Mongolia 2026

Title: Entanglements: Connectivities Across Borders
Commissioner: Sainbayar Surenkhuu, Senior Advisor to the Minister of Culture, Sports, Tourism and Youth
Curators: Uranchimeg Tsultem, Thomas Eller
Exhibitors: Nomin Bold, Gerelkhuu Ganbold,Tuguldur Yondonjamts, Dorjderem Davaa

The exhibition’s central premise draws on the deep and often overlooked connections between the Mongol Empire and Venice through trade, diplomacy, and cultural exchange along the Silk Road network. Rather than treating these as purely historical encounters, the exhibition uses them as a lens for examining contemporary questions of migration, identity, and coexistence.

A recurring argument throughout the exhibition is that Mongolian contemporary culture occupies an unusual position: radically current in its artistic practice while remaining deeply embedded in living traditions of Tengrism, Mongolian Buddhism, and the legacy of Chinggis Khaan. This continuity – largely eroded elsewhere by the shocks of modernity – is presented as both the distinctive character of Mongolian cultural identity and the source of its artists’ particular perspective. The four participating artists work across multimedia to explore themes of religious tolerance, material exchange, and human-nonhuman relationships, framing Mongolia as a historical model of pluralism at a moment defined by political division, ecological crisis, and hardening borders.