Saturday University: Performing Identity in Contemporary Art of Mongolia

Welcome to Saturday University, a monthly lecture series featuring experts from around the world. Gain new insights on Asia throughout time as our visiting scholars, authors, artists, and thought leaders delve into new themes each season.

Performing Identity in Contemporary Art of Mongolia

Uranchimeg (Orna) Tsultem

Mongolia’s transition into a new democratic nation in 1992 started a dynamic transformation of Mongolian contemporary art. Many artists established their presence in the global contemporary art through exhibitions at the Documenta or the various biennales around the world. Since the socialist taboo on the knowledge of traditions and history was lifted and artists gained freedom of speech, Mongolian artists are actively exploring their distinct identity as the country is establishing its new socio-political positioning in the era of globalization. This talk rethinks multifaceted notions of identity as explored in the works of some prominent contemporary artists in Mongolia.

Orna Tsultem received her PhD in Art History from University of California at Berkeley in 2009. Prior to Berkeley, she studied art history at Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan, and ELTE (Eötvös Loránd University) in Budapest, Hungary, and at University of Arts and Culture, Mongolia. She is Edgar and Dorothy Fehnel Chair in International Studies and Associate Professor at Indiana University’s Herron School of Art and Design. Orna’s work has received the American Council of Learned Societies/Robert Ho Foundation Collaborative Research Award in 2014-2016, John W. Kluge Fellowship from Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. in 2013, and Fulbright/IIE Fellowship in 2002-2005. She was awarded IU Presidential Arts and Humanities Fellowship in 2022-2024. Her monograph A Monastery on the Move: Art and Politics in Later Buddhist Mongolia (Hawaii University Press, 2020) received Art Book Award from International Convention of Asia Scholars in Leiden, the Netherlands. Orna also is an active curator who has shown contemporary art exhibitions at 9th Shanghai Biennale in 2012, 56th Venice Biennale in 2015, 60th Venice Biennale in 2024, among others.

Tickets

$15

$10 SAM members & students with ID

Tickets include gallery access

Image: Micky polo, Baatarzorig, 2016, acrylic and canvas. Courtesy of the artist.