UZBEKISTAN Tashkent bans art exhibition for peace

They canceled the exhibition of the painting “When Bukhara was bombed”, by the pacifist painter Vjačeslav Akhunov. Bolshevik troops bombed the Uzbek city in 1920. It is feared that Russia has intervened to prevent the exhibition of the work. The role of an agency under Putin’s direct orders.

Moscow () – For reasons that are still unknown, the Uzbek authorities have canceled the exhibition of a painting by the famous Uzbek painter Vjačeslav Akhunov at the State Museum of Fine Arts. The work belongs to a private collection in the United States and had been brought to the capital, Tashkent, on March 25. It was going to be exposed in the last days on the occasion of the inauguration ceremony of the bust of the popular poet Raufi Parfi.

According to what Akhunov told Ozodlik, the director of the museum, Vasilja Fajzieva, did not allow the painting to be placed in the exhibition hall. The oil painting, seven meters wide and two meters high, waited in the corridor, packed. However, Fajzieva limited herself to saying: “we cannot take her into the room” and ordered to exhibit another painting by the conceptualist painter, the “Portrait of Čulpan”, which depicted the early 20th century writer Abdulakhmid Suleyman, a prophet of the cultural renaissance of Uzbekistan and all of Central Asia, which he had chosen as his pen name “Čulpan” (Morning Star).

Akhunov painted the triptych “When Bukhara was Bombed” in 1987. It was after reading the book “The War in Songs. Materials on the History of the Civil War”, which recalls the period after the 1917 revolution, with the bombing ordered by the Bolshevik leader Frunze in 1920. The young painter wanted to express his feelings about those events. The painting was exhibited in September 1988 at the Zamon Gallery in London, owned by the Aga Khan, in the midst of Gorbachev’s perestroika. Akhunov himself was persecuted for years in the country for his “too free and pacifist” views.

According to the author, the reason for the rejection is not entirely clear. “I do not think that the work itself angered the Russians very much, who nevertheless bombarded Bukhara, the holy ‘Bukhoroi Šarif’, one of the Asian pillars of the Muslim world”, recalling the term prohibited by the Russians back in 1913. The memory It must be annoying in the middle of the war in Ukraine, and this painting “reminds us that the Russians also did similar things in the past,” says the painter.

Recently, the deputy director of the Tashkent Art Museum, Vladimir Ovčinnikov, obtained Russian citizenship, after having worked for years as director of the private Veksel’berg museum in Saint Petersburg. Ovčinnikov was in charge of a collection of decorative Fabergé Easter eggs that was bought at Sotheby’s auction by oligarch Viktor Veksel’berg, known as “Putin’s portfolio” and a victim of Western sanctions. Everything indicates that the shadow of the Kremlin leader is spreading in Uzbekistan.
The US Finance Ministry that imposed the sanction against Veksel’berg commented that the official is actively engaged in spreading mechanisms of “soft power” (soft power) to support Russia’s foreign policy, and his maneuvers in the world of international art seem be an expression of it. On Uzbek social networks it is highlighted that Ovčinnikov is a member of the Rossotrudničestva agency, a Russian institution linked to the Commonwealth of Independent States, in the Central Asia section.

The body receives direct orders from Putin and the Russian federal government and seeks to defend the interests of fellow Russians, operating in more than 80 countries around the world. It offers services and finances initiatives that help affirm Russia’s principles and values ​​in the international arena. The agency itself is affected by sanctions from the European Union and other countries. Akhunov wonders if the deputy director is a “relokant”, a Russian who has fled to avoid involvement in the special military operation, or a “gonet”, a Kremlin agent sent abroad to monitor the behavior of compatriots “unofficially”. .

Scandals are nothing new in the capital’s art museum, as several local press sources have pointed out, especially the Eltuz agency. Already in the time of the first president, Karimov, a trade in stolen works of art was discovered and replaced by more than 300 forgeries. In this case, “taxpayers have the right to know the truth about the exhibited works and those that are prohibited.” Ovcinnikov declined to comment to the press regarding these accusations. Fajzieva added that the painting was not exhibited due to “lack of documentation” and because it arrived late – just like the “Portrait of Čulpan”.