Seventeen talented graphic designers have launched an exhibition, Bi (I) +D (WE) Start Ourselves, featuring 50 artworks depicting various environmental problems plaguing UB. The exhibition, initiated by the environment and urbanization team of Leaders Advancing Democracy US Exchange 2017 Program, aims to raise awareness about the impacts of urbanization to the environment and public health, motivate everyone to start addressing environmental challenges surrounding them rather than waiting for the government to fix them, as well as encourage people to fight together. I was impressed by the fact that not only do the graphical arts capture multiple pressing issues, including UB’s smog, poor waste management, and wasteful water consumption, the designers had evidently spent a great deal of time researching these problems before artistically portraying their concerns in a precise and easily understandable way. One of the organizers, M.Zoljargal, emphasized that the designers met with environmental experts to get a better insight of these pressing issues in addition to their individual research work. She thanked designers from Bid Mongol Aguulga (We’re Mongolian Content) NGO and Mongolian Marketing Association for voluntarily joining their project. Bid Mongol Aguulga’s D.Tulga had contributed two art pieces. One of them focused on air pollution, particularly atmospheric particulate matter with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers. It showed a plate filled with black and grey blots that resemble smog with a knife and a fork cutting it into tiny pieces. Under the plate, it was written that particulate matter is 20 times thinner than a strand of hair. “Our designers create their graphical artworks by combining real data with their passion. They used their imagination along with facts to increase people’s knowledge about these problems. In my case, I concentrated on air pollution because it concerns everyone, especially the young,” he said. “The approved level of air pollution by international organizations is said to be around 300 to 400 micrograms per cubic meter, but in January in Ulaanbaatar, the level reaches up to 1,800 micrograms per cubic meter. This is extremely hazardous. Unfortunately, we forget this dire problem when winter ends. We must pay attention and try to reduce air pollution all year round.” D.Tulga added, “Smog doesn’t disappear with warmer weather, it’s still affecting us without being seen.” B.Tamir, who contributed five art pieces focused on plastics, air pollution and water scarcity, noted, “Air pollution is a silent killer and we are looking on this issue silently because we’ve been hearing so many reports on it or feel unaffected. On the other hand, the pollution and low water level of Tuul are directly linked to our wasteful water consumption.” Although B.Tamir’s works rendered environmental problems into visual art, he defined people’s mentality as his biggest concern. “All of the designers who worked in this project are trying to raise public awareness about urgent problems here in Ulaanbaatar. But all of our work is dedicated for one important purpose and that is to change people’s mentality. Stop being centered on ‘I’ and ‘me’ and try to change it to ‘us’ and ‘we’. If we all can do that, we will at least be able to reduce traffic and garbage on the streets. We can make a difference if people stopped thinking only about themselves and cared for the whole community,” he said. The Bi (I) +D (WE) Start Ourselves exhibition will be on display at Shangri-La Mall until Friday and then, make its way through universities for a week in rotation. It will be exhibited at the Mongolian National University of Medical Sciences for three days and at the National University of Mongolia and Mongolian University of Science and Technology for two days respectively. The project team also plans to showcase the exhibition in Khentii, Sukhbaatar and Darkhan provinces in mid-April as they believe these visual messages will serve useful to their future struggles with urbanization.