Dresden. Slavs & Tartars on the ambiguity of language

The art collective blends contemporary culture and local identities from the former Berlin wall to the Great Wall of China.

Hosted by the Albertinum and curated by Kathleen Reihardt, “Made in Dschermany” is a comprehensive exhibition and a rich programme of supporting events constituting the largest exhibition on the artist collective’s work in Germany. Slavs & Tartars grew out of a book club in 2006 in Berlin and define themselves 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”.

Img.1 “Slavs & Tartars. Made in Dschermany” exhibition view, Albertinum, Kunsthalle Lipsiusbau, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden, Germany, 2018
Img.2 “Slavs & Tartars. Made in Dschermany” exhibition view, Albertinum, Kunsthalle Lipsiusbau, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden, Germany, 2018
Img.3 “Slavs & Tartars. Made in Dschermany” exhibition view, Albertinum, Kunsthalle Lipsiusbau, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden, Germany, 2018
Img.4 “Slavs & Tartars. Made in Dschermany” exhibition view, Albertinum, Kunsthalle Lipsiusbau, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden, Germany, 2018
Img.5 “Slavs & Tartars. Made in Dschermany” exhibition view, Albertinum, Kunsthalle Lipsiusbau, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden, Germany, 2018
Img.6 “Slavs & Tartars. Made in Dschermany” exhibition view, Albertinum, Kunsthalle Lipsiusbau, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden, Germany, 2018
Img.7 “Slavs & Tartars. Made in Dschermany” exhibition view, Albertinum, Kunsthalle Lipsiusbau, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden, Germany, 2018
Img.8 “Slavs & Tartars. Made in Dschermany” exhibition view, Albertinum, Kunsthalle Lipsiusbau, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden, Germany, 2018
Img.9 “Slavs & Tartars. Made in Dschermany” exhibition view, Albertinum, Kunsthalle Lipsiusbau, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden, Germany, 2018

The collective sees language as an expression of the ambiguous cultural identities that define our subjectivities: to put it in Saussure’s words, language constitutes “the first institution”. The name of the exhibition itself revolves around the tetragraph “dsch”. In a moment where Germany – and Europe in general – is confronted with identity and cultural issues, Slavs & Tartars casts a light on Germany’s complex relationship with Islam through the show, lecture performances and the book “Wripped Scripped”. The exhibition is a constellation of large-format installations, works of sound, sculptures and videos provoking short-circuits and clashes between contemporary culture and different identities, religions and philosophical teachings. The venues of the show and supporting events include the Lipsiusbau, the SKD’s Albertinum, Porzellansammlung and Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon.

  • Slavs & Tatars. Made in Dschermany
  • Kathleen Reihardt
  • Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
  • Kunsthalle im Lipsiusbau, Georg-Treu-Platz 1, Dresden