Im Gespräch mit Slavs and Tatars – Überlegungen zur kollektiven Praxis

„Es ist nicht immer Affinität, die uns zusammenbringt. Es kann auch Antipathie, Antithese, Fremdheit oder Anderssein sein.“

Slavs and Tatars is an internationally renowned Berlin-based art collective established in 2006 that dedicates itself to research and a unique form of knowledge production and dissemination. Originally founded as a reading group, Slavs and Tatars curated the 33rd International Biennial of Graphic Arts in Ljubljana and participated in the 58th Venice Biennale; they have also exhibited internationally, including at the Pinakothek der Moderne, the Albertinum, the Palais de Tokyo, and the Museum of Modern Art. The collective’s practice is based on a range of media, from installations to lecture performances, presentations, and the printed word. Many of their works engage with religion and myths and their shifting phenomenology, examining instances of cultural transfer between the Global West and Eurasia. Sometimes leavened with humor, their art mixes pop visuals with esoteric traditions and oral rituals with scientific analysis, achieving a depth of insight that challenges widely held simplistic conceptions of the interrelations between science, religion, power, and identity.

The Collective Eye spoke to Slavs and Tatars about their collective self-conception, irritations and obstacles in the translation of knowledge, Orientalism and the hegemony of the English language, and collective curating.

ABOUT THE COLLECTIVE EYE

The Collective Eye (TCE) is a project collective whose membership fluctuates. In interviews, symposia, exhibitions, and books for which TCE engages selected partners in dialogue, it seeks to strengthen a multinational dialogue between collectives and theorists grappling with collective creativity and practices in the arts. Its scope transcends boundaries of discipline, encompassing forms of collaboration in the visual and performing arts, in theaters, museums, and the interstices of cultural production.