29 October 2026 – 28 February 2027

Bishnav az nai chun hikoiat mekunad,
Az judoiho shikoiat mekunad

“Listen to how the nāy (flute) tells its tale,
Lamenting its separation (from the Beloved).”
Jalal al-Din Rumi

Central Asia, at the heart of the Asian continent, extends north to south from Kazakhstan to Afghanistan, and west to east from Turkmenistan to western China. For centuries, communities have been connected through travel, trade, scholarship and cultural exchange. As a crossroads of the Silk Roads, the region has brought diverse peoples and traditions into dialogue, shaping its languages, beliefs, customs and artistic practices.

The linguistic, religious and cultural diversity of the region is vividly expressed through the performing arts of Tajik, Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Turkmen, Kazakh, Uyghur, and other ethnic groups and communities. Distinctive traditions exist within countries and regions, shaped by shared histories and landscapes. Performance offers a way of understanding the heritage and identities of the diverse communities of Central Asia.

Performing Arts of Central Asia explores this heritage through music, dance, material culture, visual art and artefacts. Musical instruments, costumes, textiles, headwear, jewellery, photographs, film and audiovisual presentations reveal how sound, movement and design come together in performance. The exhibition evokes the environments in which these traditions are performed and transmitted. The exhibits celebrate performance not as a remnant of the past, but as living cultural heritage responding to change and artistic innovation.

Across Central Asia performing arts are integral to celebrations, ritual gatherings, devotional practices and communal life. They preserve collective memory, strengthen social bonds and communicate histories and values across generations. Music also occupies an important place within the region’s rich intellectual and literary heritage. Scholars such as Abu Nasr al-Farabi and Ibn Sina regarded music as a science to be studied through theory and mastered through practice. Within Sufi traditions, music, poetry and movement offer paths towards spiritual refinement.

The region’s musical heritage encompasses musical traditions such as shashmaqom, maddoh and qasida, alongside folk music and dance. The exhibition showcases various musical instruments, such as the nai and surnai, setar, dutar, rubab, tanbur, qashqar rubab and doira/daf. Many are played across linguistic boundaries and communities have developed distinctive repertoires, tonal qualities and various performance styles. Turkic and Persian languages further enrich these traditions, giving each performance its poetic and musical character.

Material culture is inseparable from performance with embroidered garments, traditional robes, textiles, headwear and jewellery being integral to the performance culture and representing the identity, creativity and cultural landscape of the Central-Asian communities. Colours, patterns, materials and techniques convey meanings and embody skills passed down through generations. Alongside musical instruments and visual records, these objects demonstrate how craft, costume and performance combine to create resonant and memorable experiences.

A selection of photographs by travel photographer Christopher Wilton-Steer places the exhibition’s themes within the landscapes and communities of Central Asia. Created during his 2019 journey along the Silk Road, the photographs form part of The Silk Road: A Living History, a project supported by the Aga Khan Foundation. The photographs connect the exhibits with the people and places among which the region’s musical, textile and performance traditions continue to be practised.

The exhibition also includes prints from the Turkestan Album, known as the Kaufman Album, documenting Central-Asian musical performance during the first decades of Russian rule in the region. Commissioned by Governor-General Konstantin von Kaufman and compiled by Aleksandr Kun in 1871–1872, the album includes posed photographs of musicians, celebrations and dance. These photographs are displayed alongside other historical and contemporary photographs, paintings and images to show how these traditions were recorded and evolved over time.

Bringing these historical and contemporary perspectives together, Performing Arts of Central Asia celebrates the people who create art, sing and dance, thereby, preserving, renewing and transmitting these traditions through time and space.

The exhibition ‘Performing Arts of Central Asia’ is organised jointly by the Aga Khan Centre Gallery and the Central Asian Studies Unit of The Institute of Ismaili Studies.  The organisers would like to express their sincere gratitude to all the contributors and partners who have generously provided items for the exhibition.

Partners and Contributors

This exhibition has been made possible through generous loans and contributions from notable private collections, the embassies of several Central-Asian countries, the Aga Khan Music Programme, donors, partners and individual lenders. Together, their objects, photographs, films and archival materials illuminate the breadth of Central Asia’s performing arts and musical traditions in both contemporary and historical contexts.

The Aga Khan Music Programme

Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Embassy of Kyrgyzstan in London, United Kingdom

Embassy of Tajikistan to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Individual lenders

Saad Barcha (Saad is from Daftary Scholarship recipient, we decided not to include names that are associated with IIS)

Nekruz Dastambuev

Diloro Gadomamadova

Mushtaribonu Khoshimova

Otambek Mastibekov

The Nazaraly and Koolsam Manjee Keshavjee Bequest

Zohir Shomusalamov

Christopher Wilton-Steer

Savsan Mamadloiqova

Rukhmina Nizokatova

Bakhtiyor Zarmastov

The Aga Khan Music Programme (AKMP) aims to foster the development of living musical heritage in societies across the world where Muslims have a significant presence and disseminate this work internationally through collaborations with exceptionally creative musicians, artists, educators, and arts presenters. AKMP was launched in Central Asia, with projects in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan, and subsequently expanded to the Middle East and North Africa, South Asia, and West Africa.

For more see: https://the.akdn/en/what-we-do/honouring-cultural-heritage/music