Bukhara Biennial Names Kulapat Yantrasast to Lead 2027 Edition
The Bukhara Biennial has appointed Thai architect and exhibition-maker Kulapat Yantrasast, the founder and creative director of WHY Architecture, as artistic director of its 2027 edition, which will run from September 3 to November 21, 2027. He takes over from Diana Campbell, who guided the inaugural biennial, “Recipes for Broken Hearts,” through Bukhara’s historic center last fall.
Yantrasast’s appointment signals continuity, but also a broader ambition. The biennial’s first edition drew an estimated 1.8 million visitors and turned the Uzbek city into an unlikely focal point for the international art crowd, with more than 70 projects by international artists and Uzbek artisans spread across historic sites. For the next edition, Yantrasast said he wants the event to remain grounded in local collaboration rather than becoming a temporary art-world outpost.
“I want the art and the festival representation to have something to do with the people,” he said in a recent interview. “This should not be just the art world landing on it for 10 weeks and after that it becomes something else.”
His plans keep the biennial’s production model in place: works will continue to be made in Uzbekistan through partnerships between international artists and local artisans. But he also intends to widen the circle, bringing in ecologists, scientists, anthropologists, and community groups. Water shortages, air quality, and biodiversity are among the subjects he wants to address as the exhibition takes shape.
The 2027 edition is also expected to spread into additional sites across Bukhara, including newly restored historic buildings, public squares, and spaces that have not previously been open to visitors. The curatorial theme has not yet been announced.
Yantrasast arrives with a portfolio that extends well beyond architecture. In recent years, he has worked on the redesign of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Michael C. Rockefeller Wing and on new cultural institutions in Bangkok and Riyadh. That range appears to align with Uzbekistan’s broader cultural strategy under Gayane Umerova, who has overseen projects including the forthcoming Center for Contemporary Arts in Tashkent, a new national museum designed by Tadao Ando, and the country’s growing presence at the Venice Biennale.
For Bukhara, the next edition will test whether a biennial can remain porous to its setting while still drawing a global audience. The answer, for now, will unfold site by site.
