In past years, Uzbekistan has been represented at the Venice Biennale as a country moving forward thanks to the traditions of its millennial culture. This was aligned with the recent themes of the Biennale, which aimed to showcase the cultural diversity of non-Western countries. In the twentieth century, Uzbekistan became a part of the various modernities of the world. The goal of the UNP 2025 is to emphasize the scientific and cultural relevance of the recent modernist legacy and its potential beyond the scope of a single country. In a word, the pavilion will explore the past, present, and future of a modernist infrastructure that “landed” in Uzbekistan.

Built between 1981 and 1987, the Sun Institute of Material Science (originally, Sun Heliocomplex) was, at the time, one of only two structures worldwide equipped with a large solar furnace to study material behaviors at extreme temperatures, initially conceived for space and military research. The furnace consists of four main components. Sixty-two heliostats on a terraced field facing south direct the sun rays toward an energy concentrator with nearly 11,000 mirrors, which then redirects these rays on to the focal point of the furnace, which is 40 cm in diameter. This allows the furnace to reach temperatures close to 3,000 degrees Celsius (half of the sun’s temperature) extremely fast, excluding any material impurities. An administration and laboratories building, where the scientists work and conduct research, completes the facilities. A typical case of the Cold War competition, the Institute was conceived after an analogous facility was built by NATO in Odeillo, France, in 1969. After a long search within the Soviet republics, the site near Tashkent, Uzbekistan’s capital, was chosen due to the perseverance of the local scientists, led by Sadyk Azimov, and to the favorable climatic and geological conditions. Named a “swan song” of the Soviet Union, the furnace was the last major Soviet scientific project before the dissolution of USSR. In the early period of the furnace’s operation, the heat-resistant coating of the Soviet space shuttle Buran was tested here. After 1991 the site functioned at reduced capacity.

The change of directorship last year led to an revival of interest in and funding for the Institute with the ambition to transform it into “a valley of green technologies” by 2030 and to achieve a leading position in this field within Central Asia. The complex came into focus as part of the research for the project Tashkent Modernism XX/XXI, which since 2021 has been developing a roadmap for the preservation and adaptation of Tashkent’s modernist architecture.

The results of the research are multiple and encompass protection instruments, such as building passports — the basic tool within Uzbekistan legislation on heritage preservation—and communication instruments, such as exhibitions, books, and conferences. As well as the impressive scientific infrastructure, the statement of significance for the Sun Helicomplex addresses its cultural significance, since the complex contains unique examples of monumental art, including glass sculptures by Lithuanian artist Irena Lipene.

The pavilion focuses on the present and future of the Institute, conceptually rethinks it beyond the preservation impulse and contextualizes it within a variety of scientific, social, and cultural agendas.

Having studied the global situation of solar plants and furnaces, it is clear that for the latest research in the field of energy production, green hydrogen energy or synthesis of new materials, the large solar furnace has a series of inherent redundancies related to its scale that currently inhibit it from being truly cutting-edge research infrastructure. Other, smaller furnaces, built by the scientists, are used on a daily basis.

Once a utopian promise of a bright future, the complex now exists within a rather dystopian reality in which the promised future is systematically postponed. Its spectacular placement on a solid mountain rock, the grandiose curve of the concentrator, and the monumental art inside the public spaces are accompanied by rust accumulations on structural elements, roughly welded Soviet details, and superficial repairs of the last 20 years.

Conceived at the gigantic scale of many Soviet infrastructure projects within the rationale of bipolar division of the world (the Cold War), the large concentrator appears too big for any existing reality. Technically and economically complex, today the furnace occupies the strange position of being neither particularly functional nor obsolete. At once sustainable and unsustainable, modernist and archaic, didactic and secret, celebratory and utilitar ian. Suspended in time and space, this architecture is bound to emanate the transnational logic of its conception over the deserted landscape.

Yet, rather than declaring the furnace’s redundancy as a flaw, the pavilion explores the potential of this cognitive crack, its meanings and relevance for science and beyond, asking what urgent questions of contemponeity it could answer now.

GRACE is an international studio of architecture, urbanism, and research, based in Milan. It was founded by Ekaterina Golovatyuk and Giacomo Cantoni. Golovatyuk and Cantoni's past work experience includes a long-term collaboration with OMA/AMO, focusing on cultural and research projects in Europe and Hong Kong. Preservation is a central theme of the studio's work, with particular focus on 20th-century heritage.

As well as several individual projects in Central Asia, GRACE's current collaboration with the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation, Politecnico di Milano, and a group of local and international researchers to revise the legal framework and develop strategies to preserve 21 modernist buildings in Tashkent has led to the forming of a particular expertise and the establishment of a critical position on the subject, beyond the current ideological and market-driven paradigm.

A series of fragments inside the pavilion at the Arsenale unveil key components of the institute and interpretative themes, through which the exhibition is built. These fragments are either brought from Uzbekistan and slightly adapted or built elsewhere and conceived for the institute’s use after the exhibition. All modifications imply conceptual and operational rethinking of these elements and aim to reveal their latent meanings and functionality.

The pavilion will also feature contributions by writer Suhbat Aflatuni, artists Azamat Abbasov, Ester Sheinfeld and Mukhiddin Riskiyev alongside a dialogue with scientists Odilkhuzha Parpiev and Sultan Suleymanov, further illuminating the exploration of this multifaceted modernist legacy. The exhibition will also serve as the stage design for a theatrical performance.

The Art and Culture Development Foundation of the Republic of Uzbekistan fosters international cooperation and promotes the culture of Uzbekistan on the international arena. The Foundation spreads the national heritage through developing and supporting initiatives in the areas of fine arts and architecture, literature, theatre, music, and dance.

Our mission is to create an inclusive and accessible environment in the country's cultural institutions, contribute to renovation of museums, and to develop cultural patronage and professional training for the arts and culture sector.

Our response to the theme of the 18th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, The Laboratory of the Future, can be read as an encounter of different horizons, allowing us to take a cross look at the Uzbek architectural heritage, to delve into its past in order to find the necessary tools for the elaboration of tomorrow’s world. Unbuild together the modernity, by questioning the notion of archaism.

Participation is above all collaborative, placing the human being at the center of our approach. Through the exchanges between us and architectural students of Ajou University in Tashkent, craftsmen and associated artists, a collective proposal will emerge, leaving a place for the unexpected.

The associated artists all have a poetic role accompanying our approach. A film in the core of the architectural installation by El Mehdi Azzam, diffusing its significance and emotion. A reduced model made by Miza Mucciarelli, as a mental comprehension of the lived experience. A photographic work by Emine Gözde Sevim, a sensitive eye of a shared experience.

It is about giving ourselves theoretical and practical tools to achieve this. From the ruins of the ancient qalas to the multiple possibilities that earth offers to build, especially the brick. From the mythical figure of the labyrinth to the constructed reality. As many elements to be reinterpreted in order to create a sensitive and poetic architectural proposal, reflecting a truly contemporary and contextual practice.

Studio KO

Since meeting at the Beaux-Arts school of Architecture in Paris and the subsequent creation of their studio in 2000, Karl Fournier and Olivier Marty have applied their elementary assertion to every scale of their projects.

Based in Paris and Marrakech, Studio KO creates contemporary public and residential architecture all over the world, inspired by the intelligence of places.

Not confined to a grammar of styles or any systematic methods, the studio is defined by an attitude. An esteem for nature and existing cultures, the audacity of the broad aesthetic differences, an attention to craftsmanship and local skills, a permanent search for the rugged. For an architecture of oxymoron. Radical and archaic. An architecture with a sensibility that, from the foundations to the signature scent, reveals, without arrogance, its uniqueness and mystery.

Ajou University in Tashkent (AUT) was established in 2020 in cooperation with Ajou University (Republic of Korea). Ajou University graduates make splendid careers at organizations whose activities relate to Engineering, IT, Medical Sciences, Business, and International Studies.

Ajou University is widely recognized for its innovative international programs and strong support for international students and has collaborative partnerships with over 322 universities in 65 countries.

The Unbuild Together: Archaism vs. Modernity workshops in Uzbekistan focused on exploring the tension between archaism and modernity in architecture. Led by Studio KO, the workshops provided architecture students of the Ajou University in Tashkent with opportunities to study traditional brick architecture and ancient qalas ruins, and to use materiality as a means of ideation.

1) The first workshop, Archaism vs Modernity, centered on the spatiality of architecture and the cultural heritage of ancient qalas in Karakalpakstan. The students embarked on a field trip to witness the ruins firsthand, considering them both as a testimony of the past and as the future of modernity. The theme of contextuality was explored, as the students delved into Jean Nouvel's Louisiana Manifesto and discussed the potential and limits of contextualism in architecture.

2) The second workshop, Brick, from clay to wall, focused on the materiality of bricks, with a particular focus on the secular structures such as trading buildings and caravanserais that played a significant role in international trade along the Great Silk Road. Led by Studio KO, the students from Ajou University in Tashkent observed traditional construction techniques and innovations, such as the use of kiln-dried bricks, the decorative use of bricks in architecture in Bukhara, and the mastery of brick glazing at the ceramic workshop of the artist Abdulvahid Bukhoriy.

The students were encouraged to use all types of representation to embrace the rich and varied possibilities of materiality and to find their own voice in the symphony of form and substance. Beginning with an emphasis on understanding scale, the workshop proceeded with building and photographing Nikolai brick creations with the guidance of Studio KO and Miza Mucciarelli. From the base of carved wood, to the buildings of prints, to the patterns of bricks, the students immersed themselves in the tactile and sensory experiences of selecting and manipulating different materials, exploring specificities such as textures, transparencies, and colors. The students' ideas and explorations became a part of the spatial proposal of the Uzbekistan National Pavilion.

The Art and Culture Development Foundation under the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan, founded in 2017 by the decree of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, fosters international cooperation and promotes the culture of Uzbekistan on the international stage. It showcases national heritage by initiating projects in the fine arts, architecture, literature, theater, music, craft, design and dance.

The mission of the Foundation is to create an inclusive and accessible environment in the country's cultural institutions, to contribute to the renovation of museums, and to develop cultural patronage and professional training for the arts and culture sector.

Mahalla: Urban Rural Living is a cross-disciplinary exhibition and research project about the urban neighbourhoods in Uzbekistan known as mahallas. The mahalla concept is multifaceted. It is a unit within an urban system, typical of Central Asia as well as of some other parts of the world. It is a form of community life, structured through rituals and traditions. And it is an important institutional authority, providing governance at the local level. The traditional mahalla layout is based on the original type of courtyard house, the open space at the heart of which is a symbolic as well as a productive backdrop to a specific way of life. In the exhibition, architects, artists, local students and researchers reflect in collaboration on the innovative potential of this traditional Uzbek institution, a mode of communal urban life. The project explores potential answers to the question raised by the Venice Biennale itself: How will we live together? Can we reconcile working and living in a single environment? Are we in need of a higher sense of community? In which density are we able to live? Should we be able to feed ourselves from our own gardens? At a time when the ecosystem of the anonymous megacity is literally reaching its limits, the need for alternatives is greater than ever. Can the social organisation of these neighbourhoods and their variable architectural configuration as low-rise / high-density structures offer urban society a sustainable model? The project aims for a critical reading and a tentative exploration.

Mahalla: Urban Rural Living is the first national participation of Uzbekistan in the Venice Biennale. Commissioned by the Art and Culture Development Foundation under the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Uzbekistan, it aims to enhance the country’s presence on the global cultural scene and to create a platform for long-term international discussion. The theme of the 17th International Architecture Exhibition was selected by the architect and scholar Hashim Sarkis, who suggested contemplating possible answers to the question How will we live together? Commissioners of the national pavilion of Uzbekistan invited two Swiss architects and ETH Zurich Professors, Emanuel Christ and Christoph Gantenbein, to respond to the question by curating a survey of the mahalla as a unique form of spatial and social organisation. They and their Adjunct Curator, Victoria Easton, invited the artists Carlos Casas and Bas Princen to provide a multidisciplinary reading of the phenomenon. As Emanuel Christ has said: ‘Mahalla is a social, cultural and urban phenomenon. It is not necessarily an answer to the question asked by Hashim Sarkis, but it could be a very rich and interesting hint and indication as to where a global contemporary society could find a vision, information, and inspiration’.

Curators of Mahalla: Urban Rural Living, the ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) Professors Emanuel Christ and Christoph Gantenbein, together with Adjunct Curator and Head of Research Victoria Easton, have developed a meticulous academic approach to analysing architecture. Since 2010, they have been conducting in-depth research into architectural typology. The resulting publications, Typology I and II, present an inventory of 20th-century metropolitan and essentially ubiquitous building production: a systematic yet subjective compilation of urban architecture explored through typological criteria. For the national pavilion of Uzbekistan, they examine the material and symbolic structures of the oriental vernacular city, including Soviet modernist interpretations of the mahalla, in order to better understand this successful form of urban neighbourhood.

Members of the curatorial team travelled to Uzbekistan and, with the help of local researchers and students, surveyed a significant number of buildings and gathered historical and contemporary documents depicting the evolution of this rich heritage.

Thanks to this fruitful exchange, it was possible to closely document ten mahallas in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, where these are still a major element of the traditional urban fabric and are maintained in the most authentic way. Within these ten neighbourhoods, twenty-one houses were meticulously surveyed by means of 3D scanners. Cadastral maps, historical documents, drone imagery, street photography, floor plans and point cloud images were subsequently combined in a catalogue of the mahallas’ various typologies and typological elements.

The research was funded by the ACDF and the ETH Zurich and supported by the Union of Architects of the Republic Uzbekistan and Tashkent Institute of Architecture and Civil Engineering. Additionally, a number of local students and members of CCA Lab, a research laboratory of the Center for Contemporary Art in Tashkent, assisted with the research, collecting interviews and information in situ. How will we live toether?

The exhibition brings the mahalla phenomenon to Venice with the goal of offering visitors an immersive experience of this architecture and way of life. Mahalla: Urban Rural Living draws on a collaboration between the academic researchers and the artists. To enhance the objective analysis of the urban phenomenon, photographer Bas Princen and sound artist and filmmaker Carlos Casas have added aesthetic and emotional layers to the project.

The exhibition approaches the mahalla by juxtaposing different modes of representation at a 1:1 scale. A life-size Tashkent house has taken shape within the Arsenale as an abstraction, recreated as a tubular steel silhouette within the Renaissance-era industrial architecture of the Quarta Tesa. It is both an approximation of the real house from which it derives and an architectonic endeavour to make the idea of a type physically present and tangibly real. The abstract architecture of the house, the reduction to pure space, is complemented by twelve of Bas Princen’s photographs: likewise on a scale of 1:1, they imbue the exhibition with the haptic material quality of the houses. Surfaces in close-up speak of the technical construction of this architecture of the craft that goes into it, and of furnishings and everyday usage. In several rooms of the house, Carlos Casas presents spatial soundscapes cut from his on-site live recordings of the sounds of people, animals and machines in Tashkent.

The exhibition is accompanied by a free catalogue and a smartphone app: a digital tool, allowing visitors to enhance their experience through an elaborate 3D model. The national pavilion of Uzbekistan occupies the Quarta Tesa, a part of the Squero delle Gaggiandre built by Jacopo Sansovino in the 16th century. This large space is favourably situated on the pathways between the two primary Biennale venues – the Arsenale, a former shipyard, and the Giardini gardens – so Biennale visitors are assured easy access to it.

Materials used for the exhibition design are standard products which can be easily dismantled and recycled. Uzbekistan, ACDF and ETH Zurich are committed to a sustainable and responsible practice towards people and the environment.

Mahalla: Urban Rural Living has been commissioned by Art and Culture Development Foundation (ACDF) under the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Uzbekistan. The Foundation is a governmental institution that organises cultural projects both in Uzbekistan and internationally. It initiates and supports cross-disciplinary events in various cultural sectors, including fine art, literature, theatre, music, architecture and choreography.

The Foundation’s strategic aims include the promotion of Uzbekistan in the international arena, the establishment of cultural networks and the development of platforms for local talent. In recent years, the Foundation has collaborated with a number of global organisations, contributing to the development of cultural infrastructure and preservation of heritage. Additional assistance to the project has been provided by CCA Lab, a research laboratory of the Center for Contemporary Art in Tashkent. Its mission is to develop contemporary art and cultural practices in Uzbekistan, as well as to formulate new readings and a new understanding of the region’s artistic heritage.

Bas Princen is a Dutch artist and photographer living and working in Rotterdam and Zurich. He has a background in industrial design and studied architecture at the Berlage Institute in Rotterdam. Through the use of photography, he focuses on the urban landscape in transformation, researching various forms, outcomes and imaginary visions of changing urban space.

In his practice Princen explores the relationship of architecture and image – capturing and exploring how three-dimensional structures can be transformed and represented. He reframes them, creating objective reflections that alter the viewer’s perception.

Carlos Casas is a prominent Spanish filmmaker and artist whose practice encompasses film, sound and visual art. His films have been screened at festivals and major art institutions around the world, including Tate Modern (London), Fondation Cartier, Palais de Tokyo, Centre Pompidou (Paris), Hangar Bicocca (Milan), among others.

For Mahalla: Urban Rural Living Carlos Casas has created a new sound piece that adds a subjective layer to the academic research.

Emanuel Christ and Christoph Gantenbein are professors of architecture at ETH Zurich, the Federal Institute of Technology, a public university in Switzerland. Their research revolves around the changing nature of contemporary metropolises. The core interest is to examine the potential of existing city architecture as a building block for a sustainable, dense and urban city of the future. Drawing on the exposition of typological features of architecture, their attention is particularly focussed on the ubiquitous urban context. It is the unspectacular, often overlooked everyday types of building, the grey city, the ordinary case, the ‘architectural microorganisms’ which make cities viable. The description of this ‘typical case’ in a city serves to illuminate the architectonic structures within which everyday life unfolds. Typology is insofar a comparative means of lending a voice to anonymous vernacular or modern architecture, in this case, to the mahallas of Tashkent, written records of which are relatively rare. The ETH Zurich team has already carried out similar surveys in Hong Kong, Buenos Aires, New Delhi, Paris, New York and other modern metropolises. There too, the focus was on the typical building blocks that predominate in the cityscape and thus determine the individual city’s character and viability.

In their capacity as full professors at ETH Zurich, Emanuel Christ and Christoph Gantenbein, together with Adjunct Curator and Head of Research Victoria Easton, have curated and designed Mahalla: Urban Rural Living, the first national pavilion of Uzbekistan at the Venice Biennale. The multidisciplinary contribution, fusing research, photography, soundscapes, and architecture, is a scientific investigation and an artistic statement about a traditional form of living in Uzbekistan. Besides academic work, Emanuel Christ and Christoph Gantenbein have been running the international practice Christ & Gantenbein since 1998, headquartered in Basel, Switzerland. The firm’s most prominent completed projects include the expansion and transformation of the Swiss National Museum in Zurich and the extension of the Kunstmuseum Basel, both cultural landmarks with a global reach. Recently, they won the international competition for the extension of the MACBA, a preeminent Barcelona institution.