Recipes for Broken Hearts
September 5–November 20, 2025
Curated by Diana Campbell, with Creative Director of Architecture Wael Al Awar. Commissioned by Gayane Umerova, Chairperson, Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation.
The Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation (ACDF) announces details of the Bukhara Biennial, a new immersive cultural gathering launching on September 5, 2025 in the city of Bukhara, a UNESCO Creative City of Crafts and Folk Art. Curated by Artistic Director Diana Campbell and commissioned by Chairperson of ACDF Gayane Umerova, Recipes for Broken Hearts will mark the biennial’s debut edition, a 10-week-long interdisciplinary experience spanning visual, culinary and performance art, textiles, crafts, music, dance and architecture.
The curatorial concept and title of the biennial’s first edition takes the form of an expanded feast to explore the healing power of art and culture through communal participation and will look at time as a key ingredient in art, cooking and healing. The theme is derived from a widely known legend claiming that the recipe of the staple Uzbek dish, palov, was invented by polymath and father of modern medicine, Ibn Sina, to mend the broken heart of a prince who could not marry the daughter of a craftsman. Inspired by this story, Recipes for Broken Hearts will emphasise the importance of shared experiences and collective healing, while fostering connection and collaboration between local and international artists and artisans.
The inaugural edition will look at recipes as beautiful metaphors for how we share and transmit remedies, express love, and preserve memories that carry with them a sense of identity and belonging. Learning from cultures of gathering from Uzbekistan and around the world, Recipes for Broken Hearts is imagined as a free and open-to-all forum that contributes to building meaningful bonds between people, celebrating art’s power to connect people from vastly different cultural backgrounds.
Artistic Director Diana Campbell, comments: “The heart is a complex instrument in need of constant maintenance as it beats over the course of a lifetime. More than a physical organ pumping blood, the heart functions as a locus of identity and loss, connecting the mind, soul, and body, and bridging material and spiritual worlds. Artistic contributions to Recipes for Broken Hearts will show that like any form of rupture, heartbreak can be a dynamic space for transformation, that it is one of our greatest teachers, a universal experience that can be felt both individually and collectively and that links us to all times and places, especially through creative expression”.
To further explore food as a means of building togetherness, Uzbek and international chefs will be invited to showcase the craft of cooking, alternating each weekend of the biennial and bringing in flavours from different culinary traditions.
The Bukhara Biennial is part of a long-term process of revitalising some of the extraordinary sites that were essential to developing the culture that we celebrate today. It will be the first event to take place in a renewed historic district in the city, which is undergoing a major conservation and revitalisation project led by architect Wael Al Awar of design studio waiwai, who is also Creative Director of Architecture for the biennial’s debut edition, with landscape design by VOGT Landscape Architects. The biennial is meant to draw attention and care to the modern-day Bukharans, fostering lasting and meaningful transformations in their city rather than serving as a temporary intervention.
Commissioner of the Bukhara Biennial and Chairperson of ACDF Gayane Umerova comments: “We are thrilled to welcome creatives, thinkers, and visitors from all over the world to Uzbekistan, inviting them to engage with our vibrant culture and rich legacy. Building upon ACDF’s extensive work promoting Uzbek artists, designers, and artisans abroad, we are honoured to finally bring the world to Uzbekistan for the first major international biennial in our country”.
The biennial’s inaugural edition will take place across sites including Khoja-Gaukushon Ensemble, Ayozjon Caravanserai, Ulugbek Tamokifurush Caravanserai, Ahmadjon Caravanserai, Fothullajon Caravanserai and Rashid Madrasa. Commissions, including works by international artists, will be made in Uzbekistan. The programme, guest curators, and complete list of artists and chefs, half of whom will be from Uzbekistan and Central Asia, will be announced in 2025.
The Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation promotes and preserves Uzbek art and culture through national and international initiatives, including the restoration of heritage sites in Uzbekistan, the development of artist-driven spaces and collaborations with museums and institutions internationally.
