Cabinet of Curiosities | Valletta Contemporary Malta 16th May 2025 – 28th June 2025 A solo exhibition by OtGO

OtGO Otgonbayar Ershuu

Breathing in … breathing out … in … out – drawing a line. Repeat.

This is the meditative artistic practice of Otgonbayar Ershuu, who goes by the short name, OtGO. He is one of Mongolia´s most remarkable artists and has been living in Berlin for about twenty years. A fact that has expanded his cultural experiences and also impacted on the material basis of his artistic work. His spiritual core, however, remains firmly routed in Mongolia´s cultural heritage.

Drawing line after line, after line, OtGO´s works form to become complex textures of pictorial traces, interwoven with layers of meaning. His work is meditative and iterative in many ways. Being a studied Thangkha-painter, he comes from a long tradition of religious image making in Lama-Buddhism, a tradition in which painting and meditation never were separate activities. In this tradition each line, each patch of color is both, premeditated and meditation in itself. Lamaist monks were only allowed to apply their craft to to Thangkha-painting after long years of rigorous training.

It is important understand that Thangkhas don´t just `represent´ the notion of a cosmic order in Buddhism, they actually manifest this order. A fact that is reflected in the process of making a Thangkha. Its composition and order were never to be discerned by the painter, instead the underlying design has always been based on long traditions and metaphysical deliberations within the faith. Someone chosen to `execute´ these concepts, had to be a person, worthy and capable of realizing an “artwork” that could manifest this superior order. Furthermore, in the process of painting a Thangka, the `painter´ who serves as a mediary to the goal of successfully channeling these spiritual energies, could only finish a Thangkha by himself to a certain point. Once almost completed, more monks would be gathering around the painter to chant and recite religious texts, while the last part was finished – the painting the eyes of all the figures, giving them their souls. Only then a Thangkha was considered to manifest the actuality of the spiritual order of the world. What does that mean? – As much as in mysticism, having the capability of sight does not mean actually `seeing´ in a deeper sense, a Thangkha transcends its material existence as a painting to become a manifestation of a higher reality.
Alos noteworthy is the fact, that the Mongolian language only has one word for both, painting and drawing – zurag. While drafting (drawing) and execution (painting) in a Western tradition are very separate things, in the Mongolian tradition there is no distinction between intention/conception and realization. What that means, is that artists from Mongolia start from a very different background than our Western ideas about art.

Such is the tradition from which OtGO has departed. And departure here also means not only OtGO´s dis-, or re-location to Berlin, but also the fact that he is radically re-interpreting image-making from with his Mongolian heritage, not by shedding its spiritual dimension, but its artistic and social context. The practice of drawing line after line in a meditative state remains active in his process, the subject matter, however, now incorporates his new social and political contexts and his very personal attitudes towards them.
Take for example his massive work Cabinet of curiosities which in itself is divided into four parts, that deal with matters of life (Fetus) and death (Memento Mori) and much in between, not the least being (Horses), which for any Mongolian is a big deal, because “Mongols believe that the goal of life is to live `tegsh´, in balance with the world. One stands alone and in power at the center of the world, with the infinite blue Father Heaven (Tenger) above and Mother Earth (Gazar Eje) supporting and nurturing below. By living an upright and respectful life, a human being (hun) will keep his world in balance and maximize his personal power (windhorse, hiimori).1 A horse in Mongolian culture therefore is much more than a commodity, or a matter of pride, a horse is a manifestation of man´s soul, his fate and future.

The Cabinet of curiosities is comprised of hundreds of (mostly) A5-sized papers that form large blocks which serve as visual containers of OtGO´s subject matter. The first layer of those papers is formed by collages of used historic postal stamps from both Germanies, Europe, Mongolia and beyond. Those collages serve as background for OtGO´s drawings/paintings. It is important to mention here that Chinggis Khaan and his successors created the most efficient postal system the world had ever seen in the early 13th century, making it possible to relay information from the Chinese sea to the borders of Europe within 7-10 days by horse messengers. Obviously OtGO´s choice here is not just arbitrary, but a subtle allusion to the achievements of Mongolian heritage.
On top of this metaphorical `background´layer, OtGO has inscribed, not without sometimes acerbic criticism, his vision of a cosmic dis-order. His pictorial world is inhabited by men and women (both mostly naked), aquatic creatures, like the “OtGO-pus”, but also a variety of fishes and abundant jellyfish. Monkeys and zebras also play a prominent role – why? – neither of which live in Mongolia.
Asked about monkeys, his dry riposte was: “There are plenty of `monkeys´ in Mongolia.” And about zebras: “Those are beautiful, elegant animals. They look like horses, but man has never been able to domesticate them. They, in fact, are the only mammals that cannot be domesticated.” Again, this begs for an explanation and a contextualization. The first and easy answer is about the monkeys – many Mongolians suffer from the state of their nation. Even with all good intentions there are two major factions pitted against one another, and those are the proponents of traditional nomadic cultures and the post-soviet-capitalist entrepreneurs who seek to exploit Mongolia´s natural resources. Both are on a collision course about access to land. In other words, the deeply routed Mongolian ethics about living in harmony with nature is profoundly under siege from the pressures of modern economic dynamics and Western lifestyles.
The ”zebra”, as a metaphorical animal in OtGO´s work, native to Africa, a whole different continent altogether, becomes a “signature animal” in his work for the incommensurable quality of nature – an animal that cannot be subjected to man´s will. In a way this is OtGO´s way of advocating the traditional rights of nature versus man´s illicit infraction on nature´s integrity. One must know, that in Mongolian culture, just digging a hole into the soil is an impermissible violation of nomadic ethics, that at least requires a ritual, asking for permission. At the same time, exploiting natural resources is seemingly a necessity in order to develop and modernize the country. Mongolia is rich in gold, uranium, copper and coal – much of which it sells to China, a country that it shares 250 years of history with. During the Yuan dynasty, China was ruled by Mongolia. In fact, Beijing was a Mongolian foundation. The tides have turned…

Talking about tides – how does the aquatic life in OtGO´s work relate to a country that has no connection to the sea. The answer is yet another metaphor. One can think of the ocean as a vast and mostly undiscovered part of our planet. A place different to ours. In the artist´s vision this realm is also under siege by humanity – he thinks of jellyfish as a marker for pollution of the waters. However, there is also a brighter notion. The Mongolian word for ocean is далай – as in Dalai Lama. And this ocean is inhabited by many a OtGO-pus.
So, looking deeper into the artist´s work, layer upon layer starts to unfold, revealing a complex cultural heritage that he connects to with an international sensibility for the needs to protect nature, but also to assert himself as an independent artist.

There is a gap between the understanding of nature between East and West, however, that is mostly due to a hyperbolic conviction in the West about ecology, that does not have enough knowledge, nor the understanding of traditional values pertaining to nature in Mongolia, nor the sensitivity towards the cultural ramifications thereof. The West´s notion of nature is mostly (and sadly) aesthetic. Western people have forgotten how to live with nature. They are plainly romantic about it, and they still believe they can control and govern nature´s course. A notion that originates from Western monotheistic hubris. The bible has called upon its subjects to subjugate nature… – None of that exists in Asian cultures.

Nature in Mongolia is never separate from human life until today. Proof of that is in the fact that shamanic practice is still strong and widely practiced. At the core of those practices is the need for all Mongolians to find a balance between “Tenger” and “Gazar Eej”2 This tradition in Mongolia is older and stronger than that of Lama-Buddhism. Most Mongolians would identify with Tengrism before they would with other denominations. However, already during Möngkhe Khaan´s reign (grandson of Chinggis Khaan) almost all international religions were present at his court in Kharkhorin – originally just for reasons of gathering intelligence. A fact that makes Mongolia a very liberal society in terms of religion today.

This heritage has enabled OtGO to fluidly connect to Western cultures and incorporate pictorial traditions into his work. There is a discernable adaptability in Mongolia that vouches for its future. Surprisingly, most Mongolians call Germany their third neighbor. Being wedged between China and Russia, about one percent of Mongolians actually speak German ( which in a population of about three million people means 30 000 individuals), a fact which owes a lot to strong ties between the formerly communist part of Germany and Mongolia. Whatever this may mean – there are tangled histories and wild aspirations to deal with. And it is even more complex. Mongolia and Tibet share an almost 500 years long tradition of Lama-Buddhism. The first and most important artist in that context was Zanabazar, who was trained as a Buddhist monk in Tibet and returned to Mongolia in the second half of the 17th century to become the spiritual leader of Mongolia, a powerful diplomat and the finest of artists – some even call him the Michelangelo of Mongolia. His influence is strong until today, inspiring contemporary artists to work in the tradition of a Lamaist pictorial heritage.
However, in the long history of the country, much of its identity was repressed – during the Chinese Manchu occupation, or the Soviet empire. Whenever in modern times Mongolia found a way to assert its own identity and traditions, Lama iconography came up again as an integrating force. It has since simply been called: Mongol Zurag – Mongol painting. A practice, that was not allowed during the Manchu occupation, nor during Soviet times. After 1990 however, is became a strong force again.

In essence, art in Mongolia today is fueled by its cultural heritage rooted in Tengrism first, Lama-Buddhism second, and the achievements of what Pope Francis, when visiting Mongolia, called the “Pax Mongolica”, a period of 250 years of peace after the revolutions of Chinggis Khaan.

The work of OtGO is not only witness to these energies. His work is channeling notions of art from and in Mongolia. OtGO is not just part of it – he is a driving force in this dynamic.

Thomas Eller

1 A Course in Mongolian Shamanism – Introduction 101, Golomt Center for Shamanist Studies (Hg.), Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia 1997, https://members.tripod.com/Mongolian_Page/shaman.txt

2 Tenger being the abstract deity of the sky (heaven would be a misleading term) and Gazer Eje (representing the female aspect of the earth)

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