Edutainment >  Mongolian Artists Declaration

Buertiechina, 2000
copyright Han Daiqin born 1963

The following text was published in a catalog accompanying the Mongolian Touring Exhibition that started in May 2006 at Horqin Museum of Tongliao, Inner Mongolia with a total of 70 woodblock prints created by 30 artists. This rather poetic text may sound strange to Westerners. It shows the enthusiasm and serious involvement of Mongolian printmakers. Mongolians and Chinese alike like flowery language. And Mongolians like to look back to the grand days of Ghengis Khan. Their history is as dominant in their daily life as the imperial monarchy in the daily life of the people in Vienna.

Wind blowing...

Girl and Red Cow
copyright Zhao Weiguo born 1962

Mongolian wind blowing ...

The Mongolian painting group confronts you with the elegance of grassland, the freedom of the Mongolians, the voice of an eight hundred years lasting history seen in the prints of Horqin printmakers.

We are the rose in the deserts, fearlessly confronting with wind and dust... We are the beautiful subsiding light in a saline-alkali land covered with barren soil... We are the red Sarilang in the green grassland. The nature and ethnic history makes us the printmakers and speakers of the Mongolian culture with inexhaustible inspiration.

Sunlight
copyright Ji Xingdong born 1964

When Internet and other high-tech products dazzle and obsess common people, we still persist in creating by the simple use of a carving knife until our efforts become results. While some renowned artists use their painting brushes to pursue profit in the gallery market, we devote our artistic lives to woodcut blockmaking - like ascetic monks devoted to the grassland.

Horqin is our beautiful home, and the Mongolian culture is our root of living. Azure sky, white clouds and green grass are our permanent picture. Yellow cattle, red horses and black sheep are our ceaseless motifs for engraving.

We see the spirit of an ethnic group emerged with Genghis Khan brandishing his horsehip.

Prospitious Horse, 2002
copyright Han Daiqin born 1963

From our viewpoint, we feel those struggles of the past eight hundred years of our land. We remember the golden days of Khongr Maral. There is a connection between our ways and the trail of horses of Genghis Khan. In this wonderful land imbued with our culture and nationality, we look forward to a brilliant future.

Therefore, we use the carving knife to express the great soul of nationality and countenance of the Mongolian Eji. In the voice of carving, the block and fragrant printing paper, we feel our happiness and responsibility.

The name of our home is Tongliao. There live our fellow countrymen. Our courage and talents arise from there. We are a small miniature of a Chinese family. We have formed a school of printmakers affected by a common survival ideology, similar creation principles, the spirit, compatible team style and artistic characteristics. We shall articulate the harmony of our familiy by common artistic language.

Step of Spring, 2003
copyright Ji Xingdong born 1964

I am a grain of sand and my home is the desert ...
and I shall fly high and go far along with the spring wind of next year...
Well, wind blowing ...

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