OTHER PRACTICES. A COACH TO POLISH TATARSTAN AND THE SIMURG BIRD IN RIGA

Center for good debate

What is it about?

Slavs & Tatars is an international art and research collective that has been operating at the intersection of visual art, performance, and theoretical reflection for over a decade. Their projects explore the cultural and linguistic borderlands between the former East and West, showing that history and politics are also stories woven from languages, signs, and everyday practices. Slavs & Tatars’ work is both erudite and humorous, and their activities balance between exhibition, publication, and performance.
In 2009, as part of the Wola Art Festival in Warsaw, Slavs and Tatars created a work consisting of a banner with the encouragement “Go East!” (featuring Charles Bronson aka Karol Buczyński, known from Sergio Leone’s best western film Once Upon a Time in the West) and a one-day trip to Bohonik and Kruszyniany, the heart of Polish Tatarstan in
Podlasie. In 2025, Slavs and Tatars, together with Michał Grzegorzek, organized the exhibition “Survival Kit 16: House of SeeMore” at a contemporary art festival in a converted knitwear factory in the Grīziņdārzs district of Riga, the capital of Latvia. Simurgh, a mythical bird, appeared in Riga as a symbol of transnationality and freedom.

The members of the collective will discuss their artistic and intellectual strategy at a meeting at the Centre for Good Debate, talking about how they combine research with artistic practice and how they discuss multiculturalism in times of crisis. The discussion will be moderated by Sarmen Beglarian.

By whom?

Slavs and Tatars is an art collective that explores Eurasian cultures through exhibitions, performances, lectures and publications. Their projects are full of humour, erudition and contrarianism towards dominant narratives.

Michał Grzegorzek – exhibition curator and author of texts on contemporary art. He is interested in practices at the intersection of visual and performing arts, as well as experimental exhibition formats.

Sarmen Beglarian – visual arts curator, co-founder of Biuro Wystaw (Exhibition Office) and curator of projects such as Dom Kereta (Kereta House, 2012) and the audience award-winning exhibition Działania terenowe (Field Activities) as part of the Narracje #11 Festival in Gdańsk (2019).

Who is it for?

This meeting is addressed to anyone interested in contemporary art and culture, who wants to better understand multiculturalism and linguistic and social borderlands. It is an offer for students of humanities and arts, but also for those who simply enjoy discussions about how art can explain the complexity of the world.

Why is it worth it?

For years, Slavs & Tatars have been demonstrating that art is not just a painting or an installation, but a way of thinking and telling stories that connect and divide cultures. Their projects inspire us to look at reality from many perspectives – critical, funny and provocative. The meeting at the Dialogue Centre is a rare opportunity to talk to artists whose works have been shown in leading museums and galleries around the world, and now you can hear them in an intimate, festival atmosphere.

Availability

The Dialogue Center building is accessible for people with mobility impairments. It features wide, non-automatic entrance doors without thresholds and an accessible restroom. In front of the building, there is a large parking lot with marked spaces for people with disabilities. Assistance dogs and guide dogs are welcome in both the building and the auditorium. There is a lift in the building.

Parking entrance from Wojska Polskiego Street.
Nearby bus and tram stops: Wojska Polskiego/Centrum Dialogu, Wojska Polskiego/Sporna.

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