A TEMPORALITY
This unique cross-disciplinary project A Temporality marks the third appearance of Mongolia at the International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia and features the sculptural installations of Los Angeles based Mongolian artist Jantsankhorol Erdenebayar (Jantsa) and a sound performance by traditional Mongolian throat singers Ashit Nergui, Damdin Khadkhuu, Undarmaa Altangerel and Davaasuren Damjin and guest artist Carsten Nicolai, aka Alva Noto. The exhibition is curated by Gantuya Badamgarav, Mongolian art patron, who commissioned and organized the first and second Mongolia participations at the Biennale Arte 2015 and Biennale Arte 2017.
Mongolian ancestors have maintained a nomadic lifestyle tracing back over 3 millennia where developments and the accrual of tangible creations, such as literature and art, were impeded due to the constant need for movement. Because of this limited context, oral traditions emerged and evolved as a principal means of expression and passed down through generations. With the progression of time, techniques of oral expressions such as throat singing have acquired unique and complex forms, which are now registered as intangible cultural heritages of humanity by UNESCO.
Originally, Mongolians practiced throat singing as a means of communicating with their inner selves, surroundings and animals. Sounds differed depending on the environment and the evolved minds, bodies and spirits of the people emitting them. Nowadays, an interaction between human-beings and nature is severely attenuated. Instead, man-made environments have been superimposed over centuries of natural relationships, resulting in concrete blocks, glass, panels, and asphalts, becoming the focal points of interaction. Bearing in mind this alteration and the earlier works of the artist Jantsa, which have focused on the transformations and adjustments of living and non-living things, the curator of the Pavilion commissioned the artist to create sculptural installations to complement the brick-walled, cramped rooms of the Bruchium Fermentum. German artist Carsten Nicolai was also invited to join the project and perform with Mongolian throat singers to transform and translate.