Below + Me: The Unsettling Unity of Fear and Creativity in Anudari Tsolmon’s Debut Exhibition
Exhibition Curator Dr Tsendpurev Tsegmid
There are many ready-made answers regarding the questions of what fear does to us and how we react to it. However, the bigger question is what do we do with it, how do we endure it and most amazingly, how do we find ways to channel our deepest fears into making art, sharing it with others and influencing the public? We can assume that each fear has countless versions, forms and layers. More often than not, we hide it and many never express it. According to Anudari Tsolmon (b.1996, Mongolia), an emerging contemporary artist based in Ulaanbaatar, 58 out of 224 online questionnaire participants vowed never to share their fears with anyone else. Additionally, 111 people, or nearly 50 percent of the total respondents, had experienced multiple forms of harassment first hand in what would be considered a public space. The last question asked participants what they consider to be the most disturbing acts that would shock the society that we inhabit; I read the answers and it took me a week to have the courage to read them again.
Then, another set of questions emanate from these findings. Where does art or artist fit in, or have any relation to society? What is the role of artists within this highly complex paradigm, which now not only exists in the physical world but also in the virtual world? Shall artists continue to create pretty images or decorative wall art? Does the artist have a say in this or is art always what reminds us of the beauty of life? Before we spiral into the rabbit hole of existentialist questioning, I wish to focus on today’s art and what it means to be an artist right now. 2022 is not just another year, the year was preceded by the most devastating phase of the current Covid-19 pandemic, which has so far taken the lives of 5.7 million people and infected 406 million more as of 14th of February 2022 (WHO). For most people, art is the last thing on their mind, and this is a normal reaction. What we also tend to forget, though, is that we are emotional beings and are hugely dependent on social interaction for survival. The pandemic has brought this quality more sharply and shockingly into the axis. Fear of infection drove us apart; for some it was 10 days, for others a few weeks and for some, more than a year. Unknown in the beginning, this seemingly natural fear of infection slowly uncovered other fears buried deep inside our psyche.
Here, in the capital of the remote north east Asian country, a young Mongolian fashion designer called Anudari Tsolmon was contemplating her abrupt return from China due to the pandemic. Feeling increasingly limited by fashion design, she decided to venture into creating independent concepts and artworks which are free from styles, norms, sizes and market profitability. From September 2020, she began the process of transition to becoming a contemporary artist. Step by step, she put together puzzles for her plan to succeed. Looking back on, she picked me as her mentor and confirmed the old saying of “when the student is ready, the teacher appears”. With full certainty, I could say now that none of us were expecting the speed and the progress we would make together as a team in less than 18 months.
Her debut exhibition, titled “Below + Me”, is the fifth debut solo exhibition I have curated and supported since my return to Mongolia in 2012 and this would be the biggest in size and scope. For her exhibition, Anudari was inspired by her passion for art, fashion and sustainability and her advocacy for the mental health of young people. With the slogan “Do Not Invade My Personal Space”, the installation resembles a large maze with rooms such as; “Eyes”, “Broken Room”, “Thin Circle”, “Visuals Room” and “Vortex”; she means business and is not kidding around. The central space is white, with seating, and is called the “Solace Room”. This is where hope is found for visitors after going through red hallways and various rooms in a near-dark space of more than 2100 m2. Visitors are welcome to sit down, enjoy a cup of tea, converse with others or, even better, discuss their experience with onsite psychologists. The exhibition explicitly targets the 14–40 year-old demographic for a reason. If the exhibition manages to reach out to teenagers and their parents alike, it would be considered a success, the artist declared.
The exhibition project is a labour of love, passion, pain and hard work under some of the harshest situations and circumstances the world has faced for many decades. In the Mongolian context, no solo exhibition project of such magnitude and ambition has ever been staged in the country in recent memory. We sincerely hope that this exhibition will become the first of many groundbreaking art projects to grace this centuries-old land with its colourful history — home to world famous conquerors and now a democratic country with a socialist past.
As artwork goes, installation art has been the most versatile and influential out of the flurry of contemporary art forms that existed since the early 1960s. No longer the classic pursuit of a single artist in an art studio, installation art requires a team of people, sizable funds, and the close collaboration of specialists in their respective fields, usually coming together to create a tangible piece of art out of the artist’s concept dedicated for the public. In some ways, this project feels like a dream for me. During my time as an art student in the UK, I had the opportunity to see and walk through majestic exhibitions of Rachel Whiteread’s Embankment (2005, Tate Modern, London, UK), Kim Sooja’s Kimsooja: A Needle Woman (2009, Baltic Center for Contemporary Art, Newcastle, UK), Tracey Emin’s Love Is What You Want retrospective (2011, Hayward Gallery, London, UK) and Yayoi Kusama’s Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Rooms (2012, Tate Modern, London, UK).
Finally, this exhibition wishes to remind everyone that art is about the human condition, created for people of all walks and lives and it has always been the core concept of what art is. And currently there is no superior format of bringing art and public on one stage than an exhibition and this unsettling unification process of fear and creativity needed to happen more than ever to validate this point, once again.
2022.02.14
Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Artist Biography
Anudari Tsolmon (b.1996, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia) is a young contemporary artist, who works within the intersection of fashion, performance, photography, visual arts and more. She is also an advocate for mental health of young people and of how creativity can promote positive changes in society. Her approach to her art is strongly informed by the issues of sustainability that the world is facing. Anudari obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Fashion Design at the China Academy of Art and has studied Contemporary Art, Theory & Practice at Vanjil Art Institute. She has won first place in the Best Creation Award for Canson Cup Fashion Painting (2014 and 2015),the Honorary Exploration Award by China Academy of Art Social Practice (2017) and in 2018 was selected to participate in China Graduate Fashion Week. In 2021 Anudari made a successful application for the Seed Awards of the Netherlands-based cultural organisation, the Prince Claus Fund, which every year recognises 100 of the best emerging artists and cultural practitioners from around the world. The funding awarded allowed Anudari the opportunity to start developing the work for her debut exhibition, entitled “Below + Me”. With the slogan “Do Not Invade My Personal Space” the exhibition aims to delve into issues of the mental health of young people, and wishes to inform and engage the public about the importance of personal space through contemporary art. Occupying 2100m2 of the Misheel Expo Centre, “Below + Me” is set to be the biggest ever solo exhibition by a single artist in Mongolia.
