I Am the Guardian King of the South

I am the Guardian King of the South (15’ 24”)

Sound installation by Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam

This sound installation is exhibited in conjunction with a statue of a Guardian King of the Four Directions – the centrepiece of a collection of surviving works of art from Densatil Monastery now on display at the Museo d’Arte Orientale (MAO) Torino. Densatil was burnt to the ground at the height of the Cultural Revolution, but not before, as we now know, some its treasures were carted off to safety. The sound installation gives voice to the Guardian King and tells the story of his tortuous journey from Tibet to the West. It hopes to restore to the Guardian King – and countless others like him who were violently evicted from their spiritual and physical context – the sanctity of a living deity that continues to hold deep religious significance for practitioners of Buddhism. At the same time, the work aims to catalyse a discussion on the provenance of Tibet’s religious artefacts that were looted from their original homes and have now found their way into various collections around the world.

Commissioned by Museo d’Arte Orientale (MAO) Torino