Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art announces Slavs and Tatars and Michał Grzegorzek as the curators of Survival Kit 16: House of See-More. Taking Simurgh – the mythical bird found across Eurasia – as a departure point, the annual international contemporary art festival in Riga will address the critical state of transnationalism and liberation in a world where identity is often seen as singular and reductive. Survival Kit 16 will take place from 30 August to 28 September 2025.
The internationally renowned artist collective Slavs and Tatars focuses its creative practice on territories historically marginalised and oppressed by Russian and Soviet imperialism. 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.
On the occasion of Survival Kit 16, Slavs and Tatars has invited long-time collaborator, curator Michał Grzegorzek, whose experience in performativity, queer culture and feminism speak to Simurgh’s flamboyance and fluidity.
"It is crucial to continue deconstructing the ghosts of post-Sovietism and expose their impact, especially at this moment when structures of value built over decades are being demolished around the world. The guerrilla approach and elements of camouflage used by the Survival Kit 16 curators are particularly useful in navigating through the minefields of lies, fake news and distorted historical narratives that dominate the Russian-controlled information space, threatening to take over the world," emphasises Solvita Krese, Director of the LCCA.
Slavs and Tatars and Michał Grzegorzek have chosen the mystical Sufi symbol Simurgh as a narrative device for Survival Kit 16. From Aristophanes’ The Birds to Faruddin Attar’s The Conference of the Birds to the Latvian cycle of songs The Birds Wedding, winged creatures come together, overcome their respective limits as individuals, to achieve something larger than themselves: be it a form of self-governance or transcendental epiphany, versions of Simurgh can be found across Central Asia, the Caucasus and parts of Eastern Europe, where it is often depicted as a majestic, winged creature of uncertain gender, sometimes with a dog's head and often a flaming tail.
So old that it has purportedly witnessed the end of the world three times already, where the eagle projects empire nationalism, a lazy form of toxic masculinity, the Simurgh promises collective being, the multiple in the one, a distinctly metaphysical enlightenment. Epiphany and ecstasy often require one to die before one dies: Simurgh delivers this to an age of ecological disasters and disinformation, blurred boundaries between the generative and the extractive, the analytical and the affective, the singular and the multiple.
More about the curators
The work of Slavs and Tatars has been the subject of solo exhibitions at institutions across the globe, including the Vienna Secession; MoMA, New York; Salt, Istanbul; Albertinum Dresden, among 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 most recently their first children’s book, Azbuka Strikes Back with Walther und Franz König. In 2020, Slavs and Tatars opened Pickle Bar, a slavic aperitivo bar-cum-project space a few doors down from their studio in the Moabit district of Berlin as well as a residency and mentorship program for young professionals from the region.
Michał Grzegorzek is a curator and writer based in Warsaw, Poland. His areas of interest include activities at the intersection of the performing and visual arts, as well as experimental exhibition formats. Since 2016, he has worked at the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, where he was a curator of performing arts. Together with Mateusz Szymanówka, he has developed research examining the relationship between contemporary performance and club culture. Since 2022, he has been co-curating Kem School, a programme of joint learning through experiments and reflection on social choreography, performance and methods of queer and feminist activities.
About Survival Kit
The contemporary art festival Survival Kit, comprised of a curated exhibition and an event programme, was initiated in 2009 as a response to the economic crisis affecting Latvia at the time. Each year, the festival's appointed curator (or curators) carefully selects the themes explored, inviting artists from around the world to offer alternative scenarios of survival. The festival's mission to critically investigate and reflect on the evolution of contemporary society has made it a key platform for the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art (LCCA) to showcase its commitment to research, creation, and development of contemporary art processes in Latvia and internationally since 1993. Survival Kit's choice of venue is an integral part of the festival's identity, as it inhabits empty buildings in Riga, exploring their potential and possible development strategies that could be used to revitalize them.
Organisers and supporters
Survival Kit 16 is organised by Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art and supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia, Riga City Council and the State Culture Capital Foundation.