Indian-Tibetan artists and directors Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam have been working together for over thirty years. After completing their university studies in the United States, they worked for many years as independent filmmakers in London, returning to India in 1996. Tibet is a recurring theme in their work, reflecting a commitment that is both personal, political and artistic.
They have made numerous award-winning documentaries and video installations. Their documentary The Sun Behind the Clouds (2009) won the Vaclav Havel Award at the One World Film Festival in Prague. They also made the Tibetan feature film Dreaming Lhasa (2005), produced by Jeremy Thomas and Richard Gere and premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2006. Their recent feature film, The Sweet Requiem, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2018. Their video installations have been presented at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Savvy Contemporary (Berlin), Istanbul Biennale, Contour Biennale 8, Busan Biennale, Mori Art Museum, Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary and Khoj Studios in Delhi, among other venues. Sarin and Sonam also direct the Dharamshala International Film Festival, one of India's leading independent film festivals, which they founded in 2012.
In the Tibetan section of the MAO's permanent collection, directors and artists Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam curated a sound installation that reinterprets the value of the precious and unique collection of fragments from the Densatil monastery in central Tibet, famous for its extraordinary reliquaries richly decorated with bas-reliefs and Buddhist sculptures.
Founded in 1198 and becoming the center of power of the Phagmo Drupa dynasty, which ruled the country from the 14th to the 15th century, the monastery was sacked and destroyed, along with over 6,000 religious institutes in Tibet during the Cultural Revolution, and its treasures were scattered among private collections and museums around the world. Remaining silent in the museum rooms for almost twenty years, these fragments come to life thanks to the intervention of the two artists. Through a personal narrative, it is now the sculpture of Virūḍhaka, (Southern Guardian King) – one of the four statues that guarded the cardinal points of the monastery's stupas – that gives voice to the beauty and terrible fate of Densatil. Through what tortuous path did the Guardian King arrive here, in the silent galleries of the museum? And will he ever resume his religious duties in his place of origin? These questions, which accompanied the artists on their work journey, intend to stimulate a reflection on the origin of the Tibetan religious artefacts that have arrived in various collections around the world and by returning its sacredness to the Guardian King, as well as to other artefacts like him - that were violently torn from their spiritual and material context.
The installation (15’24’’) was written by Tenzing Sonam, with music by Pete M Wyer and Tenzin Choegyal, sound design by Bigyna Dahal, narrating voices by Nyima Tsering and Tenzing Sonam.
Translations by Tenzin Phuntsok (Tenphun).
