Lumír Jisl and Mongolia

4 – 21 Sep 2014

Photographs 1957-1963

This exhibition covers three Mongolian expeditions embarked upon by Lumír Jisl (1921-1969), a leading Czechoslovak researcher in the area of Mongolian archaeology and an expert in Oriental art and material culture. Jisl’s field of work involved Buddhist art in China, Tibet, and especially Mongolia, where in 1958 he headed the first Czechoslovak archaeological expedition, and made unique discoveries when exploring a memorial to Prince Kül-Tegin (685-732).

Only a few of the photos presented in the exhibition have ever been published, and up to now have only been exhibited at the prestigious Dzanabadzarov Museum in Ulanbataar in August 2014; this is thus the first opportunity the Czech public to see them. Thanks to Lumír Jisl’s family’s conscientious care for his scientific legacy, we can now, more than a half-century later, see unique photos capturing the Mongolian civilization, which had remained unchanged for centuries, in its final moments prior to its deep and irreversible change. Mongolia as we will never see it again.

The exhibition will take place in the Art Archive in  the Little Tower at DOX. The exhibition opening will take place on 4 September at 18:00.