Bekhbaatar Enkhtur. Hearsay
Curated by Caroline Ellen Liou
Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo presents Hearsay, a solo exhibition by Bekhbaatar Enkthur, winner of the illy Present Future 2023 Prize, an initiative supported by illycaffè and Artissima. The exhibition features a new series of works based on common symbols of luck, superstition, and belief such as the shooting star, to explore the trail left in its wake. Exploring the ways in which humans attempt to understand the world around them—whether through superstition and mythology or through structure and logic—Hearsay intertwines the notions of faith and fallibility as two halves of a whole.
Here, an owl sculpted out of beeswax is in dialogue with dozens of fallen stars cast out of metal and small trick fireworks, ready to explode. The owl is a symbol around which humans have constructed an idea of wisdom or bad luck—much like stars, around which humans see shapes in their constellations, the future in their alignments, or the chance to make a wish in their descent. Through the artist’s retelling, these visual metaphors are brought together with linguistic and material ones to draw a parallel between expressions such as “reach for the stars,” “a rising star,” or “written in the stars” and chemical formulations such as gunpowder, explosives, and novas.
Hearsay reflects on the absurdity and rationality in the search for meaning through signs, recognizing the inadequacy of language itself to communicate the world around us. For Bekhbaatar Enkhtur, form, material, and meaning are merely different kinds of expressions for what is, ultimately, inexpressible.
BEKHBAATAR ENKHTUR (b.1994, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia) studied sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna. Recent solo exhibitions include Flux, Galeria Pedro Cera, Lisbon (2024); Imagining for Real, Matèria, Rome (2023); Oasis, Ramdom in collaboration with Fondazione Elpis, KORA – Contemporary Arts Center, Castrignano De ‘greci (2022); Cambio della guardia, Localedue Bologna, (2021) and Zuult, Una boccata d’arte, Borgo Valbelluna (2020). Recent group shows include La sostanza agitate, Palazzo Collicola, Spoleto (2023); Anthropocene, Artbat Festival, Almaty, KZ (2023); Chì ghe pù Nissun!, Ramdom in collaboration with Fondazione Elpis, Milan (2023); Il rituale del serpente, Animali, simboli e trasformazioni, Ex Convento di San Francesco (2021); and Un anno lungo un giorno, Centro Pecci, Prato (2019). He has participated in artistic residencies such as KORA – Contemporary Arts Center, Castrignano De’ greci, Lecce; MAMbo – Museum of Contemporary Art of Bologna; and Manifattura Tabacchi, Florence; Fondazione Lanfranco Baldi, Pelago; and Dolomiti Contemporanee, Borca di Cadore. Bekhbaatar Enkhtur is one of the artists shortlisted for the 2024 Future Generation Art Prize.
