Boris Chukhovich

Born in Tashkent and based in Montreal since 1998, Boris Chukhovich is a historian of modern and contemporary Central Asian art and architecture. He has collaborated with several scientific institutions in Canada, France, and Italy. As an independent curator, he has organized art exhibitions in Canada, Italy, and Central Asia. His recent projects focus on the preservation of modernist architectural heritage in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, as well as the emergence of modern art in Central Asia.

The project

Title: L’Asie centrale aux expositions internationales de Paris en 1925 et 1937 : représentations, acteurs et enjeux politiques

"The project aims to identify and reconstruct, as far as possible, what was presented by the Central Asian republics within the Soviet pavilions at the Paris exhibitions of 1925 and 1937. This will involve establishing and analyzing the awards granted to Central Asian participants in 1937 (institutions, artists, artisans, industrial, urban-planning, or agricultural projects), contextualizing these participations within the framework of Soviet nationality policy—particularly the promotion of “national” identities in the arts, industry, and crafts—and developing a nuanced interpretation of Central Asian representations in Paris by determining who was responsible for selecting the objects, how they were displayed within the exhibition space, and what reactions these representations elicited from French and international audiences."

Hosting institution: Le Centre d’études des mondes russe, caucasien et centre-européen (CERCEC)  

Selective Bibliography

Books:

• Liubov', druzhba, vechnost'»Usto Mumina ('Amour, Amitié, Éternité' d’Usto Mumin) – Prague: Artguide s.r.o., 2023, 432 p.
• Tashkent: arkhitektura sovetskogo modernizma. 1955-1991 (Tachkent: Architecture moderniste soviétique. 1955-1991) – Moscow: Garage, 2025, 512 p. (en collaboration avec Olga Kazakova)
• Tashkent Modernism XX/XXI – Zürich: Lars Müller Publishers, 2025, 948 p. (Éditeur, en collaboration avec Davide Del Curto and Ekaterina Golovatyuk)

Articles:

• « L'"Orient vivant" et l'"Orient mort": les croisées du modernisme et des "régionalismes nationaux" en Asie centrale soviétique dans les années 1920 et 1930 » // Modernités pittoresques: Études architecturales en régionalisme mondial (1890-1950) / Picturesque Modernities. Architectural Studies in Global Regionalism (1890-1950) (sous la dir. de Michael Falser). – Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2023, p. 215-244;
• « Estetika 'prerafaelitov Samarkanda': ot androginnoi temy k gomoeroticheskomu narrativu » (L'esthétique des « Préraphaélites de Samarcande » : du thème androgyne au récit homoérotique) // The Garage Journal, no 2, 2023, p. 181-213
• « Architectural modernism and 'Old Tashkent': the long history of a brief encounter » // Mahalla: Urban Rural Living. Uzbekistan Pavilion at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, 2021, p. 70-79
• « 'National Art' and 'Non-national Artists': On the Exclusivity of the 'Inclusive' terms of Soviet Aesthetics » // Bulletin of the International Institute for Central Asian Studies, no 29, Samarkand 2020, p. 96-106