The IMA is pleased to present a major solo exhibition by the art collective Slavs and Tatars: Mirrors for Princes. In this show, the artists look to a medieval genre of advice literature known as ‘mirrors for princes’. These guidebooks for future rulers were a literary tradition shared by Christians and Muslims, with Machiavelli’s The Prince the best-known example. The texts present issues that continue to resonate today across the world, providing a case study of the balance between faith and state. In the exhibition, visitors traverse two immersive and contrasting environments: an audio-sculpture installation featuring multilingual excerpts from an 11th-century Turkic ‘mirror for prince’ called Kutadgu Bilig (Wisdom of Royal Glory), and a dark, psychedelic space revealing a series of glowing, fetishistic sculptures that share the text’s concern with grooming. Kutadgu Bilig has been translated into six languages, including the Aboriginal language Yuggera. It represents one of the few known recordings of Yuggera, and was translated by language custodian Uncle Des Sandy.
Publication
The exhibition is accompanied by a book also titled Mirrors for Princes edited by Anthony Downey of Ibraaz, commissioned by NYUAD Art Gallery and published by JRP|Ringier.
Exhibition Cycle
Slavs and Tatars: Mirrors for Princes is a series of unique installations drawn from their research. The exhibition cycle manifests at five different venues. These include Kunsthalle Zurich (August 30–November 9, 2014); NYUAD Art Gallery (February 28–May 30, 2015); Collective Art Gallery, Edinburgh (25 April-12 July, 2015), Institute of Modern Art (IMA), Brisbane, Australia (October 24–December 20, 2015); Blaffer Art Museum, Houston, Texas (January 16–March 19, 2016).
Biography
Founded in 2006, Slavs and Tatars is an art collective that describes itself as “a 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”. The collective’s practice is based on three activities–exhibitions, books and lecture performances–and spans a broad spectrum of cultural registers (high and low) focusing on an oft-forgotten sphere of influence between Slavs, Caucasians and Central Asians.
Slavs and Tatars have presented solo exhibitions at major institutions including MoMA, NY; Secession, Vienna; REDCAT, Los Angeles; Kunsthalle Zurich, and the Dallas Museum of Art. Group exhibitions include Centre Pompidou, Paris; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Tate Modern, London; Salt, Istanbul; Istanbul Modern, Istanbul; 10th Sharjah, 3rd Mercosul, 9th Gwangju and 8th Berlin biennials.
Slavs and Tatars have published several books, including Not Moscow Not Mecca (Revolver/Secession, 2012),Khhhhhhh (Mousse/Moravia Gallery, 2012), Friendship of Nations: Polish Shi’ite Showbiz (Book Works, 2013) as well as their translation of the legendary Azeri satire Molla Nasreddin: the magazine that would’ve, could’ve, should’ve(JRP-Ringier, 2011).
Slavs and Tatars: Mirrors for Princes is supported by Choices Flooring and MAAP Media Bank.
Image: Slavs and Tatars, Zulf (Blond), (oak wood, hair, 30 x30 x 30 cm, 2014). Courtesy of the artists and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery.
