Resurfacing lives | Bo Choy and Sayana Namsaraeva

Undead Matter is an unfolding conversation about where life lies in the ever-turning matter of our universe, as it rhythmically resurfaces over millennia.

In this fifth episode of the series, we delve into animated landscapes that surround Lake Baikal, the deepest and oldest freshwater lake on the planet. Artist, Bo Choy speaks with Sayana Namsaraeva, an anthropologist from Buryatia, a republic of Eastern Siberia bordering Mongolia, who’s work focuses on the indigenous cosmologies of the people from her region.

Their conversation considers the intimate connection between these largely untouched landscapes and the rich fabric of belief systems, indigenous cosmologies, oral traditions and mythologies that emerge from them. From shared and diverging influences from pre-Buddhism shamanisms, Chinese and Mongolian Buddhisms, Feng Shui and ancient eastern philosophies, Choy and Namsaraeva discuss the spirit-life of these lands as they rub up against planetary climate urgencies and contemplate how ancient wisdoms can have a vital role in the local and global relational ecologies we must form for the future.

Undead Matter, initiated and convened by curator Sophie J Williamson, is an ongoing collective project, materialising slowly and organically in exhibitions, events, podcasts, publishing and the intangible. The Undead Matter programme has emerged through intersecting collaborations with artists, poets, dancers and musicians, as well cryomicrobiologists, shamen, paleontologists, mineralogists, archaeoastronomers, woodworkers, quantum physicists, bondage masters, cryonics speculators and others encountered along the way. Each offers a perspective on our place within the infinite impermanence of life: past, present and possible.

Produced by Undead Matter. Sound by Either/Or Recordings.

This episode was commissioned as part of the Dissolving Earths programme. Curated by Sophie J Williamson. Curatorial team: Yulia Gromova and Timur Zolotoev.