Issue #396 - Autumn/Winter 2025-2026
This issue is an ode to the Uzbekistan city of Samarkand—one of the oldest occupied cities in Central Asia and a prominent trading hub on the Silk Road.
The director of the Tashkent Center for Contemporary Art Sara Raza shares her views in a lengthy interview about the new creative scene in Central Asia, Delphine Valloire tells the amazing story of the collector Igor Savitsky and — among other stories about local wrestlers, artists and artisans — the filmmaker Furkat Usmanov describes his childhood in the city, whose mere name evokes a string of readymade dreams made up of caravanserais, Persian bazaars and hazily drawn Silk Roads — fantasies that today must be compared to the reality of a fast-changing city and country.
