The growing awareness for the relatively new field of contemporary Tibetan art has taken yet another leap with the launch of Mechak Spain. With an estimated 400 million Spanish speakers worldwide and a growing interest in Tibet and Tibetan culture in many Spanish speaking countries, www.MechakSpain.org will be an exciting resource for viewing the art and learning about this dynamic new field in Tibetan culture.
Ms. Celia Dominguez Hernandez, a graduate student at University of Barcelona doing research work on Tibetan art, is working in collaboration with Mechak Center for Contemporary Tibetan Art, a US based non-profit group working to promote new Tibetan art and artists. She is looking at the relationship and dynamics between the traditional visual culture of Tibet and the artist’s original point of view and representations.
‘Mechak’ is the Tibetan word for a flint matchlock, and it is the goal of Mechak Center to create a spark for the renewal of Tibetan culture through the arts in general and more specifically through the visual arts.
In the last two years, Mechak has created exhibitions in New York, Washington and Atlanta with accompanying artist/scholar symposiums that explored topics such as ‘departures from tradition, influences, motivating forces and the relationship of the art to Tibetan audiences’. In September, 2006, Mechak Center in collaboration with the University of Colorado at Boulder, held the first ever Museum exhibition of new Tibetan art, featuring the works of 18 Tibetan artists from four continents, including from inside Tibet. The show and symposium was titled ‘Waves on the Turquoise Lake’, and a catalog/book of the same title is due out in 2007. This show which took place quietly in a small university town is a momentous occasion in Tibetan culture since it is the first large scale art event that bridged the Tibetan communities in exile with those inside Tibet.
While much of Mechak Center’s activities have focused in the US to date, Celia Hernandez of MechakSpain.org hopes to devote more attention to Contemporary Tibetan art happenings in Europe, as well as future activities in South and Central America. www.mechakspain.com is up running and ready for your viewing pleasure and the English language site is at www.mechak.org
