Our Land, Our People: A Reflection of Tibetan Buddhist Space in Contemporary Art

Abstract

This article illustrates how a contemporary Tibetan artist disrupts expectations in the creation of his political art. Utilizing Robert Smithson’s dialogic of site and non-site, Tenzing Rigdol’s 2011 site-specific installation Our Land, Our People is interpreted as a reenactment of a culturally specific historical practice of moving space. This approach shares important similarities to historical cases in which physical spaces were relocated to and within Tibet, allowing for the application of 20th century theories arising in the spatial turn to contemporary Tibetan art.