WHERE IN THE WORLD IS TASHKENT

Dates: October 18–19, 2023
Location: State Museum of Arts, 16, Amir Temur Avenue, Tashkent

All sessions are held in English with simultaneous translation to Uzbek and Russian. Videos of all sessions and lectures will be presented on the ACDF YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@acdfuz. Please follow @tashkentmodernism on Instagram for the news and updates.

Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation is organising the inaugural conference dedicated to the preservation of modernist architecture in the Uzbek capital. The conference titled Where in the World Is Tashkent will be held on October 18-19, 2023, as part of the Tashkent Modernism XX/XXI research and preservation project. The event will be dedicated to the memory of architect and historian Jean-Louis Cohen (1949–2023), who was an important contributor to this project.

The conference is going to shed light on Tashkent’s modernist heritage and bring it to the world stage. By raising awareness about its significance, the conference aims to gather expertise from around the globe and foster an exchange of ideas to implement a comprehensive preservation strategy for Tashkent’s architectural legacy.

The program of the conference will cover a diverse range of topics relating to the preservation of modernist heritage. These discussions will also reimagine public spaces, explore the role of cultural institutions in promoting a critical revision of architectural history, and address the potentialities and challenges related to Tashkent's candidacy for the UNESCO World Heritage Status.

The title of the conference Where in the World Is Tashkent references a panel organised by the American Institute of Architects in 2000. The event was called Where in the World Is Chicago? and was focused on the state of architecture in the city that occupies a very special place in the history of modern architecture. Alluding to the event, the conference in Tashkent seeks to retroactively align the Uzbek capital with other cities around the globe that significantly contributed to the modernist movement.

The event will take place at the State Museum of Arts in Tashkent, one of the most remarkable buildings within the project that will be partially renovated in the run-up to the conference.