Mongolia, nomadology and architecture

GReGoRy CowAn

I was in Ulaanbaatar in 2007 and 2008 as a volunteer abroad with VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas) and I was in Finland in 2010 with Mongolian artists for the exhibition ’Bare House’ (Pori Art Museum)

At the exhibition, Potential Architecture, I walked around the four installations in the double-volume former carpark, and settled on a felt surface, invited to recline and watch a video of an urban twilight scene, browsing the catalogue. I recognised Ulaanbaatar’s cityscape in the video, and I began to browse in the catalogue...

A month ago I had been contacted by a Sami nomad artist-architect who is interested in Mongolia and my experience living and working in the Mongolian capital city Ulaan- baatar, about which I had written a detailed blog in 2007-2008.

”Ulaanbaatar is increasingly comprised of and surrounded by ger districts, the informal architecture of encampments claimed by Mongolians under their traditional right to nomadically and temporarily settle on their land - in this case, close to the capital.”

(Potential Architecture, Catalogue 2015 and from the blog nomadologist-nomadology.blogspot.com)

I met with Joar Nango, the Sami architect, as he described himself and we talked about Mongolia, working there, and about music and nomadic life. He recorded our conversation on a digital audio recorder. Joar Nango explained that he was working on an exhibition in the P3 Gallery, in the third basement podium level, right below the 6th floor office where I have been working, researching and teaching – mostly on urbanism unrelated to Finland or Mongolia. We agreed some of my blog texts and observations would be included in Joar’s work for the exhibition. At the university, I had been invited annually since 2009 to lecture about my experience of Ulaanbaatar to students of International Sustainable Planning. Now there would be another version of the story.

These were my own words and feelings I was reading in the exhibition catalogue, and I was delighted to see them shared with Joar through the blog. I was also pleased to see the ambience of the writing combined with images and shared with my colleagues and passing friends at the university. In the London basement opposite Baker Street station, I was transported back to Ulaanbaatar by the words, lying on felt and looking at the Ulaanbaatar cityscape. Unlike the Time Out reviewer, I experienced an enormous space on that Tuesday evening.

Reflecting on my experience, ten years after first making plans to live and work in Mongolia and seven years after returning to ’normal’ life

I see London differently to how I saw it before Mongolia. I have a different relationship with the world, including London (UK), Australia, Finland, Austria, and even in a very small way now, Norway. Today a friend in Mongolia commented a photograph and I replied in Mongolian. Are you still studying Mongolian? she asked. Yes.