How artist Subodh Gupta is revitalising a cultural pulse through art

We rarely pause to think beyond our daily lives. We might pass by the splendour of Humayun’s Tomb, oblivious to the Mughal influence on India’s design heritage, or chat over steaming samosas without considering how this humble snack has evolved across Central Asia into dishes like the Uzbek samsa. But that’s the gap cultural conclaves hope to bridge, and the Bukhara Biennial is one such initiative. Running for 10 weeks from September 5 to November 20, it is set to be one of Central Asia’s largest cultural events, bringing together chefs, poets, architects, artisans, scholars, and visual and performance artists from around the world.

Among these many creatives, Delhi-based artist Subodh Gupta is taking the platform to highlight forgotten cultural marriages in the everyday—the food we eat, the art we see, the surfaces we touch, and the objects we use to refurbish Indian traditions in our modern lives. The ties between Uzbekistan and India stretch back to the Silk Roads and the Mughal Empire, but the biennial offers artists like Gupta a space to reignite these artistic links in a contemporary context. “There are many similarities in our cultures, from the artisans and their ceramics to the food and architectural traditions that travelled across borders,” says Gupta. Collaborating with such local artisans, he is creating a performance-based piece centred on food, staged within a sculptural installation.

The biennial’s inaugural edition, Recipes for Broken Hearts, is conceived by Artistic Director Diana Campbell, with Wael Al Awar as Creative Director of Architecture. It unfolds as a journey of healing and revival, drawing from local lore while alluding to Bukhara’s actual rebirth in form and spirit, led by the Uzbekistan Art and Cultural Development Foundation (ACDF). Interdisciplinary interventions will take place across newly restored sites, including madrasas, former mosques, and caravanserais. A long-standing hub of cultural and religious knowledge, Bukhara is now opening up as a stage for artistic interactions, breathing new life into its historic spaces in a global context. Gupta’s work has long transcended media and borders, blending Indian symbolism with shifting cultural narratives. Born in Bihar, he has built a reputation for using everyday objects—tiffin boxes, bicycles, kitchenware—to create sculptures, paintings, photographs, and theatrical pieces that speak to.

In Bukhara, Gupta’s installation will trace cultural exchange from past to present. Conceptualised as a large dome structure, it will feature an enamel exterior and an interior lined with suspended ceramic plates, illustrating culinary and architectural links between Uzbekistan and India. Here, in collaboration with Uzbek chef Pavel Georganov, he will present a menu merging Indian and Uzbek cuisines, cooking and serving food in an interactive performance. “Art has no language; rather, it is a language in itself that is universally understandable. Unlike viewers engaging with my work in my absence, here they will eat as I feed them. They will interact with me, and as they share, laugh, and talk, they will become part of the performance,” he explains. While Gupta usually evokes his roots through objects, in Bukhara, he will represent India through the deeply ingrained traditions of communal dining and familial bonds.

Blending art with the shared experience of food, his piece aligns with the biennial’s theme of healing. “Food is essential but also highly romanticised. It creates an aroma, an atmosphere, a taste the body instinctively reacts to,” he says. “No matter your mood, food will satisfy you, bring you pleasure, and make you smile from within.”

Gupta’s work will be positioned in Bukhara’s revitalised landscape, outside a historic trading dome that once linked the city with the Indian spice trade, and in front of Ayojon Caravanserai, a key site in the porcelain trade with China. Reflecting on the challenges of working in an unfamiliar environment, he notes, “It is an enormous task to navigate the openness of the space, to source materials locally, and to collaborate daily with artisans in a new setting.” But the effort is worthwhile.

As ACDF chairperson Gayane Umerova sees it, embedding contemporary interventions within Bukhara’s historic architecture transforms art into a site-specific cultural dialogue. For Gupta, the exchange nurtured through this process is invaluable. “It is important for artists to travel—travel with purpose. Because travel brings knowledge, creativity, and inspiration. But beyond that, the attachments you form with people, places, and their stories are what you end up living for.”

This article first appeared in Bazaar India's March-April 2025 issue.
 

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