Tashkent bracing for Style.Uz Art Week 2013

September 23, 2013

Preparations are in full swing for this year’s Style.Uz Art Week that is set to be held on October 22-27 in Tashkent. A brainchild of Gulnara Karimova and Fund Forum’s biggest project, Style.Uz 2013 promises to be an exciting and memorable experience with a broad array of events: concerts by world-famous musicians, exhibitions, theater shows, fashion shows, charity events, workshops and conferences.

Music is one of the most exciting segments of Style.Uz Art Week. The music agenda will be made up of performances by internationally known musicians and young talented performers.
The music section of this year’s Style.Uz is coming along with two surprises from The Lion King Music and Theater Studio, the first being a premiere of a musical, ‘The Lion King: The Return’, at the closing ceremony of the Fourth International Festival ‘Theatre.UZ/2013’. The children for the musical were picked at the Lion King Studio. During the final auditions for the musical, Gulnara Karimova picked actors to play lead roles after screening all the pre-selected young contestants. The musical is set to become the studio’s first major project. The auditions were held in August this year.

The other surprise is live music show ‘Kings of the Stage’ by young professionals who will perform masterpieces of national music as well as songs from the treasure trove of classical Uzbek films.
The Lion King Music and Theater Studio has given itself the goal of discovering and training talented children, who will then be supported and promoted throughout their creative endeavors.
Participation by children and youth groups in Style.Uz has become a tradition. Performances by winners of Yangi Avlod (New Generation) Children’s Art Festival at the opening ceremony of the Week and participation of young talented artists in the Biennale and, most importantly, children and young people will make up the bulk of the audience at Style.Uz Art Week events.
Style.Uz will kick off with the Third Tashkent International Film Forum ‘Golden Guepard’ scheduled for October 19-24. Last year’s film forum laid emphasis on art house films while this year’s edition will combine art films with mainstream melodrama..

The major cinematic event will be overlapped by the Fourth International Festival ‘Theatre.UZ/2013’, set to be held on October 20-26. This year’s festival will feature Tashkent’s and regional theaters as well as theater teams from Armenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Israel, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Russia, Sweden and other countries. The festival will present collaborative stagings with British, Israeli, Kyrgyz and Tajik colleagues. Also upcoming are workshops by American, Belarusian, German, Italian, Israeli, Kyrgyz and Tajik professionals.

Style.Uz Art Week is an opportunity to get a taste of the best that Uzbek heritage and modern culture has to offer from October 22 to October 27.
The art section of the Week consists of:

- the Seventh Tashkent International Biennale of Contemporary Art, a major visual arts project, which will feature artworks by roughly 200 famous and aspiring artists from over 45 countries. In addition to artworks, the Biennale will showcase installations, video projects and sculptures. A special feature of this year’s Biennale is that artists from various countries will present group works that will be created before visitors’ eyes in Tashkent.

- The Traditional Art, Fashion and Design Exhibition. One part of the exhibition will present items representing various types of Uzbek applied art, created by young masters and artists who participated in ‘Navqiron O’zbekiston’ (Young Uzbekistan) Festival of Traditional and Contemporary Art. The other part will highlight modern fashion and interior design. Besides fashion innovations, the event will feature beauty care products, perfumes by famous brands, jewelry, accessories and many more.

- Solo exhibitions. The Art Week has been a platform for prominent artists and photographers who demonstrate their best creations, many of which have won worldwide recognition.

The fashion section will include:

- fashion shows by international designers. World-famous labels from China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Spain and Switzerland will present collections that will reflect the latest trends in fashion.

- national fashion shows. The centerpiece of the string of national fashion shows is the National Dress Festival, a demonstration of Oriental flavor, diverse colors and traditions in the works of young Uzbek dress designers, and a blend of historical costume elements and modern fashion design. The National Dress Festival makes for a spectacular show that puts the spotlight on the depth of national culture. Another event, Underground Young Designers Show, will reflect fashion experiments while the General Défilé by Dom Stilya (House of Style) will showcase collections by foremost Uzbek fashionistas.

- In what has become a tradition, Style.Uz Art Week will include International Hairstyling Competition, where hairdressers and make-up artists from across Uzbekistan will show their skills and vie for the title of best professional.

The conferences of the Week will include:

- an international scientific and practical conference to be organized in conjunction with the British Council and Tashkent Institute of Textiles and Light Industry (TITLI);

- an extended press conference with the organizers of Style.Uz and Gulnara Karimova, the mind behind the major project.

Workshops make up another important component of the Week. The ‘Golden Guepard’ Film Forum and International Festival ‘Theater.UZ’ will include workshops and training sessions for beginning theater and cinema professionals as well as recognized actors, actresses, film directors and script writers. Workshops for young designers will be led by professionals from the United Kingdom and Malaysia. The participants of the Tashkent International Biennale of Contemporary Art will share their knowledge with and teach skills to anyone with a keen interest in modern art and classical painting.

The charity segment of Art Week will see designer items go under the hammer at an auction as part of a charity gala dinner to be organized by the National Breast Cancer Association of Uzbekistan. The proceeds from the auction will go toward treatment and support of women living with breast cancer in Uzbekistan.

The string of social events will be an opportunity for the local public to feast their eyes on and judge exquisite jewelry by top famous brands.

Two national grants will be formed this year in support of young talented artisans working to restore unique types of traditional Uzbek art. The grants will be awarded to a designer and an applied art master, who will be unveiled at Style.Uz Art Week 2013. The grants will come from funds raised during the creation of a Guide Map detailing the best spots in Tashkent.

In sum, Art Week is a social project of international scale that brings together various types of art as well as professionals of all stripes, ages and nationalities. The youth will have the opportunity to attend exhibitions, concerts and catwalk shows by internationally known fashion labels free of charge as, like in previous years, the bulk of tickets to Style.Uz events will be distributed free of charge among young Uzbek musicians, designers, artists, students, members of Kelajak Ovozi (Voice of the Future) Center for Youth Initiatives and other young professionals.