Exploring Eurasian Narratives with Art Collective | Slavs and Tatars
This conversation is a deep dive into every corner of the Muslim world. We hear about the story of Slavs and Tatar’s origins, what their work is concerned with, and why much of their activity is about disarticulation and decentering. We reflect on linguistic gravitas, the meaning of language, paying attention to “small peoples'', and the racist origins of the very term “Tatars”. We move onto the role of art, why it’s infantilising, and how it should scramble things and harness its social capital – and about the Slavs and Tatar’s slavic aperitivo “Pickle Bar '' as a facilitating space.
Slavs and Tatars is an art collective and faction of polemics and intimacies devoted to an area east of the former Berlin Wall and west of the Great Wall of China known as Eurasia. It was founded as a collaboration between artists and designers Payam Sharifi and Kasia Korczak. The group’s work is centered around exhibitions, books and lecture performances. Slavs and Tatars has a residency and mentorship program for young professionals from their region, a slavic aperitif bar-cum-project space called Pickle Bar in Berlin, and an online store by the name of MERCZbau.
The afikra Podcast
The afikra Podcast is our flagship series featuring experts from academia, art, media, urban planning, and beyond, who are helping document and shape the histories and cultures of the Arab world through their work.
