Where In The World Is Tashkent

Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation is pleased to announce the inaugural conference dedicated to the preservation of modernist architecture in the Uzbek capital. The conference titled “Where in the World Is Tashkent” will be held on October 18–19, 2023, as part of the Tashkent Modernism XX/XXI research and preservation project. The event will be dedicated to the memory of architect and historian Jean-Louis Cohen (1949–2023), who was an important contributor to this project.

The conference will feature a keynote lecture by architect Rem Koolhaas and talks by other distinguished speakers including the General Director of the Pinacoteca di Brera and Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense James M. Bradburne, Principal of Counterspace, Honorary Professor of Practice, UCL, Professor Sumayya Vally, Advisor for Heritage Projects, Bahrain Authority for Culture & Antiquities Noura Al Sayeh-Holtrop, writer and curator Shumon Basar, Director of the Anthropology and History Museum of the State of Mexico Eduardo A. Escalante Carrillo, Director of the Swiss Architecture Museum S AM Andreas Ruby, Director of MAXXI Architettura Lorenza Baroncelli, Associate professor of Architectural Restoration at Politecnico di Milano Davide Del Curto, Chairperson of Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation Gayane Umerova, and various other Uzbek and international preservation experts, architects and historians.

The conference is going to shed light on Tashkent’s modernist heritage and bring it to the world stage. By raising awareness about its significance, the conference aims to gather expertise from around the globe and foster an exchange of ideas to implement a comprehensive preservation strategy for Tashkent’s architectural legacy. The program of the conference will cover a diverse range of topics relating to the preservation of modernist heritage. These discussions will also reimagine public spaces, explore the role of cultural institutions in promoting a critical revision of architectural history, and address the potentialities and challenges related to Tashkent’s candidacy for the UNESCO World Heritage status.

The conference will take place alongside the Tashkent Modernism. Index exhibition, a crucial component of the project that will present to the Tashkent public the results of two years of meticulous research. Initially inaugurated to a professional audience at the Triennale Milano 2023 in April, the show consists of two interdependent layers: the specially commissioned photographs by artist Armin Linke and the archival display that articulates the research themes and showcases the elements of the preservation strategies. The Tashkent edition of the exhibition will be expanded and enriched by original archival documents as well as artworks from the collection of the State Museum of Arts from the 1960–80s that celebrate the culture and architecture of these decades.

Tashkent Modernism XX/XXI is an extensive research project initiated and commissioned by the ACDF and coordinated by Grace, a Milan-based architecture studio founded by architect Ekaterina Golovatyuk. The research team is composed of architects, historians, and preservation experts from across the globe, including art historian and curator Boris Chukhovich, Laboratorio Permanente, and the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies at Politecnico di Milano.

The title of the conference “Where in the World Is Tashkent” references a panel organized by the American Institute of Architects in 2000. The event was called “Where in the World Is Chicago?” and was focused on the state of architecture in the city that occupies a very special place in the history of modern architecture. Alluding to the event, the conference in Tashkent seeks to retroactively align the Uzbek capital with other cities around the globe that significantly contributed to the modernist movement.