A Matter of Radiance

*A Matter of Radiance* is the official catalog of Uzbekistan’s participation in the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale. Curated by the GRACE collective, the volume explores the architectural and scientific legacy of the Sun Heliocomplex in Parkent, an imposing solar furnace built in the 1980s in Uzbekistan and now a symbol of the transition toward a sustainable energy future. The project is part of the Tashkent Modernism XX/XXI research platform, promoted by the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation, and presents itself as an interdisciplinary reflection on the themes of energy, modernist heritage, and sustainability. The catalog, rich in archival images and multidisciplinary contributions, alternates between critical essays, oral testimonies, and a photographic sequence by Armin Linke that visually explores the Sun Institute complex. The book conveys the site’s ambivalence—utopian and functional, monumental and fragile—and explores its potential from a contemporary perspective. More than mere documentation, the work serves as a tool for reinterpreting recent heritage, understood not as a static object to be preserved, but as a living infrastructure capable of generating new visions. Translated with DeepL.com (free version)