Art & Culture Development Foundation launches a series of mahalla stories in Venice

On May 22, 2021, Uzbekistan took part in the 17th International Architecture Biennale in Venice. The project "Mahalla: urban and provincial life" was presented at the National Pavilion of Uzbekistan. The Commissioner of the pavilion was the Art & Culture Development Foundation under the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Uzbekistan. The exhibition about the Uzbek Mahalla was curated by Emanuel Christ and Christoph Gantenbein, professors of architecture and design at the Higher Technical School in Zurich and founding partners of Christ & Gantenbein, artist and sound engineer Carlos Casas and photographer and artist Bas Prinsen were also invited to participate.

Since the opening of the Uzbek National Pavilion in Venice, more than 20,000 people have visited the exhibition.

And today, Art & Culture Development Foundation is launching a new educational program.

From August 24 to 31, Venice will host a series of Mahalla Stories events organized by the Foundation in the first National Pavilion of Uzbekistan at the International Architecture Biennale.

Mahalla Stories is a series of educational and cultural events developed by the Foundation at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition La Biennale di Venice. Speakers will be not only curators and artists of the project, but also invited lecturers.

From the first day in the pavilion of Uzbekistan, the program will be opened by the ensemble of Uzbek traditional music on karnai and surnai "Shodion" together with the famous makomist Khushnud Solidzhonov. The musicians will perform classical Uzbek songs that were once performed at weddings and other celebrations in the mahalla.

In general, the sessions will be held on the following topics: "Uzbekistan and mahallas as a source of inspiration for the work of the curators of the pavilion of Uzbekistan Emanuel Christ Christoph Gantenbein", the context and historical background of the movement for eco-friendly sound, as well as the practice of soundscape and field recording from the early 70s to the present day from the artist and sound engineer Carlos Casas.

One of the most significant events will be the Collective Curators ' Day, which will be held jointly with the Israeli and Polish pavilions on August 28 and will bring together international experts to discuss the following topics: rural areas, agriculture, food production and various lifestyles.

Also, the National Pavilion of Uzbekistan will host an open session of three of the most interesting musicians and sound engineers from Italy, Enrico Malatesta, Giovanni Lami and Glauco Salvo. Their practice blurs the boundaries of improvisation, the ecology of sound, object resonance and the practice of deep listening. There will be a special live improvisation session using percussion objects, field recordings, as well as samples and electronics.

A bright event will also be an open screening one of the classics of Uzbek cinematography "Mahallada duv-duv gap" ("The whole mahalla speaks about it" directed by Sh.Abbasov) at the Teatrino Palazzo Grassi cinema of an ancient palazzo in Venice and a conversation with Chloé Andrieu, a historian, researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research / CNRS / CETOBAC and Saodat Ismailova, an artist and film director.

Researcher Chloé Andrieu studied the earliest films in Central Asia, dating back to 1924, which marked a political revival, with the ethnic and territorial division of Uzbekistan, and also marked the beginning of a new stage in cinematography.

A detailed schedule of events is here.

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