I Utter Other (2014–): Lecture-Performance mit Slavs and Tatars

I Utter Other (2014-)
Lecture-performance with Slavs and Tatars

What does it mean when one East looks at the other East? Can the romanticized romanticize themselves? In their lecture performance I Utter Other (2014-), Slavs and Tatars explore a curiosity that they refer to as "Slavic Orientalism" in the context of the Russian Empire and the early years of the USSR, from Poles in the service of the Tsar to Persian Presbyterians. According to the artist duo, Slavic Orientalism represents a decisive counterpoint, if not a forerunner, to the common doctrine of Said's Orientalism. Despite the abrupt transition from Tsarism to Bolshevism, the study of the East within the East complicates notions of identity politics and knowledge in the service of power. It provided a coherent postcolonial critique some 60 years earlier.

In this new edition of their work, Slavs and Tatars deepen their engagement with German Orientalism and the propaganda apparatus directed against the Muslim tirailleurs imprisoned in the prisoner of war camp at Wünsdorf in Brandenburg during the First World War. The performance lecture examines forms of othering and racist representations of the Tirailleurs in this context. It also traces ideological remnants that still shape discriminatory discourses on migration and belonging today.

Location: Safi Faye Hall

In English