different mountains, different encounters

What does it mean to know the earth and your place within it? How does it feel to be disconnected from your surroundings—or conversely, intimately entwined with them? Nomin Zezegmaa, a multidisciplinary artist of Mongol descent, who works between the Netherlands, Mongolia and Germany, explores these questions for her first solo exhibition in Mongolia.

Sacred, natural sites in Mongolia and the stories around them are shamanic; that is, they have a life of their own. From this perspective, trees, ravines, rivers, lakes, steppes, and stones are personified. Nomin’s art practice engages the land as a personified entity and in turn, becomes a means through which these seemingly different entities—the human and non-human—can begin to recognize each other.

different mountains, different encounters is a multi-part exhibition composed of sculpture, scent, sound, paintings, and video. Nomin’s primary point of entry into the topic comes through materials. Soils, natural fibers, wooden branches, stones and minerals have been gathered and reassembled to encourage reflection about our human bodies and their corollaries in the natural world. Together, the works testify to the artist’s exploration of Mongolia, its land, its beliefs, and its languages, likewise opening up possibilities for viewers to see, think, and imagine in turn.