Bor Undu, Mongolia

Why Bor Undur is on artists’ radar

Bor Undur is a small mining town in eastern Mongolia, surrounded by vast steppe, rolling hills, and big, unbroken sky. It’s not an art capital. That’s exactly why it’s interesting: isolation, land, and weather become your main collaborators.

The main reason artists end up in Bor Undur is the Land Art Mongolia (LAM) ecosystem. LAM runs the LAM 360° Biennial and, connected to that, a land art-focused residency program hosted in traditional gers (yurts). The residency happens in the steppe environment rather than a white-cube context, so you’re working directly with landscape, climate, and local communities.

If you’re curious about environmental practice, site-specific work, or the politics of land and extraction, Bor Undur gives you a raw, unpolished setting to test ideas that might feel theoretical in a city studio.

Key residency: Land Art Mongolia (LAM)

Land Art Mongolia centers on land-based and context-responsive work. The residency component is tied to the LAM 360° Biennial and activities of the Contemporary Art Institute UB (based in Ulaanbaatar). You’re not just dropped into a random rural cabin; you’re folded into an organized program with curatorial vision and a network of Mongolian and international artists.

How the program works

The residency at LAM is typically by nomination or invitation rather than open-call. That means:

• You’re often invited through curators, existing networks, or previous LAM participants.
• The group is intentionally curated, usually mixing Mongolian and international artists.
• The residency often runs alongside or as part of the biennial’s broader research and event cycle.

The focus is on land art and site-responsive practice. That can mean sculpture, installation, performance, sound, social practice, or conceptual work, as long as your project engages with land, ecology, history, or local context in some way.

For more background, you can start here: Land Art Mongolia on Reviewed by Artists and then explore LAM’s own site from there.

Living and working in gers

Artists are usually housed and work in traditional Mongolian gers (yurts). Expect:

• Shared compound: A cluster of gers functions as both sleeping and working spaces, sometimes with a communal ger for eating and meetings.
• Basic but intentional comfort: Wood or coal stoves, beds, low tables, storage; it’s simple but designed for focus, not luxury.
• Natural studio: The real "studio" is the steppe landscape, nearby hills, and paths used by herding families. Most work spills outside the ger walls.

This setup supports long stretches of concentration and a strong sense of group time: shared meals, conversations late into the night, and collaborative experiments in the open land.

Program emphasis and expectations

Although details can shift from edition to edition, artists can usually count on:

• Context and research: Introductions to local environment, history, and contemporary Mongolian art through talks, readings, or site visits.
• Field-based practice: Time to test ideas outdoors, build temporary works, or stage performances in the landscape.
• Community and dialogue: Exchanges with local people, other residents, and the LAM team. This is part of the practice, not a side program.
• Presentation: Some kind of open event, documentation, or exhibition linked to the biennial’s curatorial theme.

It’s helpful to arrive with a clear research thread and flexible methods, rather than a fixed, object-heavy project plan. Work needs to adapt to weather, local resources, and collective rhythm.

Is Bor Undur a fit for your practice?

This is not a neutral city backdrop. The context shapes your work in ways you can’t fully predict. Here are some ways to think about fit.

Artists who usually thrive here

• Environmental, land, or eco artists who already think about geology, weather, ecology, or resource extraction.
• Performance and social practice artists interested in working with local communities, herding culture, or movement across land.
• Sound and experimental media artists who can work with field recording, low-tech setups, and natural acoustics.
• Conceptual artists who treat the residency as a field study rather than product-focused production.
• Artists open to non-Western art histories and cosmologies and willing to question their own assumptions about land and authorship.

Artists who may find it challenging

• Practices that rely heavily on specialized equipment or large workshop infrastructure (complex fabrication, heavy machinery).
• Artists needing daily access to galleries, museums, or urban nightlife to feel energized.
• People uncomfortable with communal living, limited privacy, and minimal internet.
• Practices built mainly on fast-paced digital or commercial output rather than slow research.

You don’t need to already be a "land artist". You do need to be able to strip your practice down to essentials, work with what’s there, and build from land, language, and people around you.

Practical life in Bor Undur

Bor Undur is small. Think mining infrastructure, local markets, and a tight-knit community rather than tourist services. The residency environment is often a bit outside town, closer to open steppe than to shops.

Climate and seasons

Mongolia is defined by strong seasons and big temperature swings:

• Winters are long, dry, and very cold, with snow and strong wind.
• Summers can be hot during the day and cool at night, with intense sun and occasionally dramatic storms.
• Spring and autumn are short transition periods, often windy and dusty.

Always confirm timing with the LAM team and pack for temperature extremes, even within a single day. Layers, solid boots, a windproof outer layer, and sun protection are baseline essentials.

Cost of living and money

The day-to-day cost of food and small purchases in Mongolia is generally lower than in major Western cities. But residency costs, travel, and materials can add up.

Plan around:

• Travel: International flight to Ulaanbaatar, then domestic ground transport to Bor Undur arranged or advised by the residency.
• Residency fees or funding: Depending on the edition, you may be partially funded, fully supported, or self-funded. Check the current conditions carefully.
• Cash: Smaller shops may be cash-based. It’s smart to arrive in Mongolia with some cash in the local currency or withdraw in Ulaanbaatar before heading out.
• Materials: Many artists keep materials simple: found objects, stone, earth, textiles, wood. If you need specialty media, bring it or check ahead about sourcing.

Connectivity and communication

Expect limited internet and patchy mobile coverage outside town. This can be liberating or stressful, depending on your practice and obligations at home.

Strategies that help:

• Notify collaborators, clients, and family that you’ll have reduced connectivity.
• Download texts, audio, and references before you arrive.
• Back up work on physical drives rather than relying on cloud uploads.

Materials, making, and the land as studio

The steppe becomes a materials library and performance stage. You’re working in an environment shaped by herding, mining, and centuries of nomadic life.

Working with local materials

Artists often use:

• Soil, rocks, and minerals from the immediate area.
• Vegetation: grasses, branches, seeds, and other plant matter.
• Found infrastructure: abandoned or spare materials linked to mining or agriculture, when ethically and practically appropriate.
• Textiles and rope: for ephemeral structures or interventions.

Any use of land or materials should be respectful and reversible where possible. Talk with the LAM team about local customs, formal permissions, and ecological concerns before collecting or altering much.

Documenting ephemeral work

Lots of projects here are temporary: interventions that weather away, performance actions, traces in the ground. Documentation is key:

• Keep your setup light: a sturdy camera or phone, extra batteries, and simple sound recorder if you work with audio.
• Develop a plan with the residency team for how work will be archived or shared in exhibitions and publications.
• Think of documentation (images, text, audio) as part of the artwork, not just evidence of it.

Community, collaboration, and ethics

Land art in a place like Bor Undur isn’t just about objects in the landscape. You’re entering a social and historical context that includes nomadic herding traditions, Soviet-era legacies, and current mining activity.

Working with Mongolian artists and communities

One of LAM’s strengths is its effort to connect international artists with Mongolian artists, curators, and local residents. To make the most of that:

• Arrive ready to listen more than you speak early on.
• Be flexible: collaborative opportunities often appear informally, through conversation and shared daily tasks.
• Ask for help with introductions rather than approaching communities as a solo outsider.

Intercultural work can be powerful, but only when you respect local knowledge and avoid treating land and people as raw material for your portfolio.

Language

Mongolian is the primary language. In residencies like LAM, English often functions as a working language for international participants, but not everyone will speak it fluently.

Things that help:

• Learn basic Mongolian greetings and simple phrases. Even a little effort opens doors.
• Keep artist talks and statements clear, with minimal jargon, so they’re easier to translate.
• Use drawing, body language, and shared tasks as communication tools; you’re an artist, so visual explanation is part of your toolkit.

Preparing a strong proposal or expression of interest

Because LAM often works on nomination and invitation, you might not be filling out a standard open-call form. Still, you can prepare materials so you’re ready when chances appear.

Positioning your work for land-focused residencies

• Clarify your relationship to land and environment: Even if you haven’t done traditional land art, show how your work already thinks about space, ecology, or place.
• Show adaptability: Include projects where you responded to a specific context, community, or site.
• Address ethics: Briefly state how you work with local communities and environments responsibly.
• Keep the work light: Proposals that require shipping huge objects or complex tech are harder to realize here.

Building connections with LAM and Mongolian art networks

Because the residency is linked to a biennial and an institute in Ulaanbaatar, getting on the radar can be partly about long-term relationship-building:

• Follow LAM and Mongolian contemporary art platforms online to understand their curatorial concerns.
• Attend talks, exhibitions, or online events related to land art and Mongolian art when they’re accessible.
• Share your work in spaces where LAM curators and previous participants might see it.

The goal is not to "chase" one program but to align your practice with communities working on similar questions about land, extraction, and environment.

Sample day in a Bor Undur residency

To imagine life there, picture a typical working day:

• Morning: Wake up in your ger, stoke the stove if it’s cold, drink tea. Short group check-in about weather and plans.
• Daytime: Walk out to your chosen site on the steppe, carry simple tools and materials. Work a few hours, adjusting to wind and sun. Pause to record notes, audio, or video before light changes.
• Afternoon: Return to the ger for rest, writing, editing photographs, or informal crits with others. Maybe a group talk or presentation if scheduled.
• Evening: Shared meal, fire, slow conversations about land rights, mining, nomadic histories, or art references. Night sky often becomes part of the experience and the work.

It’s a rhythm built around daylight, weather, and group dynamics, not the 24-hour urban cycle.

How to mentally prepare

Working in Bor Undur can shift your sense of scale and urgency. Art ideas that felt pressing in a city might feel small next to geologic time or the daily realities of herding and extraction.

A few mindset shifts help a lot:

• Embrace slowness: Research, walking, and conversation are part of the work, even when nothing "visible" happens.
• Accept unpredictability: Weather changes, transportation delays, and shifting plans are built into the experience.
• Stay porous: Let the place alter your project instead of forcing a pre-written script onto the land.
• Think beyond objects: Consider writing, sound, ephemeral gestures, or collaborative actions as outcomes just as valid as finished physical pieces.

Next steps if Bor Undur is calling you

If this residency context resonates with your practice:

• Spend time on the Land Art Mongolia residency page on Reviewed by Artists to absorb artist reviews and practical notes.
• Research LAM 360° Biennial’s past editions to see how artists engaged the land and local context.
• Update your portfolio, focusing on site-responsive and research-driven projects.
• Start conversations with curators, peers, and organizations interested in environmental or land-based work; connections often circulate through those networks.

Bor Undur is not a quick city break; it’s a deep stay with wind, horizons, and a specific piece of Mongolian steppe. If your practice is hungry for that kind of encounter with land, this is a place to seriously consider.