Centre for Contemporary Arts Tashkent (CCA)

The building and project

The Centre for Contemporary Arts occupies the industrial building of Tashkent's first diesel power station, built in 1912. The conversion was designed by Studio KO, the Paris practice of Karl Fournier and Olivier Marty, whose architectural model was first shown at Art Basel Paris in October 2025. The project was initiated by Gayane Umerova, chair of the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation. It opened to the public in March 2026 with a Navruz festival on 21–23 March, as an open-access space with free entry; Sara Raza is artistic director and chief curator.

Programme

The opening show, 'Hikmah' (21 March – 30 June 2026), brought together Kimsooja, Ali Cherri, Nadia Kaabi-Linke, Muhannad Shono, Nari Ward, Tarik Kiswanson and Uzbek artist Shokhrukh Rakhimov; Kaabi-Linke's 'Flying Carpets', on loan from the Guggenheim in New York, was shown in Central Asia for the first time. The 2026 programme also included a Vyacheslav Akhunov exhibition, a project revisiting Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, summer public-art events and a film strand recalling the Tashkent International Film Festival of 1968–1988.