An Uzbek Voice in Venice: Vyacheslav Akhunov’s Works Reclaim What Time Wipes Away

Subheadline: At Palazzo Franchetti, a show of rubbed photographs and scoured manuscripts reframes memory, censorship and the region’s art history for local viewers

A collection of subdued yet forceful pieces by Uzbek artist Vyacheslav Akhunov is drawing attention in Venice, where viewers encounter photographs and handwritten pages that have been physically worn until only hints remain. The exhibition, a collateral event at the Biennale, stages the process of erasure as both material practice and visual idea, and runs at Palazzo Franchetti, San Marco, through Nov. 22, 2026.

One of the central works, titled Erasure of Memory (2021), presents sheets of paper scrawled in dense Cyrillic that Akhunov has repeatedly abraded. Under glass, loops and lines persist in fragments; other passages have been scuffed down to a faint residue. Nearby photographs bear similar treatment: the picture is less important than the abrasion that marks its former presence, a physical record of loss rather than a clear depiction.

Seen from a local perspective, these pieces speak to more than private recollection. They intersect with Uzbekistan’s evolving cultural policies and the wider visibility of Central Asian artists at international fairs. A growing share of this year’s auxiliary exhibitions — roughly one in five, by one informal count — include practitioners from the region, suggesting a shift in how museums and collectors are looking beyond long-established Western narratives. Critics here argue that conceptual work from Soviet-era Central Asia developed under its own pressures and should be read on its own terms.

“Those early pieces were made in the 1970s when you couldn’t shout your idea from the roof,” Akhunov said in a recent conversation. “We learned to work softly, so the thought could survive. Returning to them now, I see the same concerns — memory, dry humor, an inner persistence.” Local curators say the show lets Venetian audiences hear that quieter conversation for the first time in this setting, and to reassess how political limits shaped a distinct artistic language.