Venice Biennale to Feature Aral Sea Pavilion
This year's Venice Biennale will feature a pavilion dedicated to the Aral Sea environmental disaster. Titled "The Lost Sea," the exhibition will use Venice's own vulnerability to flooding as a backdrop to explore global challenges of water management, environmental loss, and heritage.
Once the world's fourth-largest lake, the Aral Sea has lost more than 90% of its volume since the 1960s due to the diversion of its tributary rivers for Soviet irrigation projects. The disaster has been called one of the planet's worst environmental catastrophes. The exposed seabed, now known as the Aralkum Desert, is a source of toxic dust storms that have created a public health crisis and altered the regional climate. The Uzbekistan National Pavilion, officially titled "The Aural Sea," moves beyond statistics to explore the disaster through myth and storytelling. Curated by a collective from the Bukhara Biennial Curatorial School, the exhibition will feature multimedia works by seven artists, including painters, textile artists, and installation artists. The project is commissioned by the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation (ACDF), which has been actively engaged in the region through initiatives like the Aral Culture Summit. The exhibition is inspired by the writings of Karakalpak author Allayar Darmenov, who used fiction to imagine a future for the Aral Sea. This focus on "mythmaking and storytelling as a restorative way to process ecological grief" aims to reframe the Aral Sea as a site of resilience and alternative futures. The title "The Aural Sea" is a nod to the Biennale's theme, "In Minor Keys," and emphasizes listening to a landscape that has undergone profound transformation. The pavilion will feature a diverse group of international and Uzbek artists. Tashkent-born Zulfiya Spowart often explores themes of identity and cultural heritage through textile and sculpture. The artist duo A.A. Murakami (Alexander Groves and Azusa Murakami) is known for creating immersive sensory installations that use technology to produce ephemeral phenomena like bubbles and scented fog. They are joined by Uzbek artists Jahongir Bobokulov, Zi Kakhramonova, and Aygul Sarsen, as well as artists Xin Liu and Nguyen Phuong Linh. The ACDF's engagement extends beyond the Biennale with the establishment of the Aral School, an interdisciplinary postgraduate program in the regional capital of Nukus. The school aims to develop innovative solutions for the region's ecological and social regeneration, focusing on issues of soil, water, energy, and food.
