An official confirmation of partnership between the two organizations was the signing of the Memorandum on cooperation on October 9, 2008. The Memorandum reflects the main directions of cultural and humanitarian cooperation of the two organizations.
The cooperation program includes a series of joint cultural and scientific projects, involving leading scientists - musicologists, theatre experts, art historians and cultural workers of Uzbekistan, as well as representatives of government, international organizations and embassies.
The Swiss Cooperation Office also collaborates with the Social Initiative Support Fund under a project on inclusive education in Uzbekistan.
Scaled projects
The exhibitions «Tetragon - Four Dimensions of Reality» and «The Abduction of the Cocoon» were held on June 22, 2007.
In April 2008, the Fund Forum and the Swiss Cooperation Office organized an International colloquium «Long-term effects of cultural projects and the creative potential of Uzbekistan», organized in advance of the large-scale project - the Festival of Traditional Culture «Asrlar sadosi» (Echo of centuries).
September 5-8, 2008 the Fund Forum and the Swiss Cooperation Office organized a new project «Media Laboratory» in Tashkent. The program aims to support contemporary art in Uzbekistan in a series of projects for the visual arts.
International Exhibition of contemporary art «Signs of Time» is held annually in the frameworks of joint projects of the Fund Forum and the Swiss Cooperation Office. Installations and video works of the artists, as well as master classes and lectures on video-art were presented at the Exhibition.
In November 2008 a National Film Festival of Uzbekistan was carried out in Tashkent, organized by the Fund Forum, the Swiss Cooperation Office in Uzbekistan with the support of the «Uzbekkino» National Agency. During the Festival following events took place: The Central Asian Forum of Visual Anthropology «KinoVizA», a Cinema Forum, a Video-Art Forum, a Multimedia project «Waves», an Exhibition «Moon-faced», as well as educational seminars.
October 15-22, 2009, International Biennale of Contemporary Art “The city philosophy: an anthropological landscape”
In the frames of the Style.uz Art Week the International Biennale of contemporary art has been held in Tashkent. Art professionals’ forum, lectures and master-classes together with contemporary art exhibitions where leading world and local artists, masters, graphics, photographers, art critics, curators from 27 countries took part. All has been held in best Uzbekistan exhibition venues and pavilions during this project.
27 October - 8 November, 2009, International exhibition of contemporary art "Signs of the time" on the territory of Ming Urik archaeological monument.
November 10-14, 2009, the 4th Regional Seminar of Documentary Film Makers of Central Asia “Resumed Dialogues – IV”. The seminar which was held in Tashkent was organized by the Swiss Cooperation Office, the Fund Forum, and Uzbekkino National Agency. The Tashkent seminar brought together documentary film makers from Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, who presented the best works created in recent years. The seminar also featured documentaries from Russia and Baltic countries.
On 24 November, 2009, Tashkent’s Aliver Navoi Theatre hosted “Mavrigi” Concert organized with the support of the Fund Forum and the Swiss Cooperation Office in Uzbekistan. Mavrigi is a cycle of people’s songs which developed in an intensive fashion in Bukhara in the 19th and early 20th century. It was mainly accompanied by the national music instrument doira in a certain rhythm. The art of Mavrigi was believed to be extinct, and has been revived in the early third millennium.
A journalist of Switzerland`s Tribune des Arts magazine, Flora Abgaryan, was among those attending “Asrlar sadosi” (Echo of centuries) Festival of Traditional Culture held in Bukhara city in the spring of 2011.
Cooperation with public organizations of Switzerland
