SAVA Research Week // Holistic Socialisms II: Holistic Cultures

A presentation by Ulaanbaatar based artist Nomin Zezegmaa titled “Aren’t We Looking at the Same Moon?” followed by a conversation with Jenny Tang (University of Cambridge). In her theory and practice, Nomin Zezegmaa investigates interwoven histories and matter in relation to deep time and other-than-human realms, drawing from Mongol cosmogony. She operates as a mediator between states of being by exploring the innate and inter-connected nature, reality and soul of matter. This finds expression through sculpture, painting, drawing, calligraphy, film, performance, land art and site-specific installations which invoke an intangible bodily cognition. Through the dynamics of tactility, form and movement, visual as well as conceptual spheres are created and layered. The interrelation of the microcosm and macrocosm are inherent indicators of the investigative processes, wherein semiotics, alchemy, environmentalism, the Chthulucene, language and writing intersect and inform each other. The deep-seated undercurrent of her work is concerned with what other ways of worlding can be rendered possible for tellurian multispecies coexistence.

Socialist Anthropocene in the Visual Arts (SAVA) is a visual arts led interdisciplinary research project that challenges the West-centric discourses of the Anthropocene by asserting the constitutive role of the environmental histories of Socialism in the formation of the new geological age. Led by Dr. Maja Fowkes at UCL Institute of Advanced Studies, the project was selected for a Consolidator Grant by the European Research Council (ERC) and is funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

Image: Portrait of Nomin Zezegmaa by Nima Khibkhenov