In the heart of Uzbekistan, the Bukhara Biennial 2025 — Recipes for Broken Hearts — transforms the Silk Road city into a stage where art, cuisine, and tradition come together to celebrate healing, hospitality, and human connection. Learn more at Cronos.Asia.
The art of celebrating culture.
By Christiane Isenberg
The historic centre on the Silk Roads in Uzbekistan is the setting for a multi-sensory cultural event where contemporary art, culinary, heritage and craftsmanship come together in a celebration of healing, hospitality and human connection.
The ancient city centre of Bukhara in the heart of Central Asia, awarded UNESCO World Heritage Centre, is the setting for the premiere of the Bukhara Biennial entitled "Recipes for Broken Hearts", which runs until November 20, 2025. The newly established Art Biennial invites the international audience to take part in the interdisciplinary event of artists, chefs, musicians and thinkers, taking place in the restored architectural gems of Bukhara's old centre.
The organizers imagined a giant dastarkhan, a traditional Uzbek table, where not only food and crafts, but also dialog, healing and artistic expression takes place. This communal table becomes a symbol of what the Biennale offers: a culinary journey surrounded by art, music and traditional crafts. The event reflects the hospitality of the Uzbek people and their warm hearted mentality.
The event is chaired by Gayane Umerova, Commissioner of the Biennial and Chairwoman of the Uzbek Arts and Culture Development Foundation (ACDF) as well as Head of the Department of Creative Industries and Tourism in the Presidential Administration. Under her leadership, the Biennial is developing into one of the most ambitious and comprehensive cultural platforms in Central Asia.
The artistic program is directed by Diana Campbell and brings together over 160 international artists and chefs from Uzbekistan, Asia, Africa, Europe and America. Each artist has teamed up with a local artisan. The result is more than 70 newly commissioned, site-specific works, all of which have been created in Uzbekistan in recent months. The works, created in collaboration with local artisans, are embedded in the historic oriental architecture and cultural fabric of Bukhara's historical sites.
The Biennial is a multi-sensory experience that takes place during Uzbekistan's peak tourist season and includes a program of culinary events, musical and poetic performances, craft workshops, installations, lectures and architectural interventions.
Among the participating artists are Germany-based Chinese curator and artist Qu Chang, who leads a workshop titled “Making Through Heartbreak” at the restored Gavkushon Madrasa. Also featured are Liu Chuang and Han Mengyun from China, presenting newly developed video works as part of the international lineup.
Each artwork speaks to Bukhara’s long-standing legacy as a centre of trade, intellectual life and cultural exchange on the ancient Silk Road—a place where food, education, art and craftsmanship have been interwoven for centuries.
A standout highlight of the Biennale is the Festival of Rice Culture, which honours the grain that has united civilizations across time. The festival brings together rice dishes from arround the globe, from West African jollof and Spanish paella to Indian pulao and the iconic Bukhara palov.
At the symbolic core of the event is Café Oshqozon, a conceptual and culinary hub where food becomes a medium of ritual, storytelling and collective healing. Uzbek ceramic artist Abdurauf Taxirov and contemporary artist Oyjon Khayrullaeva collaborate on a visual narrative of the human body—installing mosaic “organs” across the venues and a ceramic stomach above the café’s entrance, linking each site as part of a shared anatomy.
The Biennale also features the AlMusalla Prize, a special project supported by the Diriyah Biennale Foundation (Saudi Arabia). The prize explores contemporary interpretations of Islamic spatial design, and how sacred architecture, material heritage and sustainability can converge in today’s cultural context.
Above all, what sets the Bukhara Biennale apart is the extraordinary hospitality of the Uzbek people. Guests are not just observers, but participants—welcomed with the sincerity, warmth and openness for which Uzbekistan is known. In this city of scholars and storytellers, art is not isolated in galleries, but lived and shared, like a home-cooked meal.
The Bukhara Biennale is accessible via China Air to Tashkent, and further with domestic flights through Uzbekistan Airways.
Bukhara invites visitors to explore its UNESCO-designated architectural heritage and its newly reawakened creative spirit. As an awarded UNESCO City of Design and Crafts, Bukhara is the place that should be on each global cultural travellers map.
Whether you come for the art, the cuisine, or just like to explore the Heartland and old Silk Roads, you’ll leave with more than you came for.
See you in Bukhara.
