With Лук Бук (Look Book), the Frans Masereel Centrum is presenting for the first time a long-awaited overview of the printed work of the internationally acclaimed artist collective Slavs and Tatars.

Slavs and Tatars emerged in 2006 as an informal reading club with a specific focus on the area east of the former Berlin Wall and west of the Great Wall of China. Today their artistic practice includes sculptures, installations, films and lecture-performances which they use to explore lesser-known similarities to be found in the mix of languages, belief systems, traditions and rituals among peoples of the Caucasus, Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Their work cleverly connects mutually exclusive conceptions while showing how alleged cultural oppositions are often the result of oversimplification.

The interest of Slavs and Tatars for printed matter has remained an important constant over the past fifteen years. Posters, flyers, publications, editions and printed objects therefore play a central role in the development of their research practice and often form the basis of a variety of projects that only later take shape in, for example, monumental installations.

The exhibition shows a cross section of their printed matter, which has the unique ability to bring together the humour, scientific research and generosity of spirit that are so characteristic of the collective. Central notions such as hospitality and collective experience feature in the exhibition, for example, in a brand-new River Bed, based on an Iranian ‘takht’ (sofa or long bench), a place on which to read or take a break together. Children will also find a place for themselves within the welcoming universe of Slavs and Tatars, which has room for the disarming power of humour.

Artists: Slavs and Tatars