To mark the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Germany and Mongolia, the ZEIGEN e.V. association is bringing together artists from both countries in the summer of 2024. In artist residencies in southern Germany and the monolithic province of Bulgan, they will work together on post-nomadic experience, cultural exchange, nature experience, sustainability and gender issues. Two Mongolian artists, Baatarzorig Batjargal and Gerelkhuu Ganbold, who are currently on show at the Venice Biennale, are among the participants. The project is being realised in collaboration with the “Blue Sun” Centre for Contemporary Art in Mongolia.
Image above: Gerelkhuu Ganbold, 2023, Detail eines Bildes aus dem Zanabazar Museum
MONGOLIA AS GUEST IN GERMANY ART CAMP BAVARIA & EXHIBITION MÜRSBACH
From 17 June to 7 July, artists from Germany and Mongolia will meet at Art Camp Bavaria in Mürsbach in the Bamberg region. They will work together on artworks and exchange ideas on experiencing nature and sustainability – against the respective cultural backgrounds that still characterise the reality of life and the social fabric in both countries today.
The exhibition The Post-Nomadic Experience uses selected works of art to convey key aspects of the understanding of nature in the nomadic culture of Mongolia. At the centre of the exhibition is “The Great Blue Sky” – an element of Mongolian culture that still creates identity today and refers to the principle of a shapeless sky god in Tengrism. This principle is visualised in Bronze Age rock carvings in the Altai Mountains, which present the forces of nature in shamanic symbols. The exhibition contrasts this with the cosmologies of A.R. Penck, who translates a post-communist, fraying world into sign systems. The exhibition focusses on the active forces of nature in Mongolia’s visual memory, which clash with the effects of modernity. Nadine Rennert devotes herself to the whispering of these natural forces. Her works, which approach shamanistic content and become physical, arise from intensive listening. Enkhzaya Erdenebileg also works close to her body with video and performance.
Other influences on contemporary Mongolian art come from Lamaism, which is still visually powerful today. A special exhibition at the Biennale di Venezia is currently dedicated to the art movement “Mongol Zurag”, in which Baatarzorig Batjargal and Gerelkhuu Ganbold are participating. Both artists borrow from the demons of traditional Mongolian Zurag painting, as can also be seen on Lamaist thangkhas, to formulate their criticism of the current social and ecological crises in Mongolia. Dashdemed Sampil, who lives in Nuremberg, also draws on this tradition.
Franz Ackermann’s artistic practice has been nomadic from the outset. His mental maps are created as visual records and expressions of an accelerated world that does not even stop at Mongolia. The colourfully decorated “gas masks” by Nomin Bold, who already took part in documenta14 in 2017, tell of the unbearable air conditions in Ulaanbaatar, the worst in the world. The collaboration between Heike Baranowsky and Simone Körner is only primarily documentary. Their attentive observations merge into narratives that mediate between spaces of experience and representation. In the auditory field, it is Karl Heinz Jeron who works on such artistic translation processes that displace the viewer.
GERMANY AS GUEST IN MONGOLIA ART CAMP MONOGLIA & EXHIBITION ULAANBAATAR
From 25 July to 11 August, artists from Germany and Mongolia will meet at Art Camp Mongolia in the steppes of Bulgan province. Without electricity, water or internet, they will live together in traditional yurts near a nomadic settlement between Ulaanbaatar and Kharakhorum. The intensive shared experience of nature contrasts with the artists’ usual form of movement as individual urban nomads. During their stay, they will visit historical, archaeological and sacred mountains in the Mongolian steppe.
The exhibition at the Zanabazar Museum in Ulaanbaatar marks the end of the two Art Camps and brings together the experiences gathered during the German-Mongolian summer of 2024. Experiences in the Bavarian cultural landscape and the Mongolian steppe contrast with modern jet-set nomadism and the effects of man-made climate change. The exhibition examines whether resilience can be found in the respective cultural contents and imprints of the different cultures, which can be activated for a changed approach to resources.
The Zanabazar Museum houses a collection that ranges from shamanic-tengric artefacts from the Bronze Age to Lamaist ritual masks and thangkhas to modern Mongolian Zurag paintings. The eponym Öndör Geegen Zanabazar, 1635 – 1523, was the first spiritual leader of Gelupa Buddhism in Mongolia and the most important artist, architect, poet and scholar of his time.
WHEN IN GERMANY?
Art Camp Bavaria
Monda, 17. June until Sunday, 7. July 2024
Exhibition period:
Saturday, 6. July until Tuesday, 15. October 2024
Opening:
Saturday, 6. July at 3 pm
Opening hours:
Monday until Friday 10 am to 6 pm
Saturday 10 am to 4 pm
WHEN IN MONGOLEI?
Art Camp Mongolie
Thursday, 25. July until Sunday, 11. August 2024
Exhibition period:
Wednesday, 14. August until Wednesday, 28. August 2024
Opening:
Wednesday, 14. August at 3 pm
WHERE?
THEgallery
Mühlstraße 8
96179 Rattelsdorf
