Kettik!
This week’s guide
The week opens with light and sound: James Clar's final showcase, featuring a video installation filmed at a solar furnace in Parkent, and a set by Paranoid London at an electronic music night held at the Railway Technology Museum. From there, the programme unfolds into Japanese mysticism à la Murakami, a close reading of Roland Barthes, a conversation on Frida Kahlo and AI art at Christie's, and a performance of Puccini's Tosca at the Navoi — all within a single Saturday. Rounding things out are a lecture on architectural heritage and a simultaneous screening of a French film across both Tashkent and Samarkand. Right then — let's go!
Friday
COMMUNITY
James Clar's Final Showcase
James Clar is a Filipino-American media artist who works with light both as a material and as a narrative system. He spent several weeks in Uzbekistan as part of the CCA Artist Residencies programme, culminating in a new work entitled "10,000 Suns" — a multi-channel video installation filmed at the Large Solar Furnace in Parkent, the largest solar energy concentration facility in Central Asia. At the showcase, a network of screens, monitors and projections will transform the madrasa building into an immersive environment in which light becomes the primary expressive medium — through which Clar examines how technology reshapes perception, memory and cultural identity.
Namuna Art Residency
Free entry
EVENT
OFF-SAND #3 feat. Paranoid London
Paranoid London is the British duo of Gerardo Delgado and Quinn Whalley, who since the early 2010s have been stripping acid house back to its raw, unvarnished origins: live drum machines, analogue equipment and sound untouched by digital polish. Their sets are built on improvisation at the desk rather than pre-mixed arrangements — which means no two performances ever sound quite the same. They will be preceded by a lineup of local DJs: Kebato opens the evening at 18:00, followed by a joint set from SHMN and Mari Breslavets at 19:00, DSL System at 20:30, and Paranoid London themselves taking the stage at 21:30. The venue is the Railway Technology Museum, and the event takes place as part of the Tashkent International Investment Forum with support from the British Council. Tickets are available via Telegram: @heyhoney_pass
Railway Technology Museum
150,000 soums
LECTURE
Lecture: "Architectural Heritage as a Profession"
Architect and conservationist Narine Tyutcheva, founder of the international educational platform RE:School, will speak about a profession that has long since outgrown the restoration of façades. Today it sits at the intersection of architecture, urban research, cultural management and community engagement — practitioners investigate historic buildings, help former pioneer palaces find new purpose, and contribute to decisions about the future of ancient cities. Tyutcheva will offer an inside view of how this practice works, what skills it demands, and how young professionals enter the field, drawing on examples from international heritage work.
Republican Children's Library
Free entry, registration required
ART
Exhibition: "Centre of Gravity" by Alim Maratovich
Alim Maratovich works at the intersection of painting, graphic art, design and digital practice, blending academic training with a contemporary visual language. The new series draws its source material from the muqarnas of the Tilya-Kori Madrasa in Samarkand — the traditional stalactite ornaments that the artist has reimagined as an autonomous system of forms, rhythms and spatial relationships, entirely detached from their architectural context.
Andakulova Gallery
7 Batyr Zakirov St, 1st floor
Free entry
Saturday
LECTURE
Lecture: "The Worlds of Haruki Murakami"
Lecturer Ashot Danielyan — an orientalist, translator from Japanese and scholar of Murakami's work — will explore what makes his prose so instantly recognisable: a magical realism in which the everyday and the uncanny coexist without explanation, and a symbolic vocabulary that recurs from novel to novel — cats, wells, music, parallel worlds. A dedicated section of the lecture will address Japanese culture, without which Murakami cannot be fully understood. The aim of the evening is not to retell plots, but to offer tools for reading: by the end, his texts should feel like entirely different books.
Unity Coffee & Bar
88 Minor St
Free entry (donations welcome)
COMMUNITY
Philosophy Book Club: Roland Barthes, "The Death of the Author"
Roland Barthes's 1967 essay, in which he argued that the meaning of a text is not born in the author's mind but in the act of reading — in the reader. The idea upended twentieth-century literary criticism and remains one of the most contested propositions in textual theory to this day. At this Kandinsky Art Club gathering, participants read short passages from the essay aloud, work through Barthes's key arguments, and discuss whether his logic holds for contemporary texts — novels, films, social media posts.
"9 Muses" Art Space
18 Mukanna Lane
200,000 soums
LECTURE
Art Lounge: The Most Talked-About Events in Contemporary Art
Curator Katerina Andronova presents three events currently making waves across the global art world, framing the evening as an open conversation rather than a formal lecture. This edition turns its attention to Frida: The Making of an Icon, an exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston that unpacks how Frida Kahlo was transformed into a global brand; Augmented Intelligence, Christie's first-ever auction devoted entirely to AI-generated art; and Florentina Holzinger's Seaworld Venice — the most debated and provocative national pavilion of the 2026 Venice Biennale. To register, contact via Telegram: @andkathrin
Art space "9 Muses"
Mukanna Lane, 18
250,000 soums
EVENT
Opera: Tosca
Giacomo Puccini's opera, composed in 1900, follows the opera singer Floria Tosca, the painter Cavaradossi, and the ruthless chief of police Scarpia, who exploits his authority in pursuit of Tosca. The drama unfolds over a single day in Rome in 1800, against a backdrop of political persecution and betrayal. Puccini's score ranks among the most emotionally charged in the repertoire: Cavaradossi's aria "E lucevan le stelle" and Tosca's "Vissi d'arte" have graced the world's great opera stages for decades.
Alisher Navoi State Academic Grand Theatre
Zarafshan St, 28
from 55,000 to 165,000 soums
Sunday
COMMUNITY
Networking Breakfast: Art&Card. The Renaissance
A format devised by Kandinsky Art Club, built around a card game: over breakfast, participants explore the Renaissance not through a lecture but through interactive cards featuring facts, images, and prompts — who is depicted in the painting, from which century, and why it was considered a breakthrough in its time. Running alongside is a classic networking breakfast, bringing guests together around a shared table.
Art space "9 Muses"
Mukanna Lane, 18
250,000 soums
Tuesday
EVENT
Film Screening: La vallée des fous
The Alliance Française of Tashkent and the Alliance Française of Samarkand, in partnership with Kinoxona, Nukus 89, and Mövenpick Hotel, are presenting the film simultaneously in two cities. La vallée des fous (2024) is directed by Xavier Beauvois and stars Jean-Paul Rouve and Pierre Richard. The story follows Jean-Paul — debt-ridden and estranged from those closest to him — who decides to enter a virtual Vendée Globe regatta and, to make it convincing, locks himself away for three months in his father's old boat, simulating the conditions of a real solo round-the-world voyage. The film's score was composed by Pete Doherty. Screened in French with English subtitles.
Nukus 89 Rooftop
Nukus St, 89 (Tashkent) / Mövenpick Hotel, Shokhrukh Mirzo St (Samarkand)
Free entry in Tashkent / In Samarkand, entry with a French dinner — 250,000 soums
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