Renowned couturier Mohamed Benshalal will present a collection inspired by the architecture of Uzbekistan in Tashkent.
An exhibition by Dutch-Moroccan artist and couturier Mohamed Benshalal will open at the State Museum of History of Uzbekistan. He will present a clothing collection in which he reinterprets the architecture and cultural heritage of Uzbekistan through volume, silhouette, and form.
A collection by renowned couturier Mohamed Benshalal, inspired by the architecture of Uzbekistan, will be presented in Tashkent.
On September 5, the State Museum of History of Uzbekistan will host the opening of the exhibition "BENCHELLAL, MONUMENTAL | Sculpting Past Tomorrow." The project was created by Dutch-Moroccan couturier and artist Mohamed Benshalal. He is the winner of the 2020 Vogue Arabia Fashion Prize and the 2023 Cultuurfonds Mode Stipendium, considered the largest award for fashion designers in the Netherlands. Benshalal has designed outfits for celebrities such as singer Alicia Keys, actresses Sharon Stone and Priyanka Chopra, as well as Queen Maxima of the Netherlands and Queen Rania of Jordan.
The exhibition will feature a new series of sculptural works created by Benshalal in 2025 during his artist residency at the Center for Contemporary Art in Tashkent (CCA Tashkent). The designer works at the intersection of contemporary art, fashion, and architecture, exploring the possibilities of clothing as a form of artistic expression. In his works, volume, silhouette, and construction itself serve as the basis for experimentation with form and space.
The conceptual basis for the new series is historical monuments, large-scale landscapes, and modernist architecture of Uzbekistan. Benshalal does not copy traditional motifs, but reinterprets them through contemporary sculpture. He transforms geometric forms into abstract ones, architectural structures into silhouettes, and relates their scale to the human body.
This project is a continuation of a series Benshalal first presented at the Qatar National Museum in Doha in November 2024. In Tashkent, the designer adapted it to the local architectural and cultural context.
The exhibition, organized with the support of the Foundation for the Development of Culture and Arts of Uzbekistan, will be held as part of the public program of CCA Tashkent, which opens on September 6.