About a year ago, I landed in Seoul for Frieze Week and immediately rushed to a dinner announcing the Bukhara Biennial, a new contemporary art and culture festival in Uzbekistan that was slated to open in September 2025. First, an admission: I had no idea where Bukhara was, let alone what the ancient city on the Silk Road had to offer. But that night served as a prelude to what was to come: meaningful conversations with artists, a beautiful setting, and delicious, soul-warming food.

The Korea-Uzbekistan connection may not be obvious. In 1937, Stalin exiled approximately 172,000 Koreans from the Russian Far East to Central Asia. Now, Uzbekistan has the fifth-largest Korean diaspora in the world. A year later, I found myself on a plane from Seoul to Uzbekistan.

Bukhara is the strategic mid

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