Thserin Sherpa: Tales of Muted Spirits—Dispersed Threads—Twisted Shangri-La, Nepal Pavilion

Nepal’s Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, the Nepal Academy of Fine Arts, the Siddhartha Arts Foundation, and the Rubin Museum of Art present “Tales of Muted Spirits – Dispersed Threads – Twisted Shangri-La,” an exhibition of the works of Tsherin Sherpa on view at the inaugural Nepal Pavilion during the 59th Venice Biennale. The show, curated by artists Sheelasha Rajbhandari and Hit Man Gurung, will take place at Sant’Anna Project Space One. Sherpa, trained in the art of thangka painting, will collaborate with artists across Nepal to draw upon materials and accounts from a shared history to challenge paradoxical Western narratives of Himalayan communities as primitive, yet wise; lacking historical accounts, yet rich in spiritual wisdom; sturdy physically, yet bereft materially. In contrast to this mythical “Shangri-La” of remoteness and continuity, Rajbhandari and Gurung emphasize “the reality of an intricately interconnected peoples who have repeatedly experienced displacement, loss, and the insurmountable task of reconstituting their lives.” This first-ever Nepalese exhibition will showcase a broader narrative of centuries of fluidity and mobility between Himalayan communities, against Eurocentric preconceptions of purity and mystique.