Slavs and Tatars — Friendship of Nations: Polish Shi’ite Showbiz

+++ This exhibition ran from 21 January to 30 April 2023. +++

The project Friendship of Nations: Polish Shi’ite Showbiz (2011) by the artist collective Slavs and Tatars reveals the connection between Polish and Iranian heritage, more specifically that between the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and the Polish trade union movement Solidarność of the 1980s. Both events encapsulate a major geopolitical narrative of the recent past: Islamic modernism and communism. Slavs and Tatars exhibited ten fabric cloths, which in their entirety highlighted the revolutionary expressiveness of handicrafts and folklore. Friendship of Nations: Polish Shi’ite Showbiz reevaluates craft objects and practices as carriers of history, political emancipation and ideology. The banners were a donation from art collector Christian Schwarm to the Muhka.

Slavs and Tatars is based in Berlin. The collective focuses on Eurasia, that is, the area ‘from the former Berlin Wall to the Great Wall of China’, and explores its history and tensions. In particular, Slavs and Tatars analyses the way the region’s identity was shaped by a clash between modernisation and tradition. Nineteenth-century imperialism and the Soviet period brought modernisation, while tradition remains fundamental in Islam, in local alternative beliefs, language politics and mythology. Through a combination of archival and evidentiary material, Slavs and Tatars exposes historical and cultural mindsets. The collective combines research with reinterpretations, associations, metaphysics, pop culture, geopolitics and humour.

More background information can be found on the Slavs and Tatars website.

Sweatshirts and T-shirts for Iran

During the exhibition, sweatshirts and T-shirts designed by Slavs and Tatars were sold in the museum shop, with all proceeds supporting the Woman Life Freedom movement in Iran.

Lecture-performance

As part of the exhibition at Muhka, Slavs and Tatars presented a lecture-performance in April 2023. In 79.89.09, they explored the Iranian revolution and the Polish opposition as parallel moments in recent history, offering unexpected perspectives on broader geopolitical narratives.