Multiple questions and dimensions open with the invitation to the inaugural Mongolia 360° Land Art Biennale. Foremost, in an era punctuated with the diffusion of events and situations of catastrophic environmental proportions, the challenge is raised as to how intervene with the organic materials at hand in the barren landscape of the Mongolian interior in respect to individual creation in an in-situ environment?

Of central importance in an experiential context lies in the intimacy and proximity of the citizens of Mongolia with indigenous wildlife, the highest ratio of all nations and the vestige of raw nature in opposition to the urban confines of metropolis more commonly known amidst the situation of exhibiting contemporary art. The artists whom participate and artistic direction of the Land Art Mongolia project have been attentive to develop creative initiatives which prove to not only be highly originally and challenging as regards diversity and experimentation of form and the question of “open space” yet, deserve great merit in the collective sensitization of environment, nature and synthesis of the human experience. Spatial creations and deliberations on how to incorporate themes which are of the utmost relevancy of this era: desertification, the preservation of natural sites and wildlife, the impetus of a re-analysis of the legacy of industrialization as well as sustainability in the development of economic resources merge and create a horizon of endless speculation while denoting the fragility of existence.

Mongolia is an ancient land of a complex cultural and historical value. The ethnic, indigenous populations vary greatly and exercise a plethora of unique customs, which have endured the span of time. It is literally a time of excavation in the vast region, the former satellite of the USSR has undergone the throes of national liberation and independence, a restoration of its’ cultural heritage exists simultaneously with the advent and impact of globalization and the echoes of mannerism associated with capital. Nomadic herdsman and folkloric rituals and tradition echo the actual life of contemporary art and contrasts those envisioned with the arrival of corporate investment and multinationals whom intend to exploit the natural resources whom shall yet create for a remarkable cultural influence by their presence alone.

The stage is reminiscent of situations, which co-exist simultaneously throughout the regions of the globe whom recall “underdevelopment” at a time when the Occidental world experiences the dissolution of the financial power and Asia to the South and Far East are subject to the turbulence and dislocation as their former economic alliances fail and are re-determined. The role and value of experimental artistic practice is insurgent, and the collision of forces (creative, economic, militaristic, political and those which remain yet unseen) create a plateau of virtual combat in the place of the absence of the aforementioned dichotomy. This nation whose entire population is a fragment of any of the great metropolis of Asia exists in relative tranquility and has embraced democratic reforms beneath the emergent political government. The past cultural and political occupation of the region has dissipated with time, and apart from an extreme minority, reactionary and xenophobic nationalism has not instilled itself in the nation. The spirit is one of cultural confidence and renewal.

An importance of the Land Art Mongolia 360° project is found in the emphasis of a correlation of experimentation, spatial site-specific creation and environmentally sound practice. The biodiversity of the Mongolian landscape in one of relative fragility despite the initial appearance of rugged terrain and harsh desert horizons, a theoretical approach has been formulated in cohesion with an aesthetic and philosophical objective to achieve the realization of a project which serves to instigate contemporary art in a nation as vast as Mongolia with its free, democratic vision and engender new conceptions from an experiential discourse between individuals and nature herself. New physical vistas unique to the region challenge participants with the adaptation necessary in an intrinsic embrace with the distinct natural climate and selection intending to partially demarcate an equivalent diversity of cultural origins within the international body of guests. This hypothetical stance coupled with the actual aesthetic analysis of the proposals which include virtual reproduction, found organic materials, electro-static experiments and the transformation of natural hubris – occasionally fused with technology or industrial complementary or cosmetic alterations- act in service of the legacy of humankind and nature, recalls our past ignorance the destruction so prominent in the later generations of the first industrialized nations of the world. While the mission of the event does not intend to indict the past errors of modern society, LAM 360° does effect an examination of the practices which insinuate that we have erred to an extent of epic proportion, invites speculation that artistic discourse may be as providential as the supposed objectivity given to scientific enquiry.

Aesthetic approaches may no longer remain indifferent or detached from the actuality of experience in the context of nomadism, artistic invention and of a cultural heritage inextricably entwined with the sources of nature as that belonging to Mongolian people. Contextual subversion alongside conceptual deviations from original strategies are inevitable and organic, the individual artist and artistic intention subject to the greater intrinsic force of a land which most have never seen, one which is newly opened to the world with an orientation towards environmental protection and holding the promise of future ecological sustainability in the vision of this democratic nation. Demographically amongst the least populated on the planet and historically, of an unfathomable artistic, cultural and spiritual depth which once resonated throughout all of Asia. Transcendence of history awakens ample evidence of the influence of the migrant peoples and nomadic traditions, which brought their musical, poetical and visual cultures as far as the Danube in the Occident, and influenced the Empires to the south for centuries. Unique in the context of time and space is a former Republic, which evolved as a lesser satellite of the greatest socialist experiment
of mankind, the Soviet period, emergence as a free economic zone and independent democracy within a span of an instance in contrast with the greater nations lying at the vestige of her boundaries. Societal rupture and political progress are undeniably the fertile soil of the current advent of artistic, cultural and environmental concerns which this project emulates and in whose spirit it was conceived of in a visionary moment in time.

It is within this context of time and space that the Land Art Mongolia 360° has sought to invite an international body of artists to explore the potential creative resources and inspirations to be drawn from this unique soil. The parameters of history are broken asunder and artistic and cultural truths emerge in their wake: the indigenous cultures celebrate at a time when the international community of contemporary art, theoreticians, scholars and various “global nomads” converge to illustrate amidst the wind and shale of the desert what is urgent, timeless and essential: a reinterpretation of our existence in accordance and with infinitely greater sensitivity towards the natural environment & the resources offered to humankind. The kinetic period of creation shall occur in the wild remotes of the desert, yet, the Mongolian people have sought to embrace the international community and galvanize the experiential by lending the National Museum of Art to display the in-situ creations to the urban public and international community in central Ulaanbaatar. The spontaneity of the creation instinct therefore shall be documented in static time and made accessible to the audience, as much a pedagogical initiative as being the actual zenith of this phenomenal experiment undertaken in a time of unprecedented change of this land which oscillates between ancient tradition and the induction of the most recent theoretical stances known to contemporary art.


Rajath Alexander Suri

curator 1st Biennial Land Art Mongolia

Book