Abstract

This thesis examines the work of Slavs and Tatars art collective—particularly its Friendship of Nations: Polish Shi’ite Showbiz (2009–2017) cycle of work. The cycle takes on the history of Poland and Iran, specifically the countries’ civil and revolutionary movements of the 20th and 21st centuries, and produces new interpretations of these conjoined narratives. Friendship of Nations includes a range of artistic outputs: craft objects, banners, lectures, print matter, and readings rooms. The thesis focuses closely on questions of reading collectively; the reading room structure RiverBed (2011) and the newspaper-like publication 79.89.09. (2011) are considered in their historical and relational contexts, and analyzed as spaces that engage new modes of reading sociability and cultivate distinct publics. Drawing on Michael Warner’s theory of counterpublic social formations, I argue that Slavs and Tatars tap into a social imaginary that is in opposition to dominant ideological narratives of strictly national belonging or stranger fetishism. The thesis also examines how Slavs and Tatars emulate and transform the craft traditions of Poland and Iran, creating new hybrid objects that become mediators of shared experience and intercultural dialogue within an exhibition space, as seen on the examples of Solidarność Pająk Studies (2010–2016) and Friendship of Nations (2011) series. I address how this re-reading of history and the process of envisioning new, non-Western-centric interpretations constitutes the world-making function of Slavs and Tatars’ art practice. The productive potential of their counterpublic social spaces and intercultural objects go beyond commonplace notions of shared identity, opening up a cosmopolitan and transnational view of the world.