Finding This Party Was Half the Fun

New York Times

21-03-2025

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.
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