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Slavs and Tatars: The Contest of the Fruits at esea contemporary

Maja Lorkowska, Exhibitions Editor

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Slavs and Tatars: The Contest of the Fruits

esea contemporary, Manchester
Until 14 September 2025

Always double check opening hours with the venue before making a special visit.

Free
Slavs and Tatars, 'The Contest of the Fruits', 2021, animation, 00:07:18 (loop), still image,
Slavs and Tatars; Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Berlin
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esea contemporary presents the first UK institutional solo show by Slavs and Tatars. The Contest of the Fruits is the first film by the internationally acclaimed collective, exploring hard-hitting topics like politics, language and religion but with a dose of humour. The film is based on a 19th-century Uighur poem, reimagined as an animated rap battle.

The collective worked with Uighur diaspora rapper Nash Tarr and and Polish musician Lubomir Grzelak (aka Lutto Lento) on the soundtrack. The film itself is a rap battle between 13 fruits, with the characteristics and physiognomy of each ones shaped by its Uighur name, in Arabic calligraphy.

Slavs and Tatars is a collective founded in 2006, “devoted to an area East of the former Berlin Wall and West of the Great Wall of China known as Eurasia”, geography often being a starting point for their works, which touch on popular culture, history, traditions, always with humour as  key part . Their practice is based on three activities: exhibitions, publications, and lecture-performances.

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