Nomadic Artefacts

The research project Nomadic Artefacts arose out of the question of the relationship between Mongolian ethnographica preserved at a central European museum and the transformation of public spaces in the artefact’s area of origin in periods of socio-political transitions. These places mainly concerned temples, monasteries and museums but also public altars and ritual places in the natural landscape as well as private spaces inside yurts. Taking the collection of Mongolian Buddhist artefacts in the Weltmuseum Wien as a starting point, this research examined their movements through various spatial, socio-political and institutional contexts. By doing so, the topography and the “knowledge” of these objects, their ability to evoke memories and to link persons and histories became visible. A vast body of material from Mongolian archives that had not previously been researched in depth, current field research documentations and more than sixty interviews with contemporary witnesses and specialists formed the basis to develop a history of Mongolian museums, political repressions and related processes of artefact transfers. A scientific-artistic approach was applied to publish some major findings and insights in the book Nomadic Artefacts: A Scientific Artistic Travelogue and to elaborate the eponymous exhibition at Vienna’s Theseus Temple. The exhibition included ethnographic museum objects, video and photo installations, texts, and a ballad written by Christoph Ransmayr. More than 14.000 visitors saw the exhibition, accompanied by a programme including historic travelogue readings by Andrea Eckert, the performance of his ballad Činggis Qaan oder Das Blau des Himmels by C. Ransmayr, a lecture performance by Abbot Baasansuren of Erdenezuu Monastery and concerts by B. Sanjaajav. The exhibition succeeded in its aim of displaying socio-anthropological topics and ethnographic artefacts in a new, reflexive and artistic way. In June 2017 the exhibition Artefacts as Links in the Bogd Khan Palace Museum in Ulaanbaatar and a bilingual publication (Mongolian/English) further spread the entangled Mongolian-Austrian histories and intensified scientific-cultural relations. In September 2017 the exhibition Nomadic Artefacts. Objektgeschichten aus der Mongolei opened at the Museum für Völkerkunde in Hamburg and in March 2018 the Nomadic Artefacts exhibition will be shown at the Völkerkundemuseum vPST in Heidelberg. The project homepage www.nomadicartefacts.net includes main topics and key images of the research project.