COBO SOCIAL: Mongolia’s contemporary art  could be what we need right now, artists Davaajargal Tsachikher and Ganzug Sedbazar featured

Performance, land and digital art are some of the diverse aspects of Mongolian contemporary art heavily influenced by shamanic rituals, religious myths and indigenous cultures specific to the country and beyond. Embattled by the current pandemic and ongoing ecological crisis, this could be the kind of art the world needs right now.

In January this year, Mongolian performance artist Ganzug Sedbazar, in collaboration with sound artist and renowned musician Davaajargal Tsaschikher, performed Lullaby for Mother Nature (presciently titled given the trajectory of this year) at TKG+, an acclaimed Taiwanese art gallery with experimental ambitions. This was in conjunction with a book launch by Taiwanese artist Charwei Tsai and a citywide Gallery Night prior to the regional art fair Taipei Dangdai.

Yet throughout history, many foreign myths have become entangled with the legend of Shambhala, some with the intention of garnering military or political support, such as the identification of Russia, Mongolia, or Japan as Shambhala. The notion of this mythical place even found its way into Western occult movements, other systems of belief, and most concerning of all, racist ideologies.

This distortion of prejudice and historicization is something we are all very familiar with. It is how we often view our existence, as individuals and societies, till today. Perhaps especially so today as we are living in the middle of a public health crisis—even the decision to leave the house or meet someone has to be contemplated as a possible risk and rightfully so. But such a lifestyle also has a way of fragmenting our reality and skewing our perceptions, till fear is the only lens we know. Perhaps it is the prerogative of art to compel us to put down our distorted viewfinders, even for just a few precious, scarce moments.

One of the few artists currently producing work that compels us to do exactly this is multimedia artist Timur Si-Qin. He is of German and Mongolian-Chinese heritage and grew up in Beijing and America. Si-Qin is part of a new generation of artists associated with “New Materialism,” which proposes that objects and materials assert their own power over the viewer, independent of subjective cultural interpretations.

As part of “Focus Group II: Paratexts,” a recent online exhibition of video art by Georgetown, Washington D.C. gallery Von Ammon Co., Si-Qin’s “Campaign for a New Protocol” proposes a new religion based on honoring our place in the physical world. The clip is a virtual reality immersion of natural desert landscapes with sweeping views of mountains and valleys as a backdrop to an A.I. voice questioning our contemporary lifestyle. It can also be found as an introductory video on his website newpeace.faith, that includes a white paper titled A New Protocol.

While all this may appear like whimsical digital art with a trendy New Age twist to the outwardly progressive but conservative-at-heart art world insider, Si-Qin’s art is in fact an authentic expression influenced by his own inherited and experienced connections with indigenous cultures and lands. While his father is an ethnic Mongolian, after his mother remarried, he grew up with his San Carlos Apache stepfather and sisters in Arizona. The artist described it as a “unique experience to have, as not many outsiders get to experience both the deep beauty and heartbreaking darkness of the Indigenous American experience. The experience left me with the recognition…of the urgency of the Indigenous message for ecological reciprocity today.”

The current pandemic is just the latest in a series of crises and failings on our existing path as a civilization. The mindset required to embark on a radical and urgent process of evaluation and experimentation cannot be found in contemporary Western societies or Asian societies obsessed with displaying a Western veneer. It can only be found amongst individuals and communities that value ecological and spiritual sustainability as intrinsic to their everyday world and inherent history. Mongolian culture, and the kind of contemporary art it inspires, provides only a glimpse into this diverse, ancient and indigenous world we have long forgotten in our so-called pursuit of creative innovation and material progress.

Article by Reena Devi at Cobo Social 

ON ART AND AESTTETICS interview with Baatarzorig Batjargal

Published by Tulika Bahadur

I have l ong wanted to publish something from Mongolia, as we don’t hear a lot about the area in international media. (I find Mongolia fascinating because of its place in history—chiefly known through the Mongol Empire). I feel your work is really perfect to start a conversation because it sheds light on both the past and the current situation in the country. My first question is this: how did you get into art? What/who were your influences while you were growing up? 

The Chinese author tried to describe a society or human lifestyle as a Mongolian person. The wolf represented the strong and weak ratios of the law of nature. The Mongolian attitudes to the book are diverse and there are many perspectives. The public reaction to the film with the same name was rated negatively as well. People also had an unpleasant reaction to Sergei Bodrov’s film entitled Mongol. In my opinion, this is about individual freedom, the capacity of the mind, the size of understanding.

As you go through various regimes, you portray a range of characters—artists, intellectuals, politicians and oligarchs. How do you decide how to compose your paintings?

My characters are divided into two general groups. One part is the image of the spirit or abstract space and the other one is the actual image of the world. My body and myself will only exist for a certain period. That period is governed by three times—the past, present, and future. My body has a soul. As for the soul, it is not controlled by the gravitational forces of our planet, it is governed by the sixth sense. This is a very abstract concept. The action that is happening in my paintings is taking place somewhere in a dream world. It can be said that characters are created within the work, depending on the content of the work. Real characters are those who play a significant role and have an impact on human life—good or bad.

In the centre of “Smoke” is Vajrapani, a bodhisattva/wrathful deity recognisable by the vajra—diamond thunderbolt—in his right hand. A traditional image of transformation and purification, the deity seems almost to disappear in the clouds of smoke around him, made up of intricately wrought figures and objects. This brings me to a question on the role and position of Buddhism in Mongolia. How has it changed over time

I would be glad to answer this question. Vajrapani or god “Ochirvaani” is considered a divine being that looks after Mongolia. Buddhism is a leading religion in Mongolia. But religion doesn’t answer the demand for peace of mind. This is because most of the people worship god blindly. That is why bad and good outcomes become the basic concepts of religious morality. We have gone through many stages of society in the past hundred years. Everybody has their own sense of happiness and sadness. The title of the painting explores social concerns. It seems that people are walking in smoke, putting their intentions and everything on someone else’s shoulder.

What disturbs you most about contemporary Mongolian society that you’d like to eliminate or improve?

The Mongolians who migrated from the Tenger Mountains to the Khyangan Mountains and the Lake Baikal to the Himalayan Mountains, are now divided into 4-5 ethnic groups. Our fairy tales, literature, beliefs about cultural beauty are the same but not the language. The bizarre, invisible wall between us is getting thicker and taller with each passing day. That is certainly something that could be improved. Cultural tradition is endangered elsewhere as well. The Middle East, Western European countries and so on.

See interview here

ASIA PACIFIC TRIENNIAL 9 at QUEENSLAND ART GALLERY – GALLERY OF MODERN ART

Enkhbold Togmidshiirev’s Paintings Incorporate a Range of Media

Enkhbold Togmidshiirev is a painter and performance and installation artist best known for his large-scale, monochromatic canvases executed in materials derived from his nomadic culture, and improvised performances using the ger, the traditional Mongolian home.

Created in parallel to his performance work, Enkhbold’s restrained colour-field paintings incorporate unusual media — horse dung, felt, shrubs, ash, rust, sheep skin and tripe — which are either laid over the canvas or worked into its fibres.

These materials are sourced from the countryside, when the artist returns to his homeland, and undergo extensive preparation before he uses them in his paintings. The dung, for instance, is dried and crumbled, and sifted three times to ensure a fine consistency. It is then applied over a base of gelatine and gel, or mixed into the base directly, after which it is covered in acrylic paint. Horse dung can differ in colour and texture depending on the season and the specific environmental conditions of the animals, and so the material provides the artist with a shifting palette.

Occasionally, Enkhbold incorporates collage into his paintings, and fabrics such as cotton, silk and hessian vary the surfaces of his works, introducing formal devices like Rothko-esque horizontal fields through stitching and textural contrast.

Enkhbold’s vast planes of colour and tone are determined exercises in abstraction, an abstraction that the artist also emphasises in the form of his performative ger. It is the materiality of his works, like the performances they complement, that preserves a strong connection with both traditional and contemporary Mongolian life.

See here QAGOMA publication

How does having a pavilion in Venice make a difference in the artistic scene in your country of origin?

I think having a national pavilion makes quite a difference and impact on the art scene back in my country, especially for the younger generation. It may not make much of a direct difference right now with the contemporary art scene still being developed and growing in Mongolia, but it will certainly be a big influence and difference-maker in the future, in the sense that it will encourage and inspire other artists to seek involvement in international exhibitions.

If you’ve been to the biennale before, what is your first or best memory of Venice?

I came to see the 2015 Biennale, and it was a fantastic experience seeing all the art and art lovers from all over the world at the same time. But what left the biggest impression on me was the uniqueness of the venues and spaces where artists and pavilions exhibited. There were almost no typical white cubes of exhibition spaces, but all crooked and uneven walls and floors, with every venue boasting their own different and unique characteristics.

You will no doubt be very busy, but what else are you looking forward to seeing?

I hope that I could take a moment to recognise and appreciate everything as much as I can.  

Jantsa’s work at Mongolia Pavilion at Venice Art Biennale 2019

See at Art Review

Wall Street International Magazine: Baatarzorig Batjargal, 12 — 25 Apr 2019 at the Jack Bell Gallery in London, United Kingdom

Batjargal draws on the techniques of Mongol Zurag painting to address the broader history of Mongolia’s development over the past century. The Zurag painting style first emerged during the Mongolian independence movement in the early 20th Century. Originally an art form to express the ideals of secular nationalism, today Batjargal has breathed new life into the medium.

During a time of unprecedented urbanization, the artist addresses the contradictions of his own environment and its transformation from past to present. Panning through the repressions of Soviet style communism to the inequalities and consumerism of global capitalism, Batjargal offers narratives concerned with the loss of traditional heritage. In a rich tapestry of various regimes, the portraits in his recent series include gods, holy men, artists, intellectuals, warriors, noblemen, politicians and oligarchs.

Batjargal was born 1983 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. He is a BA graduate from School of Fine Arts at the Mongolian University of Arts and Culture.

See here news on WSIMAG

Enkhbold Togmidshiirev’s Performances Make A Connection With His Surroundings

Mongolian artist Enkhbold Togmidshiirev is known for his large-scale, monochromatic canvases, as well as his Ger Project performances. Togmidshiirev staged an improvised roving performance in the outdoor spaces surrounding the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) for The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT9) opening weekend as part of his ongoing Ger Project.

Since 2008, Togmidshiirev has created a number of personalised structures derived from the form of the Mongolian ger, or yurt, with which he performs as a way of developing a connection with his surroundings. The ger, a large circular tent with a collapsible wooden infrastructure, is robust and portable, and highly suited to a nomadic lifestyle. Setting up a ger creates a temporary home that Togmidshiirev equates to a spiritual space. The performance commenced on the Kurilpa Bridge, with Enkhbold making his way across it before concluding the performance in the GOMA Forecourt.

See source here

Image courtesy QAGOMA

ARTNEWS: Artist Jantsankhorol Erdenebayar to present Mongolia at 2019 Venice Biennale

Mongolian throat singing—a centuries-old practice of complex vocalizing that results in multiple pitches issuing at once in a seeming chorus of solo means—will be the focus of “a TEMPORALITY,” an interdisciplinary group project to serve as the focus of Mongolia’s pavilion at next spring’s Venice Biennale.

Mongolian artist E.Jantsankhorol will create an environment in which artists can work and perform in forms inspired by overtone singing, with sounds to be recorded and installed during the Biennale. Among the artists invited to interact is Carsten Nicolai, aka Alva Noto, a German artist and electronic-music maker who will work with throat singers in Ulaanbaatar and bring the results to Venice for the Biennale opening in May.

Curated by Gantuya Badamgarav, “a TEMPORALITY” aims to engage throat singing’s relationship to nature and ways in which it has been used to communicate with different forces. “Nowadays interaction between human-being and nature is almost extinct,” an exhibition announcement reads. “We created human-made environment surrounding us, like concrete blocks, glasses, panels and asphalts to interact with.” Throat singing, by contrast, is more weightless and weighty than all that.

See news on Art News

Image: Breath in Breath Out, courtesy of Jantsankhorol Erdenebayar