Venice Biennale - The Times Of Central Asia

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Venice Biennale

The Works That Waited: Uzbek Artist Vyacheslav Akhunov in Venice

Central Asia has made a striking impression at this year’s Venice Biennale. At the 61st International Art Exhibition, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan have each claimed visible space through national pavilions that speak to different realities: environmental devastation, shifting cultural identity, memory, and the long afterlife of Soviet power. The national pavilions are essential viewing for art lovers. During the Biennale, Venice also fills with officially recognized exhibitions outside the main venues and national pavilions. Known as Collateral Events, these shows are staged across the city in palaces, churches, foundations, and museums. Among the most compelling this season is “Instruments of the Mind” by Uzbek artist Vyacheslav Akhunov. Housed in the Neo-Gothic rooms of Palazzo Franchetti on the Grand Canal, the exhibition surveys decades of his career. Widely regarded as one of Central Asia’s most significant conceptual artists, Akhunov has developed a rigorous and wide-ranging practice since the 1970s. He has worked across drawing, text, installation, collage, and performance. The exhibition spans five decades but avoids a conventional chronological structure. Instead, it centers on the unrealized, foregrounding censorship, bureaucratic delay, and the near-total lack of institutional support in Uzbekistan that prevented many of Akhunov’s projects from being fully realized for decades. That emphasis also points to a wider shift. It shows the distance between the conditions under which Akhunov worked for much of his career and the significant cultural investment Uzbekistan is making today, particularly in contemporary art. As a result, several works conceived as drawings in the 1970s and kept in studio drawers ever since are presented here as full-scale installations for the first time. This fine-tuned curation presents the work of a seminal artist while also reflecting on the evolution of a country’s cultural landscape. The exhibition is curated by Sara Raza, Chief Curator and Artistic Director of the Centre for Contemporary Arts Tashkent, one of the leading authorities on the region’s contemporary art development. “Instruments of the Mind is not about the past,” Akhunov has said. “It is about how thought survives.” The exhibition takes its title from a deconstructed reading of the Sanskrit word mantra, from manas, meaning mind, and tra, meaning tool. Language is positioned here as an instrument of consciousness. The show’s range is wider than that etymology suggests. It moves between introspection and absurdity, spiritual devotion and political satire, the intimate and the monumental. Mantras for Art Palazzo Franchetti, a striking building with a marble staircase, intricate floral decorations, and frescoed ceilings, welcomes visitors with a work that functions as a rite of passage. “Triumphal Arch” (1979/2026) transforms the entrance corridor into a tunnel covered with hundreds of real scissors: household scissors, surgical clamps, nail scissors, ribbon-cutting shears, chrome-plated and painted, tiny and oversized, all fixed to the wall. To enter the show, visitors must walk through this bristling passage. The work originates from a 1979 drawing. Its conceptual target is the grandiose Soviet ribbon-cutting ceremony, a televised ritual performed at the inauguration of projects that often went unfinished or were c trapped in...

Venice Biennale

The Aural Sea: Uzbekistan’s Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale

No other edition of the Venice Biennale has seen Central Asia so well represented. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan all have their own national pavilions, and there are also two exhibitions featuring Central Asian artists at the Palazzo Franchetti – “Instruments of the Mind” by the Uzbek conceptual artist Vyacheslav Akhunov, and the show “TURANDOT: To the Daughters of the East”. All three national pavilions have nailed the theme for the 61st Biennale: “In Minor Keys”. Conceived by the late curator Koyo Kouoh, this edition of the Biennale aims to showcase subjects that might not be the major issues of our times. Each pavilion has done so by connecting specific problems concerning the region to wider cultural or ecological concerns. You can read the Times of Central Asia's coverage of the Kazakh pavilion here. The Uzbekistan Pavilion, housed in the Quarta Tesa of the Arsenale, tackles ecological crisis in a way that is deeply personal to the country, but can speak to everyone. The pavilion conveys beauty and hope while not shying away from destruction. The Aural Sea It’s all there the pavilion’s title. "The Aural Sea" is a play on the Aral Sea, one of the great ecological tragedies of our times. You are being asked, before you even enter, to prepare for an alchemy of sorts. The Aral Sea – or rather, the place where the Aral Sea used to be – sits predominantly in the autonomous republic of Karakalpakstan, in Uzbekistan’s northwest. In the 1960s, Soviet irrigation projects redirected the rivers that fed it, and over the following decades, the world's fourth largest inland lake shrank to a fraction of its former size, leaving behind a salt desert scattered with the rusting hulls of fishing boats. [caption id="attachment_32633" align="aligncenter" width="1600"] Stranded boats on the former shoreline of the Aral Sea; image: TCA, Joe Luc Barnes[/caption] It is one of the most complete environmental catastrophes of the twentieth century, but the Uzbekistan Pavilion decides to speak about the crisis in an imaginative and almost abstract language. Bringing together perspectives from Central Asia – as well as from even further east – the curators position myths and fiction as alternative systems of knowledge, capable of carrying emotional and ecological memory. The curatorial framework was developed by the inaugural cohort of the Bukhara Biennial Curatorial School, constituted by Kamila Mukhitdinova, Sophie Mayuko Arni, Nico Sun, Thái Hà and Aziza Izamova. The collective was assembled through Uzbekistan’s Art and Cultural Development Foundation, convened by curator Diana Campbell (who already curated the much-acclaimed Bukhara Biennale) in partnership with the Delfina Foundation. The exhibition takes its cue from Allayar Darmenov, a young Karakalpak author who began writing about the Aral Sea in 2015, and has created new mythologies around it for contemporary times. [caption id="attachment_50040" align="aligncenter" width="2500"] Installation view, The Aural Sea, Uzbekistan National Pavilion, 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, 2026. Photo by Gerda Studio. Courtesy of the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation. [/caption] The Artworks Coming into the...

Venice Biennale

A Polyphonic Process: Kazakhstan at the 2026 Venice Biennale

"There is a Kazakh proverb that says: a foolish person arrives with noise, sweeping everything away in their path, while a wise person arrives quietly, carefully observing the world around them." Syrlybek Bekbota, the curator of the Kazakhstan Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale – the most important art event in the world – offers me this thought at the dawn of the exhibition's opening, and it feels like both a manifesto and an omen. The theme of the pavilion is perfectly in line with the overarching curatorial theme, In Minor Keys, conceived by the late Cameroonian-Swiss curator Koyo Kouoh, who tragically passed away before the Biennale opened. And yet the controversies around this edition contradicted this minor key premise, instead turning it into a highly political event: the jury's resignation, widespread protests against the participation of Israel and Russia, rallies against the exploitation of art workers. The Kazakh pavilion was not immune to controversies itself, after artist Äsel Kadyrhanova's installation Machine (2013) – a meditation on Stalin-era repression featuring a vintage typewriter, Soviet-era arrest warrants, and red thread – was dismantled before the exhibition opened. However, on the day of the pavilion inauguration itself, no trace of the controversies was visible inside the high-ceilinged space. Listening to the Quiet Housed within the Museo Storico Navale near the Arsenale entrance, Qoñyr: The Archive of Silence marks Kazakhstan's third participation in the International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, and its most ambitious yet. It is also worth noting that it is the first time a Central Asian nation has selected its pavilion curator and artists through an open call – open to citizens of Kazakhstan, with priority given to those currently living and working in the country. It is a deliberate emphasis on rootedness rather than the diaspora-friendly internationalism that, for better or worse, dominates many national pavilions. The exhibition centres around the word qoñyr, a key term in Kazakh cosmology. While its literal meaning refers to the colour brown, qoñyr carries a far richer metaphorical significance: it can describe a sonic register, the scent of earth, or a form of silence with deeply embodied meaning. It is the attentiveness to minor vibrations – the wind, the breath, a footstep – that renders audible what is usually displaced by noise. The pavilion takes its cue from a traditional Kazakh instrumental composition of the same name by the twentieth-century composer Äbiken Khasenov, whose work embodies a broader cultural shift: as cultural theorist Zira Nauryzbay has noted, Kazakh music before the twentieth century was predominantly composed in major keys, while the century's upheavals – Soviet occupation, famine, mass deportations – precipitated a distinctive turn toward minor tonalities. That sonic transformation is the exhibition's guiding metaphor. "In periods of global instability, attention is often drawn to loud events and immediate reactions," the curator Bekbota explains. "Within this atmosphere of noise, personal memory, everyday experience, and quieter forms of knowledge can easily remain unnoticed." His curatorial wager is that restraint, rather than volume, can...

Venice Biennale

Kyrgyzstan Pavilion Brings Nomadism to the 2026 Venice Biennale

Central Asia is increasingly visible on the contemporary art map, and few events carry more symbolic weight than the Venice Biennale, often described as the Olympics of the art world. In recent years, Kazakhstan’s privately funded art scene and Uzbekistan’s state-backed art scene have often led the region’s international push. This year, Kyrgyzstan is is determined not to lag behind. The country’s pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale marks its second dedicated national participation. Kyrgyzstan first appeared in this format in 2022 with Gates of Turan, a state-commissioned installation by Firouz FarmanFarmaian on the Venetian island of Giudecca that drew on nomadic heritage and local craft traditions. At the center of the 2026 pavilion is Alexey Morosov, a Bishkek-born artist who has lived and worked in Italy for years. He chose the former church of Santa Caterina at Convitto Foscarini, in Venice’s Cannaregio district, as the setting for BELEK, the Kyrgyz word for “gift.” Curated by art historian Geraldine Leardi, the exhibition reflects on water and Kyrgyzstan’s tradition of generosity. The works are in close dialogue with the space that hosts them. The former church, founded in the 14th century, still carries traces of a fire during restoration work in the 1970s. “You can almost smell the burn,” Morosov said at the opening, standing in the presbytery. “For me, it’s very important to pay attention to the genius loci, the spirit of the place,” the artist added. “In a place like this, you have to understand precisely how to use space as a tool, while also respecting it.” Artistic Nomadism Born in Bishkek in 1974, Morosov was trained in the traditions of classical Western art and developed a deep interest in Greek and Roman archaeology, Renaissance painting, and medieval architecture. At 17, he began traveling. He has lived and worked in Lucca, Tuscany, since 2015. “In his practice, the artist naturally bridges Eastern and Western cultures,” Leardi said. “By birth, the original content of his art is Central Asian. His training and artistic education, however, developed in a Western direction.” BELEK, she said, represents a synthesis of those backgrounds. Morosov himself frames it in terms of nomadism. " It's my land, my blood, because my family is originally from Kyrgyzstan, from the middle of the 18th century. I’d describe my mode as meta-nomadismo," he said. “And in my mind, Kyrgyz tradition, Kyrgyz soul, are absolutely in harmony with the Italian conception of art and style of life.” Leardi came to the project as a Byzantinist with no previous deep engagement with Central Asian art. She describes her research for the pavilion as its own kind of journey, traveling to Kyrgyzstan via Mongolia and Korea, “like Marco Polo,” she said, laughing. What she found was a country of extreme contrasts. “It’s not a quiet land. You feel a lot when you’re there. It’s very challenging,” she said. Her task was to “find the channels, find the paths to communicate in the right way between the country and Venice, because there are...

Venice Biennale

Uzbekistan at the 2025 Venice Biennale: Ekaterina Golovatyuk on the Modernist Legacy of a Soviet-Era Solar Furnace

Is it possible to preserve architectural heritage while working towards sustainability? And what to make of the architectural relics of the past century? Can they somehow take on new meaning rather than remaining a representation of dystopias and utopias of the past? All these questions and more are addressed by the Uzbekistan Pavilion at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale. Running alternate years with the Art Biennale, this is undoubtedly one of the most important architectural events in the international arena. Promising to be a thought-provoking exploration of Soviet-era scientific ambition, modernist architectural heritage, and the challenges of sustainability in a rapidly changing world, the pavilion hosts the research of GRACE studio - an architectural firm established by Ekaterina Golovatyuk and Giacomo Cantoni - which operates at the intersection of built heritage, contemporary urbanism, and cultural production. Commissioned by the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation (ACDF), the pavilion responds to the theme of the Biennale’s curator, Carlo Ratti’s overarching Biennale concept of 'Intelligens'. The pavilion focuses on the Sun Institute of Material Science, originally known as the Sun Heliocomplex, a vast Soviet-era solar furnace built outside Tashkent during the Cold War to test materials at high temperatures. What emerges is the paradox of a structure designed for technological advancement that now faces questions of obsolescence and adaptation in contemporary discourse. TCA spoke with Ekaterina Golovatyuk to understand how the pavilion evolved from years of research into Tashkent’s modernist legacy and why this solar furnace has become the focal point of Uzbekistan’s presence at the Biennale. [caption id="attachment_30103" align="aligncenter" width="2560"] Heliocomplex Sun, field of heliostats, Tashkent, Uzbekistan; image: Armin Linke[/caption] TCA: The Uzbekistan Pavilion for the 2025 Venice Biennale builds on your previous research, Tashkent Modernism XX/XXI. Can you tell us how this project began? This is a project commissioned and initiated by Gayane Umerova of the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation that works with cultural heritage, museums, and other culture-related initiatives in Uzbekistan but also promotes Uzbekistan’s culture abroad. They have curated large exhibitions in the Louvre, in the British Museum, showing historical artifacts from Uzbekistan, but also art of the 20th century, and Tashkent Modernism is part of their mission in regards to architecture. The Tashkent Modernism XX/XXI project began in 2021, when it became clear that Tashkent had started to change so rapidly that special tools had to be put in place in order to protect the recent architectural heritage that, at the time, was mostly not listed and therefore at risk. Our project team consisted of multiple experts from Uzbekistan and abroad, including a historian, Boris Chukhovich, a team of preservation specialists from Politecnico di Milano led by Davide Del Curto, urbanists Laboratorio Permanente, and an artist [photographer], Armin Linke. For this project, we started by selecting 40 buildings and then narrowed it down to 24, for which we created monographs and statements of significance that described the important values of the building as well as what parts should be absolutely kept and what parts could...

Art and Culture

Decolonial Futurism: A Focus on Kazakhstan’s Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale

Kazakh artists have traditionally been marginalized in the global art scene due to political intricacies and a complex cultural identity. With historical influences and colonization by both Russia and China, Kazakh artists are now carving out a unique artistic identity and sharing it with international audiences. The Kazakh pavilion "Jerūiyq: Journey Beyond the Horizon" at the 60th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, from April 20 to November 24, represents a major milestone in changing perceptions of Kazakh art. Staged in the Naval Historical Museum, the exhibition reinterprets the ancient legend of Jerūiyq, drawing inspiration from Kazakh myths and the visionary journey of the 15th-century philosopher Asan Kaigy. The word "kaigy" means "pain" in Kazakh, symbolizing the nation's traumatic encounters with modernity's darker aspects: the devastating famine of the 1930s, the craters left by nuclear tests in Semey, the shrinking of the Aral Sea, and the wounds inflicted on the Kazakh landscape. The exhibition traces the evolution of Kazakh utopian imagination from the 1970s to today through artists’ visions of ideal worlds, where their utopian imagination merges with the artistic movement of "decolonial futurism." On behalf of TCA, Naima Morelli interviewed curator Anvar Musrepov on the concept and significance of Kazakhstan's participation in the Venice Biennale. TCA: How did the idea for the Kazak pavilion “Jerūiyq: Journey Beyond the Horizon” evolve? A.M: In our curatorial research, we found that the theme of utopia and futuristic imagination has concerned several generations of Kazakhstan's artists since the 1970s. Using this as a starting point, we decided to establish, in chronological order, a collection of works by multiple generations of artists. Divided by decades, the collection manifested a wave of Kazakh futurism, including themes of spirituality, cosmism, nomadism, and utopian ideas. This in turn, will help formulate a term to comprehensively describe and unite all these intuitions that have concerned Kazakh artists in different historical periods. [caption id="attachment_18933" align="aligncenter" width="522"] Sergey Maslov, "Baikonur" at the Venice Biennale [/caption] TCA: The exhibition’s title alludes to the ancient legend of Jerūiyq. What is it about and how have you interpreted it? A.M: Jeruiq is an ancient legend about a utopian land that according to many myths, was sought by Asan Kaigy, advisor to the first Kazakh khans Zhanibek and Kerey. Legend describes it as a land that has fermented, a place where time has stopped, a land full of vividness, devoid of disease or longing. We found in this ancient Kazakh legend, an ideal metaphor to unite all the intuitions presented in the exhibition and manifest the chronology of post-nomadic futuristic imagination. If established, the definition of this unique phenomenon, could become a movement in Kazakh art. TCA: What can you tell us about the philosopher Asan Kaigy? A.M: Asan Kaigy is a quasi-historical character who features in Kazakhstan’s rich oral tradition where history and memory are passed down from mouth to mouth. Every region of Kazakhstan has local legends about miracles performed by Asan Kaigy. One such legend says that he found...