This fall, the ancient Central Asian city of Bukhara, which for centuries was a stop on the Silk Road — the 4,000-mile trade route along which goods and ideas spread across the continent — will once again become a vibrant 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 Delcy Morelos — and Uzbek ones, such as the ceramics master Abdulvahid Bukhoriy Karimov, for site-specific exhibitions, workshops and feasts.
Commissioned by the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation, the Bukhara Biennial is being overseen by the American curator Diana Campbell, 41. Among the local makers she’s invited to participate is the Korean Uzbek designer Jenia Kim, 33, whose 11-year-old clothing and accessories brand, J.Kim, is known for its garments featuring knotted flower-shaped cutouts. (Malia Obama and the Spanish pop star Rosalía have both worn pieces.) “If you tie a square of fabric around something, the space around the knot forms petal shapes,” Kim explained recently in front of her new boutique in the Chorsu Bazaar, the oldest market in Tashkent, Uzbekistan’s capital. She calls these details tugun — the word translates to “bundle” in English — because they were inspired by the fabric parcels Uzbeks often use to transport their belongings. They also reference the long journey west that her grandparents made in the 1930s, when they were among the 172,000 Soviet Koreans forced to resettle in then-unpopulated areas of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Kim is a designer “who thinks like an artist,” Campbell said, adding that she was drawn to the way Kim’s pieces reflect the history of Korean migrants in Uzbekistan.
Earlier this month, the two women teamed up to host a gathering at Kim’s store in honor of both the upcoming biennial in Bukhara, roughly 350 miles northeast of Tashkent, and Nowruz, or Persian New Year, which is widely celebrated in Uzbekistan around the spring equinox. Kim sent each guest a Google Maps pin to help them find the boutique, which is tucked among stalls selling everything from vegetables to sneakers. After everyone had explored the space and caught up over food outside, she gave each guest a small drawstring pouch and led the group into the bazaar’s massive domed main building. On the second floor, they stopped at the stall of the merchant Shamshakul Azizov, where he filled the bags with spices for the visitors to take home.
The attendees: Among the group of 12 people was one surprise guest: the Korean Zen Buddhist nun and chef Jeong Kwan, 68, who gained wide acclaim in 2017 when she appeared in the Netflix documentary series “Chef’s Table.” Campbell had invited Kwan to Uzbekistan to create a project for the biennial and the next day the chef was heading to Bukhara for a site visit, along with three other party guests: the Korean artist and curator Oh Kyung Soon, 51; the Korean Uzbek multidisciplinary artist Daria Kim, 26; and the Uzbek video artist Gulnoza Irgasheva, 27. Also present was the architect Wael Al Awar, 47, of the Dubai- and Tokyo-based Waiwai studio, who is overseeing the biennial’s architecture. The event is inspiring “the restoration of dozens of Bukhara’s most important historic buildings, its mosques, madrassas [Islamic schools] and caravansaries [roadside inns],” he said.
The setting: On display inside Kim’s store — a dimly lit 375-square-foot space with dark wood shelves and panels of dense botanical-print wallpapers — were several of her collaborations with Uzbek artisans, including a ceramic whistle fashioned after a bird and a selection of pill-shaped ceramic bud vases. She described the shop as a “fantasy space inspired by anime and Narnia,” but for the party, she wanted the décor and food to reflect the arrival of spring. Bowls of pomegranates, which in many traditions symbolize fertility, were scattered everywhere, branded with the letters “J.K.,” for Kim’s brand, and “BBBB,” to signify the Bukhara Biennial. Just outside the entrance, a large tiered table resembling those used by vendors in the Chorsu Bazaar had been set with appetizers and two swan-shaped straw baskets filled with seasonal vegetables.
The food: Kim worked with the Uzbek chef Vladimir Kogay and Ekaterina Enileeva, the director of Tashkent’s Di Gavi restaurant, to create snacks that looked like surrealist sculptures. They made pumpkin-filled samsa, savory pastries usually baked in a tandoor, and balls of hummus and kurt, a salted strained fermented milk, which they covered with pomegranate seeds until they resembled jeweled eggs. Arrayed across a second table were desserts including chak-chak, crunchy pieces of deep-fried dough soaked in honey, and sumalak, a sweet paste made from germinated wheat eaten at Nowruz celebrations.
The drinks: As guests arrived, servers rinsed their hands at a station set up with jugs of water — ritual hand washing is still a common tradition in Uzbekistan — then offered each person a glass of freshly squeezed pomegranate juice. After the sun set, the group warmed themselves with cups of sencha and Assam Meleng tea.
The music: Ethereal flute music that Kim had commissioned for the store from the Ukrainian composer Nastya Vogan played softly over the boutique’s speakers. She wanted to “convey to guests that they are entering another world,” she said. Outside in the market, spring birdsong wafted down from the roofs of the buildings. “There were actually more birds when I was growing up in Tashkent,” Kim said, adding that her installation for the biennial, which she’s producing with the Uzbek blacksmith Zokhir Kamalov, will allude to Bukhara’s declining bird populations.
The conversation: Several guests reflected on their visit to the world’s largest collection of Korean Uzbek art earlier that day. Amassed over two decades by the entrepreneur Kim Anatoliy, 63, the works are installed around his sprawling office complex in Bukhara and range from metal sculptures by the artist Tyan Gennadiy to canvases by the painter Alexander Lee. “When I was growing up, I was kind of embarrassed by it all and how he displayed it everywhere,” said the artist Daria Kim, Anatoliy’s daughter, “but now I realize how valuable it is that he’s preserving it.” She’s currently animating several of the paintings in his collection to create a video work for the biennial.
An entertaining tip: Campbell always likes to invite someone unexpected to a gathering. “I treat parties like a recipe and guests like ingredients,” she said. “It’s a good party when there’s an element of surprise.”
