Ka Mate: Chronicles of the Sun – Performance & Lecture – November 23

A new performance commissioned by the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation explores humanity’s quest to harness the power of the sun—blending science, mythology, and ritual in a meditation on creation and control.


15:00 – Performance by Ilkhom Theatre

The Uzbekistan National Pavilion announces Ka Mate: Chronicles of the Sun, a new performance created by Tashkent-based Ilkhom Theatre and commissioned by the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation (ACDF). Presented as part of the Pavilion’s public programme for the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia (Biennale Architettura 2025), the performance will take place on 22 and 23 November 2025.
Set against the late‑Soviet backdrop of “last megaprojects”, Ka Mate: Chronicles of the Suncentres on a secret experiment by scientists attempting to create an artificial sun under conditions of total secrecy. The performance fuses science fiction, documentary objecthood and ritual to activate several layers of perception – historical, philosophical and existential – while drawing on solar mythologies from Helios to Ra and Mitra.

14:30 – Lecture (prior to performance)
November 23, 14:30

Steve Woolgar: “From Laboratory Life to Solar Furnace”: How STS makes question what we take for granted about science and technology

Professor Steve Woolgar shot to fame with the publication of Laboratory Life: the construction of scientific facts (Princeton, 2nd edition 1986) in collaboration with the French sociologist Bruno Latour. He has published widely in science and technology studies, social problems and social theory, researching topics as diverse as virtual society, neuromarketing, globalization, ontological disobedience and academic evaluation; and has been translated into 10 languages. He is best known for his books Science: the very idea (Routledge 1988); Knowledge and Reflexivity (Sage 1988 ed.); The Machine At Work (Polity 1997, with Keith Grint); Virtual Society? – technology, cyberbole, reality (Oxford 2002 ed.); Mundane Governance: ontology and accountability (Oxford 2013, with Dan Neyland); Representation in Scientific Practice Revisited (MIT Press 2014 ed. with J.Vertesi, C.Coopmans and M.Lynch) and Globalisation in Practice (Oxford 2014 ed. with N.Thrift, A.Tickell, and W.H.Rupp). He is currently working with colleagues on a collection entitled The Imposter as Social Theory: thinking with gatecrashers, cheats and charlatans (Bristol forthcoming, ed. with D.Moats, E.Vogel and CF.Helgesson) and a book length investigation of the limits of provocation: It Could Be Otherwise.

• Venue: Quarta Tesa, Arsenale di Venezia, Uzbekistan National Pavilion, La Biennale di Venezia (Venice).

• Admission: Entry requires both a valid La Biennale di Venezia ticket and advance registration for the performance.

• On‑site access: Visitors must present a purchased Biennale ticket to access Biennale venues.

• Tickets: Tickets may be purchased at Biennale box offices or online via the Biennale website.