Diana Campbell reveals five recent obsessions

There are many small houses in the Sagan Kotturan Chamoru centre in Guam, each with different features. In a type dedicated to cooking, they recreated this brick oven called A hotnoan indigenous elder Shamoro held a seminar on it. When the indigenous Central Americans traveled to the Pacific Island, these traditional ovens came to Guam through Spanish colonists. Interestingly, how Central Americans bring foods like chili to Guam before they can go to places in Central Asia. Even if these places seem to be periphery, they are very important for social development at different times. this hotno It’s the entry point to consider our interconnectedness – not to mention the many delicious things cooked in it!

Xuanzang is a 7th-century Chinese monk who conducted a 17-year pilgrimage from China to India through Uzbekistan, studying Buddhism at the world’s first resident university in Nalanda, Bihar, India. As the center of knowledge, Nalanda was destroyed by the sudden invaders and lost until Scottish surveyors discovered the ruins in the 19th century. To determine this place, they consulted Xuanzang’s text. This is not only an example of the long-standing existence of globalization, but also the lasting impact of knowledge and writing. This is a way to look back at the past lack of reconstruction. Several artists at the Bukhara Biennale were inspired by Xuanzang, who helped me think about drawing the world in different ways.

Many artists and thinkers participating in the Biennale may visit the shrine of the 13th-century Sophie Saint Qizbibi. She had a school where she taught and hosted religious pilgrims, but the history of many female spiritual leaders had been erased. The site is a beautiful and moving place dedicated to the unexpected female spiritual leader of that time.

When I was working in the Biennale, I had been doing a lot of research on cooking, healing and poetry. In this way, I discovered that Rumi went to Uzbekistan and wrote about Bukhara. He has these incredible metaphors about love and relationships, including those about boiled chickpeas. Turning chickpeas from raw to cooked man illustrates a bigger spiritual shift. This may be painful and difficult, but this change is necessary for both individuals and larger collectives.

PivôCoatí in El Salvador, Brazil is one of the masterpieces of architect Lina Bo Bardi. It was built around the mango trees in the 1980s to be a restaurant, but never opened. This is an amazing non-rectangular structure, with details such as grooves in concrete based on the folds of the leaves. Bo Bardi is a woman who considers working with artisans and nature when she thinks about what a museum should be. It was also built on a street where the Portuguese lifted slaves from the sea, as El Salvador was the closest point in South America to West Africa. I’m working with the Hartwig Art Foundation in Amsterdam and the personalities of Sao Paulo to turn it into an arts centre.