79.89.09 looks at two key modern moments—the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and Poland’s Solidarność [Solidarity] movement in the 1980s—as bookends to the two major geopolitical narratives of the 20th and 21st centuries, Communism and political Islam, respectively. Originally a contribution to Berlin-based biannual 032c, 79.89.09 looks at issues as disparate as the monobrow, modernity, and the Beach Boys in understanding the importance of these two moments for the current geopolitical situation. The lecture acted as the opening salvo to Slavs and Tatars’ second cycle of work Friendship of Nations: Polish Shi’ite Showbiz, an investigation of the unlikely points of convergence in the economic, cultural, and political histories of Poland and Iran, respectively. From 17th century's Sarmatism to the 21st century reform movement in Iran, the advent of the 24-hour news cycle to the role of crafts as citizen diplomacy, 79.89.09 presents a lateral look at the two countries in their quest for self-determination.

The lecture-performance has been presented at these venues, amongst others: Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw; Stanford University; University of Texas, Austin; and CAC, Vilnius.

Slavs and Tatars 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. Their work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at institutions across the globe, including the Vienna Secession, MoMA (New York), Salt (Istanbul), Albertinum Dresden, amongst others. The collective’s practice is based on three activities: exhibitions, publications, and lecture-performances. Slavs and Tatars has published more than twelve books to date, including their translation of the legendary Azeri satirical periodical, Molla Nasreddin (2nd edition, I.B. Tauris) and most recently their first children’s book, Azbuka Strikes Back (Walther und Franz König). Their lectures and seminars have been presented at leading universities including the University of Chicago, Princeton University, Royal College of Art, London, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Leibniz University, Hannover, and the University of Warsaw.
In 2018, Slavs and Tatars launched a residency and fellowship program at their Berlin studio and in 2020 a performance space called Pickle Bar.

If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us at gosiak@umich.edu. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.