Rationale

This idea, to bring the live performance of the traditional folk dance “Bii biyelgee” in the space of National Museum of Mongolia, was inspired by the lecture and workshops given by the following modules; Dance as Knowledge (at Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Norway); the Critical Perspectives on Intangible Cultural Heritage (at University of Blaise Pascal in France), and Performance of Heritage: Dance in Museums, Galleries and Historic Sites (at University of Roehampton in London) in the frame of International Master Programme Choreomundus, and then obviously the UNESCO 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Dance has never been a part of museum’s permanent and temporary exhibitions before in Mongolia.  It can be explained with three reasons, in the first Mongolian museums do not have collections including videos, photos, costumes, drawings and sculptures related to specific genre of dance and dancers; in the second, there was no need to display dance in the museum; in the third, those people who were dealing with curatorial work in the museums did not have any knowledge how to display the dance parallel with permanent exhibitions in museums. Indeed these reasons are all eligible. The discussion of Claire Bishop (2014) “how to acquire and display the performance as part of a museum’s permanent exhibitions” will be continued through this portfolio project in case of the western Mongolian folk dance “Bii Biyelgee” and ethnographic collections of National Museum of Mongolia.
Two objectives triggered to me to bring the traditional folk dance Bii Biyelgee in the National Museum of Mongolia. The first objective is, to strengthen the loosened cultural identity of Mongolians through dancing in the museum. Today, the Mongolia’s nomadic culture is gradually transforming into urban culture due to the changes happened by the social and political factors, and the strong wave of globalization, the modernization, and the commercialization. Half population (census of the population[1]) of the country centralized in the capital city Ulaanbaatar and youths are growing too far from the nomadic lifestyle. There is already a gap came between the nomadic culture and urban culture. Therefore, it is urgent and necessary to fill this gap and to educate the youths with knowledge of traditional culture. The National Museum of Mongolia has biggest collections on the ethnographic objects belong to nomadic Mongolians, which are embodied in the movement of the Bii Biiyelgee folk dance. Based on the ethnographic objects, video installations and physical dialogue (Johannes Berringer, 2011) or interactive performance by the practitioners of Bii Biyelgee folk dance, it is available to redefine the nomad’s folk dance and cultural identity in the museum space for youths.
The second objective is, to re-conceptualize the stereotypical understanding about the museum in connection to the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage, especially to dance heritage. In Mongolia, the concept of the museum was always a place where knowledge about the past. Through this portfolio project, I am trying to find out how museums can be part of a projection into the future instead of the past, in the case of safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage, especially on the dance heritage. What direct involvement and contribution can museums offer for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage? Additionally, how important roles do curators and heritage managers can play in the future for both cases of displaying the dance in the museum space and safeguarding the intangible cultural heritage.
Project implementation
Project curator and heritage manager: Tserendorj Tsolmon
Project team: Five practitioners of Bii Biyelgee folk dance from Durvud, Myangad, Uriankhai, Zahchin, and Khoton ethnic groups in Mongolia and other related people in the museum, for instance, museum staffs including guide, education manager, some other curators and so on. 
Project steps: In general project packaged with 3 different parts, will intertwine the intangibility and tangibility into live performance. The project will reconstruct the nomad’s living style through some documentary films, photos, ethnographical objects and live performance in museum space for dedicated audiences or high school students.
1.      In the first part, students will see the permanent ethnographic exhibitions at the main exhibition hall of the National Museum of Mongolia. Approximately 30 minutes will be needed to see the permanent exhibition of the ethnography.
2.      The second part of the exhibition will be video installation, contains the living style of the ethnic group. From this part, they will have an understanding how herders use that objects in their daily life for different purposes. Approximately 15 minutes documentary will be used in this part.
3.      The third part will be an interactive, and live performance by dance practitioner and students. Approximately 15 minutes will be needed in the live performance of Bii Biyelgee dance, and related oral explanation for the imitation of movements.
Project venue: Mongolian ger (yurt) will be built inside of the National Museum of Mongolia for the live performance. The Mongolian ger is portable and easy constructed, therefore it is able to use this ger around the other museums for displaying the live performance as part of the permanent and temporary exhibitions.
Project duration: 5 months or 2 semesters of the school year in 2018. Mongolian high schools have 4 semesters in the school year. For the high school students, the first and last semester of the school year is important to plan and take the exam for next grade or entry to university. Therefore the project will be implemented in the second and third semesters of the school year.  
The target group of the project: 10th-grade students from the high schools in Ulaanbaatar which have a contract with National Museum of Mongolia for free service. Target group students from 10 high schools can visit in the live performance in every month. The average capacity of the Mongolian ger is 20 people and exhibition will continue for 1 hour approximately including with 3 packages.  
Project budget: Project budget will be requested from some international organizations. 
The budget will be spent following expenditures: 
  • Rent cost for museum space for 5 months
  • The salary for members of project team including; practitioners, museum guide, consultant and other related people 
  • To make copyright contract for some documentary and videos to be used in video installation  
  • To purchase the ger (yurt), some necessities including equipment and utilities 
  • Stationery and report making 
____________________________________________
UNESCO 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.phpURL_ID=17716&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
Bishop, Claire (2014), ‘The Perils and Possibilities of Dance in the Museum: Tate, MoMA, and Whitney, in Dance Research Journal, December, vol. 46, no. 3, 2014, pp. 63-76
Georgiana Gore and Andree Grau (2014), Dance, cultural heritage, and the training of future heritage “managers”: Anthropological reflections, A. M. Fiskvik & M. Stranden (Eds.). (Re)Searching the Field. Festschrift in Honour of Egil Bakka, Fagbokforlaget Vigmostad & Bjorke AS, pp.117-119.
Johannes Birringer (2011), “Dancing in the museum”, in A Journal of Performance and Art, September 2011, Vol. 33, No. 3 (PAJ99), (doi:10.1162/PAJJ_a_00054) pp.44-48






[1] Census of population- 

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