Vyacheslav Akhunov: Instruments of the Mind

The Centre for Contemporary Arts Tashkent (CCA Tashkent) presents Instruments of the Mind, a major solo exhibition by pioneering Uzbek conceptual artist Vyacheslav Akhunov, at Palazzo Franchetti as an official collateral project of the 61st Venice Biennale. The exhibition is open to the public from May 9–November 22, 2026 with preview days from May 5–8, 2026. 

Commissioned by Gayane Umerova, Chairperson of the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation (ACDF) and curated by Dr. Sara Raza, Artistic Director and Chief Curator of the CCA Tashkent, the exhibition offers an expansive and poetic meditation on language, memory, ideology, and endurance through more than five decades of Akhunov’s artistic practice.

Widely regarded as one of Central Asia’s most significant conceptual artists, Akhunov has developed a rigorous practice since the 1970s, working across drawing, text, installation and collage. Instruments of the Mind brings together historical works alongside newly realised installations based on sketches from the 1970s that remained hidden for decades in the artist’s studio drawers—many will be presented publicly for the first time.

The exhibition takes its title from a deconstructed understanding of the word “mantra,” derived from the Sanskrit manas (mind) and tra (tool), positioning language itself as an instrument of consciousness and transformation. Rather than a retrospective, the exhibition adopts a non-chronological structure shaped by histories of interruption: censorship, bureaucratic delay, and the absence of institutional support that prevented many projects from being fully realised until now.

The works based on archival sketches first realised for this exhibition include Triumphal Arch (1979/2026), a ceremonial arch constructed from metal scissors that critiques grand ribbon-cutting spectacles, a state ritual celebrating the completion of new infrastructure projects; What Am I Doing Here? (1979/2026), a neon text installation transforming personal doubt into political inquiry; and House of Eternity/Sarcophagus (1986/2026), a tomb-like structure examining archaeology, erasure, and cultural memory.

At the heart of the exhibition is Akhunov’s long-standing investigation of slogans as secular “mantras.” Beginning in 1974, he developed repetitive textual interventions on found materials—sewing patterns, newspapers, magazines, and books—using writing as both resistance and critical inquiry. Through works such as Modelling (1974–84), Crack (1988), and Red Line of the Party (1974–75), Akhunov reverse-engineers language to expose the absurdity and violence embedded in systems of command.

Other central works include Up Down (1975/2026), an impossible staircase that destabilises hierarchies; Work in the Desk (1976/2026), a monumental desk filled with glass jars containing unrealised works and messages in suspension; and Road to Light (1982/2026), a meditative tunnel installation invoking spiritual transformation through the Sufi concept of inner light.

Throughout the exhibition, Akhunov’s recurring symbols of the desert, the suitcase, and the nightingale (bolbol) trace ideas of migration, displacement, archaeology, and spiritual persistence. In Bolbol (Bird in Jar) (1977), forty-one drawings of nightingales enclosed in jars evoke fragility, entrapment, and transcendence, inspired by the poetry of the 13th-century Persian poet Saadi Shirazi. 

Spearheaded by Gayane Umerova, the CCA Tashkent is the first permanent institution of its kind in Uzbekistan dedicated to contemporary art, research, and community engagement, located in the heart of historic Tashkent. The exhibition, a key milestone in the CCA Tashkent’s inaugural year of programming, marks an important moment for Akhunov. The artist has lived and worked in both Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, and his career has developed across decades of political and cultural change in the late 20th century.

Instruments of the Mind, official collateral project at the 61st International Art Exhibition—Venice Biennale, commissioned by Gayane Umerova, Chairperson of the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation, May 9–November 22, 2026. Preview days: May 5–8, 2026.