Ovoo: Evocations

In Mongolian shamanistic tradition, an Ovoo (also known as Obo in Buryat) is a ritual totem pole marking spiritually significant land. This sacred structure serves as a conduit to the spiritual realm, embodying the shamanistic essence integral to the Buryat people's post-nomadic worldview in Siberia.

Margarita Galandina foregrounds her Indigenous Siberian heritage in "Ovoo: Evocations," intertwining Buryat-Mongol folklore with its often-overlooked history. The Ovoos in her work symbolise ancestral memory pillars, marking the Indigenous presence in the landscape and highlighting hidden histories overshadowed by dominant post-colonial narratives.

Galandina's mission in "Ovoo" is to reclaim and preserve her fading Buryat maternal legacy. In 2017, she discovered the remains of a Buddhist monastery demolished during the 1930s Soviet era. Family records reveal that one of her ancestors, a lama who served at the monastery, was repressed and sent to a Siberian work camp, enduring the hardships of the Stalinist Gulag for twenty years. He survived and later returned to salvage the Buryat-Mongol Republic's vanishing Buddhist and Shaman heritage.

This discovery symbolised the erasure of Indigenous history under the Soviet Union but also the immense resilience of her ancestors. It inspired Galandina to embark on a journey across Buryatia and Mongolia in the summer of 2023. She visited six locations significant to her ancestors, including Aninsk Monastery, Egita Temple, Olkhon Island, Orlik, Khuvsgul, and Turhul. The resulting collection of photographs reflects the sacred landscapes and ancestral sites that form the core of Buryat-Mongol identity.