Slavs and Tatars
collective founded in 2006 by Kasia Korczak (Poland) and Panyam Sharifi (Texas/Iran)
Reverse Dschihad, 2015
screenprinting on polished steel
122 x 244 cm
Courtesy Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Berlin
Selected Exhibitions:
Not Moscow Not Mecca, Secession, Vienna, Austria, 2012; Beyonsense, „Projects 98“ Museum of Modern Art, New York, U.S. 2012; Nouveau Festival, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France, 2013; Nouvelle Vague, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France, 2013; Manifesta 10, St. Petersburg, Russia, 2014; 8th Berlin Biennal, Germany, 2014; Nationalgalerie Preis, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, Germany, 2015; Mirrors for Princes, Kunsthalle Zurich, Switzerland, 2015; Stongue, Kunsthal Aarhus, Netherlands, 2015; Magic and Power, Museum Martha, Herford, Germany, 2016.
The Slavs and Tatars (2006) artists' collective presents two works from the ‘Reverse Dschihad’ series (2015), large-format mirror-coated tablets that take up the tale of the particular political relationship between Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and the Ottoman sultan in the early 20th century. The Kaiser stepped up the first jihad when he had the propaganda broadsheet ‘El Dschihad’, which had appeared in several languages in the Middle East, distributed in Berlin in 1915 for about 30,000 Muslim in a German prisoner-of-war camp. Like archaeologists, Slavs and Tatars research what are often literary historical sources and use their characteristically humorous but always profound and soundly substantiated work to delve into the deeper layers of meaning of religion, power, language and identity.