Join us for the preview of 'The Contest of the Fruits'—the first UK institutional solo exhibition by internationally acclaimed art collective Slavs and Tatars, presented under Xiaowen Zhu's artistic direction and curated by Jo-Lene Ong.
At the heart of The Contest of the Fruits is the collective’s first-ever film, an animated adaptation of a 19th-century Uighur poem reimagined as a dynamic rap battle between thirteen fruits. Blending satire with stunning Arabic calligraphy, the film is accompanied by an original soundtrack performed by Uighur diaspora rapper Nash Tarr and mixed by Polish musician Lubomir Grzelak (aka Lutto Lento), merging pop, trap, and traditional maqam elements.
Upon entering the exhibition, visitors encounter Self-Help—a large-scale wallpaper installation featuring vibrant, colourful hands translating Simurgh (a Sufi symbol of transcendence and rebirth) into international sign language. Against this backdrop are sculptural and wall-based works, including Signal (2025), Slavs and Tatars' newly commissioned work from their latest Simurgh Self-Help cycle.
Join us for an evening exploring Slavs and Tatars' distinctive fusion of language, politics, and humour through art and conversation. Advance booking is recommended due to limited capacity.
Slavs and Tatars (founded 2006, Eurasia) is an internationally renowned art collective devoted to an area East of the former Berlin Wall and West of the Great Wall of China known as Eurasia. Since its inception in 2006, the collective has shown a keen grasp of polemical issues in society, clearing new paths for contemporary discourse via a wholly idiosyncratic form of knowledge production: including popular culture, spiritual and esoteric traditions, oral histories, modern myths, as well as scholarly research. The collective’s practice is based on three activities: exhibitions, publications, and lecture-performances. In addition to launching a residency and mentorship program for young professionals from their region, Slavs and Tatars opened Pickle Bar in 2020, a Slavic aperitivo bar-cum-project space a few doors down from their studio in the Moabit district of Berlin.
Solo exhibitions have taken place at Kunsthalle Baden-Baden (2025), M HKA, Antwerp (2023); Neubauer Collegium Gallery, Chicago (2022); Centre Pompidou, Metz (2022); Pinakothek der Moderne, Münich (2021); Albertinum, Dresden (2018); Salt Galata, Istanbul (2017); Blaffer Art Museum, Houston (2016); Kunsthalle Zurich (2014); Vienna Secession (2014); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2012); Dallas Museum of Art, (2012) amongst others.
Their work is part of the permanent collections of: M+, Hong Kong; Tate Modern, London; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Dallas Museum of Art; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin; M HKA, Antwerp; Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; Sharjah Art Foundation; The Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw; amongst others.
