About the exhibition
Curated by Marzena Rafińska

The original text in Polish


tłumaczenie (translation): Maryna Świętochowska

Otgo is an award-winning artist and one of the most important Mongolian painters. Since 2005, he has been working in Berlin. Otgo has exhibited his paintings in many European countries, in Japan,the Arab Emirates,  Georgia, as well as in his home country — Mongolia, where in 2004 he received the Ministry of Education, Culture and Arts’ award for the outstandingly talented artists. Otgo is the author of several books and „The Secret History of the Mongols” comics project. Two papers have been written on his work at the University of Heidelberg.

The artist’s canvases are filled with crowds of human and animal figures. However, when we look at his paintings from some distance, we have the impression of viewing an abstract image. Such an illusion of perception is characteristic for his works.

In Otgo’s paintings Eastern and Western cultural traditions collide. At the beginning of his artistic path he was fascinated by thanka — a meditation painting, present in Mongolia already in the pre-Buddhist times. The hand-painted miniatures are made on canvas primed with a special mixture of soot, chalk, milk and vodka. Otgo studied this painting technique in Buddhist monasteries.

Small format works with a central figure of a
deity, that are dominant in the first period of the artist’s work, have been gradually replaced by large canvases covered with a multitude of perfectly drawn human and animal shapes, that tightly fill the paintings. The figures of men and women seem
to symbolize the opposing forces of yin and yang.

Human being in Otgo’s pictures is naked, reduced to a contoured silhouette with clearly marked sexual characteristics and deprived of cultural attributes — clothes, objects he produces; human is not a unique creature, but one of many elements of the animals’ world. Man’s relationship with nature is an essential motif of Otogo’s works. Figures in his works interpenetrate each other to form a compact mass of creatures that constantly move, resembling the eternal cycle of birth and death. This impression is even more intense due to the repetition of motifs in the paintings and figures painted with a transparent paint.

Otgo often juxtaposes humans and zebras. This is the case in the “Ereen Tahi” painting, (2013- 2020). From a distance it seems to be a tapestry with a fleshy, shaggy pattern of red, yellow and blue spots running diagonally. However, when we look closer, we see that from the pulsating, colorful plane the silhouettes of dark blue zebras emerge. Right behind them there are yellow, white, gray, blue and red zebras running upward to the right side of the painting. Their bodies overlap. Suddenly the viewer’s eye catches a bareback rider with zebra-like striped skin. There are more figures like this: riders at a gallop, riders falling from zebras or in vaulting-like poses. Among so many silhouettes the artist leaves his distinctive signature — a yellow fingerprint and the vertical inscription OtGO.

People with striped bodies are the main element of the “Zuraas 3” painting. Zebras, a frequent motif in the artist’s work, can be seen, among others, in the “Zurag” series. They symbolize wildness, freedom and nature that evades the attempts of being tamed by man. Zebras resemble horses, which are so strongly rooted in the Mongolian tradition.

The motif of horses can be found in the cycle, which in English is called “Roaring hoofs”. In the painting (2007), herds of galloping horses form wavy, colorful spots, that make a golden swirl in the upper part of the canvas. From a distance, horses may look like birds in the sky, swirling around the sun. The space between the animals is not that tight as in the later work of the series, that is presented in the exhibition. The title of the series is a reference to the “Roaring Hooves”, one of the most beautiful cultural events that since 1999 has been taking place in the Gobi desert of Mongolia. The “Voices Of The Waves” painting is built around the theme of horses too.

In the “Deeshee” work (2013-2020), the human world goes under water. Splashes of colors in pink and blue tones with flashes of green, yellow, red and black create a composition that seems to flow down the painting. As we come closer to the canvas, the stains turn out to be gray, blue and pink male and female figures — with elongated, slender shapes and abnormally large feet, which look like fins.
We notice the golden bellies of fish, their red tails and the shoals of blue fish. They all flow upward. It is therefore quite opposite to what appeared to us before we came closer to the painting. The constantly moving figures bring to the mind an endless journey. Even though there are so many figures, we experience an existential void.

Human silhouettes and floral motifs make up
the idyllic “Paradise” series. The same combination can be found in the sensual work “Amitan”. When viewed from a distance, the painting seems to show a tangle of tiny, colorful spots that form clusters, from which white human silhouettes emerge. However, when we approach the painting, we can see, that the spots make floral patterns. Among the flowers we notice lilac, blue and
yellow figures of people and light blue silhouettes of monkeys. The paining is „inhabited” by unreal green swans, leopards, zebras, tigers and giraffes. Pompous gorillas keep an eye on the mums playing with the children. There is no other such painting with so many animal species presented at the exhibition.

The skimming gaze discovers the relationships between the groups of characters hidden in the flowers. Above the idyllic, full of eroticism, unreal garden some disturbing, cadaverous, transparent silhouettes with unnaturally elongated limbs and an excessive number of fingers seem to hang.

The title “Penguins” make an unexpected theme. From a distance, the painting (2005) seems to be an abstract composition of black and white spots on a lilac background. As we get closer, we notice hundreds of penguins with yellow breasts and beaks. The background looks like a folded paper with a grid of folds. It turns out that these are
the outlines of penguins, that gathered in a circle to survive the winds and cold of winter. The silhouettes of the birds are overlapped by vertical lines of dark and light translucent paint, characteristic for the artist. The juxtaposition of color-filled silhouettes with transparent figures confined to the outline brings to mind the world of the living and the dead. The artist refers here to the extinction of emperor penguins, that comes as the result of expansive human activity that destroys the balance of nature.

References to environmental changes and latest events can be found in many Otgo’s works.The significant break, that paralyzed the whole world for three years, is commented in the „The Secret Matrix of Coronavirus”. The painting is special to the exhibition and is discussed at length in Angela Gamp’s article, that is included in the catalog. We planned to open the exhibition in 2021. Due to the pandemic restrictions, it has become possible only now. The terrifying events of recent months are clearly expressed in the painting No. 5 of the “Beyond The World” series, on which Otgo started working in 2020.





NEWS from Poland:

Report:

skierniewice.naszemiasto.pl

• 
  

The Mongolian National Broadcaster MNB

• 
  

eglos.pl

• 
  

www.sejm.gov.pl

Announcement:

news.niezlasztuka.net

• 
  

lodz.tvp.pl

• 
  

tvpkultura.tvp.pl











The Mongolian National Broadcaster MNB

News














photos by Historical Museum Skierniewic
www.facebook.com and  Anna Wyszomierska