Installation Mixed Media, 3 mts x 30 mts 4th Land Art Biennial LAM 360°
Vibha Galhotra’s project examines issues of climate change through the window of Mongolia’s topography. Being called the Land of the Eternal Blue Sky, Mongolia, with its unique geographical and climatic situation in combination with the prevalent nomadic lifestyles, the latter based on traditional knowledge systems and weather forecasting techniques, is especially vulnerable to climate change. Since, the use of traditional intuitive methods is disrupted by changes in climatic conditions, the impact is visible on Mongolia’s fragile ecosystems, pastoral animal husbandry and rain-fed agriculture in the form of desertification, decreased water supply and natural disasters.
The cumulative effect is, therefore, financial, environmental and human losses. Galhotra’s project “Who Owns the Earth” aims to investigate changing environments and behaviors to discuss and question the ownership of COMMON resources, including air, water, earth, fire and ether and their free ownership by all members of society; the free ownership subject to change in contemporary times. The artist has used the natural ephemeral medium of cow dung to inscribe the above question in many different sites, starting in Mongolia, to research and understand who actually owns the commons.
Would like to end with BanKiMoon (UN Secretary General) statement about Mongolia
“Here, as elsewhere around the globe, I have seen the human face of climate change.Already, hundreds of millions of people are facing increased hardships. Three quarters of all disasters globally are now climate related, up from half just a decade ago. You must have seen it.”
