Song of the Land. 2023. Video. Color. 6 min.
Song of the Land (360). 2023. 360 Video. Color. 6 min.

Director’s statement:

Single shots of two iconic Socialist-era buildings (National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet of Mongolia and the Ard Kino Theatre) are cut into nine segments and reassembled in the frame showing slightly different moments in time simultaneously in the same shot. The instability of these images highlights the precarity of these historical buildings, which were slated for demolition causing a public outcry in 2019 and again in 2023 (demolition plans for the Opera and Ballet Theatre were canceled in 2019 and the Ard Kino Theatre, an important building in Mongolian cinema history, was torn down shortly after this film was made). In this sense, we can understand the concept of montage as a dialectic between the forces that shape remembering and forgetting in a society. These sequences are juxtaposed with images of contemporary Ulaanbaatar during the Naadam festival in 2022, including a shot of the National Archives of Mongolia that houses the country’s film and photography archives. This film was produced during a participatory research trip on the topics of Mongolian contemporary art practices and Mongolian cinema history. The music “Song of the Land” was composed by Can Tamura, based on a theme from music played during a Naadam festival ceremony.

Director Biography–Can Tamura:

Can Tamura is a Kanazawa, Japan-based artist, filmmaker, and audiovisual anthropologist. He earned his BA in film at Antioch College (USA) and MA in Visual Anthropology, Media and Documentary Practices at the University of Münster (Germany). Working primarily in Japan, Turkey, and Mongolia, he makes experimental documentary films that explore the intersection between ethnographic film and art. He was a participating artist in Oku-Noto Triennale 2020+ and Echigo Tsumari Art Triennale 2022.

Screenings/Exhibitions:

• Ulaanbaatar International Media Art Festival (UBIMAF) 2023: Montage, The Fine Arts Zanabazar Museum and White Rock Center, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, May 23 to 30, 2023.

Still Images:

Poster: