Nandin Erdene Budzagd from Mongolia 
Korea National University of Arts
QPlease introduce yourself briefly.
My name is Nandin Erdene Budzagd. I am an artist from Mongolia. I earned a bachelor’s degree in Monumental Arts at the Fine Arts School of Mongolian State University of Arts and Culture in 2003 and a master’s degree in Art history at Mongolian State University of Arts and Culture in 2006. Since 2009, I have been a member of the Union of Mongolian Artists. Since 2016, I have been working as a leading member of the Association of Mongolian Young Artists. We try to organize international exhibitions, workshops, lectures, and competitions for young artists. I am currently working at the School of Broadcasting and Media Arts of the Mongolian State University of Arts and Culture.
Since 2006, I have been making collages and my work has several subjects. For example, as societies develop and progress, the concept of beauty and the way people conceive beauty has changed dramatically.
Another part of my work is about women and children. In 1990 when democracy emerged, Mongolians were not prepared for the social transition. That still affects the country in terms of problems such as unemployment, poverty, and women and child abuse. These problems can often lead to domestic violence. In Mongolia poor supervision by parents and guardians often results in laying the basis for child abuse.
QWhat activities have you been doing in your home country?
Since 2012, I have been working as the head of the media animation department at the School of Broadcasting and Media Arts, Mongolian State University of Arts and Culture(MSUAC). It is a department designed for a brand new field of animation and multimedia. Our university believes that it is extremely important to develop lectures as a result of our collaboration with K-Arts, Lasalle Art College of Singapore, and Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts.
In 2015, 2016 and 2017, I took part in a MSUAC and K-Arts joint workshop “Dream Project” sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Republic of Korea and organized at the base of MSUAC. In 2015, I took part in a live music, dance, and video animation workshop in Dortmund, Federal Republic of Germany, along with the students and lecturers from Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts.
In 2014, I participated in “Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale 5th” with eight art works and Fukuoka Art Museum kept two art works among them. In 2017, I joined the “Asian Women Artists” 3rd Contemporary Asian women artist exhibition in Jeonju, Korea. In 2018, I participated in the “New Wight” International Biennial-2018 University of California, Los Angeles. I am also working at the Association of Mongolian Young Artists. We organize a “Grand Art” competition every year. We also organized the exhibition “Union of Daejeon Artists” sponsored by Gilyeon Hwang and exchange joint exhibitions in Busan and Ulaanbaatar named “Oversea Sister City” in 2016 and 2017.
QHow did you come to participate in the CPI program?
Mongolian State University of Arts and Culture are collaborating with Korea National University of Arts (K-Arts) very well. I am the third fellow from the School of broadcasting of Media Arts attending the CPI program called AMFEK program in K-Arts. I heard about this from my friend and colleague Undram Batdelger, who was invited by the CPI program in 2017.
I was very curious to learn more about Korean culture and Korean contemporary art, museums and collections. I was especially motivated by the opportunity to visit the Busan Biennale, Media city Seoul biennale, Blind poster exhibition. I wanted to try to exhibit mixed media art works. I worked for two months to complete 12 art works. I held a joint exhibition with another fellow from Sri Lanka, Suneth Aravindana. He is a good artist and we exhibited around 20 art works for our final exhibition.
I am really glad that I participated in the CPI program(AMFEK). It gave me a great chance to develop my artistic skills.
QWhat activities have you been engaged in at Korea National University of Arts?
During my project, I had opportunities to participate multiple activities. I visited museums, galleries, and art spaces. I also met international artists and had many conversations. Moreover, I joined a painting class in K-Arts. I encouraged fine art major students and discussed their art projects with them. In addition to that, I experienced Korean folk musical instruments and traveled around to enjoy the scenery and beaches in Korea. We did a campus tour in K-Arts and got information about the facilities including the professional studios of Film, TV, and Multimedia. We were also introduced to the faculties in K-Arts.
QCould you introduce your final presentation in CPI program?
I hope that our joint exhibition and final presentation was nice and successful. We prepared a small brochure and tried to explain ourart works. I think people were able to seethe different styles and meanings of two artists from the exhibition. For this exhibition, I created 12 piece of art works based on collages and mixed media. This is because I think collage art techniques left me with an interesting and powerful impression on society and thinking. In Mongolia, some stories were hard to believe. It was scary to hear that children have not seen, met or even heard anything from their peers ever again.
There is no clear evidence why and how unregistered homeless kids disappear. This is often linked to child violence. My childhood coincided with a difficult social transition from socialism to democracy. So I know how social, political and family problems affect a child. That still affects the country in terms of problems such as unemployment, poverty and women and child abuse. I think art has to influence society in a positive manner.
QWhat do you think you have achieved through the program?
I participated in CPI program(AMFEK) for 3 months. During this time, I traveled to many beautiful cities in Korea. I visited the biggest art shows, exhibitions, and biennale. I consider that it has been a great opportunity to improve my professional and intellectual talents. I highly appreciate the CPI program(AMFEK) for allowing me to participate in the program and for all the support shown to me in my research and artwork process.
