Slavs and Tatars Mash Up Polish and Iranian Protest Banners in Antwerp

Berlin-based art collective Slavs and Tatars, composed of artist Payam Sharifi and designer Kasia Korczak, present 'Friendship of Nations: Polish Shi’ite Showbiz' at the Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp (M HKA). The one-room exhibition features acutely colored banners originally used in the Iranian Revolution of the late 1970s and the Polish Solidarność movement of the 1980s. The banners, stripped of their original demonstrative context, are displayed as clean, re-appropriated fabrics that intermingle to suggest a kinship between the two countries' struggles. A large wooden lounger covered in politically inspired pamphlets and comic strips invites visitors to sit and reflect. The exhibition aims to highlight commonalities of human protest beyond political differences, though the intellectual premise is described as problematic. The banners were crafted with involvement of Iranian tailors and Polish seamstresses. The exhibition is a collection presentation donated by Christian Kaspar Schwarm and runs until 30 April 2023. This review originally appeared in Canvas 107: Art Nomads.