest: the Korean Zen -Buddhist Non and Chef Jeong Kwan, 68, who won wide praise in 2017 when she appeared in the Netflix documentary series ‘Chef’s Table’. Campbell had invited Kwan to Uzbekistan to make a project for the biennial and the next day the chef went to Bukhara for a site visit, along with three other party guests: the Korean artist and curator Oh Kyung Soon, 51; The Korean Uzbeek -Multidisciplinary artist Daria Kim, 26; and the Uzbeek video artist Gulnoza Irgasheva, 27. The architect Wael Al Awar, 47, of the Waiwai Studio, which is based in Dubai and Tokyo, who supervises the architecture of the biennial. The event is inspiring ‘The recovery of dozens of Bukhara’s most important historic buildings, its mosques, Madrassas [Islamic schools] and caravansaria [roadside inns]”He said.
The institution: Can be seen in the Kim store -A vague illuminated space of 375 square base with dark wooden planks and panels of dense botanical print wallpapers’ different differents of its collaborations with Uzbeek craftsmen, including a ceramic whistle formed after a bird and a selection of pill-shaped ceramic button vases. She described the store as a “imagination inspired by Anime and Narnia”, but for the party she wanted the decor and the food to reflect the arrival of spring. Bowls of pomegranates, which symbolize fertility in many traditions, were spread everywhere, branded with the letters “JK”, for Kim’s brand and “BBBB”, to indicate the Bukhara Biennial. Just outside the entrance was a large layered table that looked like that of suppliers in the Chorsu Bazaar set with starters and two swan -shaped straws filled with seasonal vegetables.
The food: Kim collaborated with the Uzbeek chef Vladimir Kogay and Ekaterina Enileva, the director of the Di Gavi restaurant of Tashkent, to make snacks that looked like surreal sculptures. They made pumpkin -filled Samsa, savory pastries usually fried in a tandoor and balls hummus and kurt, a salted tense fermented milk, which they covered with pomegranate seeds until they looked like jewelry eggs. On a second table, desserts, including chak-chak, crispy pieces of fried dough were soaked in honey and Sumalak, a sweet pasta made of germinated wheat at NOWRUZ parties.
The drinks: While guests arrived, servers rinsed their hands on a station with jug of water – ritual hand washes is still a common tradition in Uzbekistan – then offered a glass of freshly pressed pomegranate juice. After the sun, the group heated itself with cups of Sencha and Assam Meleng Tea.
The music: Etheral flute music that Kim had instructed for the store of the Ukrainian composer Nastya Vogan gently played over the speakers of the boutique. She wanted to “convey to guests that they enter a different world,” she said. Outside on the market, Vogelzang drove down from the roofs of the buildings. “There were actually more birds when I grew up in Tashkent,” said Kim, adding that her installation for the biennial, which she produces with the Uzbeek Smid Zokhir Kamalov, will indicate Bukhara’s decreasing bird populations.
The conversation: Several guests thought about their visit to the world’s largest collection of Korean Uzbeek art earlier that day. More than two decades collected by the entrepreneur Kim Anatoliy, 63, the works were installed around his vast office complex in Bukhara and vary from metal sculptures by the artist Tyan Gennadiy to cloths by the painter Alexander Lee. “When I grew up, I was embarrassed and how he showed it everywhere,” said the artist Daria Kim, the daughter of Anatoliy, “but now I realize how valuable it is that he keeps it.” She currently animates different paintings in his collection to make a video work for the biennial.
An entertaining tip: Campbell always likes to invite someone who is unexpected for a meeting. “I treat parties like a recipe and guests such as ingredients,” she said. “It’s a good party if there is a surprise element.”
