Karakalpakstan
Uzbekistan
CULTURE
SUMMIT
September 11-13
Where coexistence sustains the planet
ARAL CULTURE SUMMIT IS AN EMERGENT INITIATIVE DEDICATED TO THE SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSFORMATION OF THE ARAL SEA REGION THROUGH ART, CULTURE, SCIENCE, AND DESIGN.
About the programme
Aral Culture Summit brings ACDF’s internationally acclaimed projects home to Nukus, where they take shape in a new public space – Istiqlol Park. It will become a hub of innovation, a symbol of renewal, and a source of new energy for the city. Uzbekistan’s pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka will be reconstructed there as a new children’s library.
In 2026, the ACDF also brings the story of the Aral Sea region to international audiences through presentations at the Venice Biennale and Milan Design Week – contributing to global conversations on the creative response to ecological crisis.
Key aral sea initiatives
ARAL SCHOOL
The Aral School is an interdisciplinary postgraduate programme that takes the Aral Sea's collapse as its starting point, uniting participants to prototype new visions for cultural and ecological regeneration.
WHEN APRICOTS BLOSSOMMILAN, 19-26 APRIL 2026
A journey through crafts and environmental legacy of the Aral region at Milan Design Week.
THE AURAL SEAVENICE, 9 MAY-22 NOVEMBER 2026
Uniting soundscapes and ecological narratives of the Aral region at the 2026 Venice Biennale.
Expo Osaka Pavilion to Nukus Fall 2026
The award-winning Uzbekistan Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka Kansai rebuilt as a children's library and cultural campus.
Programme
10:00
Coexistence as Commitment for Planetary Integrity
High-level Opening Remarks
Opening ceremony with official remarks, Summit framing, and key institutional announcements.
Performance
A multidisciplinary performance by StihiaGen graduates, exploring the Aral region’s heritage, memory, and future.
11:00
Beyond Sectors: Culture as Climate Action
High-level Panel
An opening conversation on cultural and water diplomacy, highlighting culture as a driver of environmental cooperation and resilient futures.
12:00
Ecological Corridors Beyond Borders
Keynote
A session on transboundary conservation, ecological connectivity, and migratory species across the Ustyurt Plateau.
14:00
More Than a Venue, More Than an Event
Panel
Exploring how art and design can drive long-term place-making through cultural institutions, public space, and regenerative infrastructure.
15:00
Prototyping Living Places in Practice
Panel
A session on experimental design, technology, and urban ecology for future-world building.
16:00
Technologies of Interspecies Care
Panel
A conversation on interspecies care through design, architecture, AI, and ecological technologies, exploring new models of multispecies coexistence.
17:00
Micro-Seasonal Landscapes in Motion
Istiqlol Park Walk
A guided tour of ecological installations and semi-nomadic infrastructures for resilient and adaptive public space.
Architecture of Repair
High-profile Keynote
18:00
Public Programme
Food court, Market, Karakalpak games, Film screenings, Exhibition
Research
Books
“Aral: Untold Stories from Before, During and After the Sea” begins with a simple question: what is something you wish people knew about the Aral Sea region that they don’t already?
From there more complex questions emerge: How is it we know that the water level of the Aral Sea has fallen and risen multiple times in the past? Did the divine priest Zarathushtra, father of Zoroastrianism, gaze out upon the Aral’s vast waters? Why did Igor Savitsky choose Nukus, capital city of Karakalpakstan, to display and preserve his treasure trove of textiles, jewellery, ornaments and dissident art?
One way or another, it all comes down to the Aral, and in this new book of essays, commissioned for the inaugural Aral Culture Summit, voices from Uzbekistan and beyond share their stories about the Aral Sea region, a place that is far more diverse, complex and inspiring than global headlines often allow.
Articles
Archive
Aral School
Research, design and community-led practices from Aral School projects run through the Summit itself, appearing across installations, public space interventions, exhibitions and the programme.
The Summit also marks the announcement of the director of the School's second edition, who will present their vision for the new cycle that will run between January and July 2027 with two themes: Climate and Landscape.
The Aural Sea
The Pavilion takes inspiration from Karakalpak author Allayar Darmenov, who began writing the Aral Sea back to life in 2015, when he was eighteen. In his fiction, swordfish race through replenished waters and remember the desert years. Following Darmenov, the Pavilion proposes imagination as a form of agency: mythmaking and storytelling not as escape, but as tools for navigating loss and holding open space for what might yet be possible.
When Apricots Blossom
He positioned craft not as nostalgia, but as living knowledge: a system of making that carries memory, identity and adaptation across generations.
Expo Osaka Pavilion
After drawing around a million visitors and winning multiple international design awards, it returns as a children's library and cultural campus, its pergola forming a shaded civic space above, and rooms for learning, workshops and creative exchange.
Nukus, Karakalpakstan
April 4–6th, 2025
Aral Culture Summit 2025 brought together leading cultural figures, policymakers, artists, and environmental experts to explore and implement sustainable solutions that address the Aral Sea crisis and global climate challenges. Aral Culture Summit was inaugurated during the first Global Climate Forum in Samarkand (4th April), attended by regional and European heads-of-states.
It continued in Nukus, Karakalpakstan near the Aral Sea with a two-day, multidisciplinary programme of panel discussions, keynotes, artistic performances, and exhibitions, addressing critical issues such as environmental regeneration, creative economy, and cultural diplomacy.
The next Aral Culture Summit will be held in October 2026.
