The Bukhara Biennial Will Break Your Heart

The work in Uzbekistan’s first major biennial shimmers with the promise of culture as a connective tissue, while the autocratic government that funded it lurks in the shadows.

The Bukhara Biennial Will Break Your Heart
Ruben Saakyan and Konstantin Lazarev's “The Observer’s Illusion” (2025) (foreground) and Antony Gormley and Temur Jumaev's “CLOSE,” (2024–2025) (background) installed at the former Khoja Kalon Mosque in Bukhara (all photos Nevdon Jamgochian/Hyperallergic, unless otherwise noted)