Opening reception: Saturday, February 9 | 6–9PM

79.89.09, a lecture performance by Slavs and Tatars:  Saturday, February 9 | 6PM 

Friendship of Nations: Polish Shi’ite Showbiz is an examination of the unlikely points of convergence in Poland and Iran’s economic, social, political, religious and cultural histories, from seventeenth-century Sarmatism to the twenty-first-century Green Movement. For the most comprehensive exhibition of works from Friendship of Nations, Slavs and Tatars, an international collective of artists, designers and writers, presents a range of sculptural objects, woven tapestries, lecture performances and photographic murals that address how the two countries’ respective efforts toward self-determination have shaped the larger geopolitical landscape, punctuating the major narratives of Communism and Islam in the twentieth- and twenty-first-centuries. Devoting its research-based practice to the area commonly referred to as Eurasia, a geography the group identifies as being “east of the former Berlin Wall and west of the Great Wall of China,” Slavs and Tatars’ works span disparate media and graphic traditions to focus on an oft-forgotten sphere of influence between Slavs, Caucasians and Central Asians.

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Related Programs

Thursday, February 7Molla Nasreddin: Embrace Your Antithesis Arguably the most important Muslim periodical of the twentieth century, Molla Nasreddin was a political satire read by an audience that stretched from Morocco to India and addressed such issues as gender equality, education, colonialism, and Islam’s integration of modernity. Slavs and Tatars discusses the Azerbaijani periodical’s historical context and presents a case study of the region otherwise known as the Caucasus, the figure of the anti-modern, and the issue of self-censorship both then and now.

2PM   UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies Bilingual Lecture Series 10383 Bunche Hall Los Angeles, CA 90095www.international.ucla.edu/cnes

6:30PM Los Angeles Central Library Mark Taper Auditorium 630 West 5th Street Los Angeles, CA 90071www.works-sited.info

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February 7–March 23Dear 1979, Meet 1989 Slavs and Tatars’ archive of books, magazines, and printed ephemera on the 1979 Iranian Revolution and Poland’s Solidarność movement comes to the Los Angeles Central Library as part of Works Sited, an ongoing series of programs and displays featuring work with themes relating to the library’s collections and practices.

Los Angeles Central Library Works Sited 630 West 5th Street Los Angeles, CA 90071 (located on Lower Level 1, outside the Business and Economics Department)www.works-sited.info