Slavs and Tatars: Mouthfool
On view from 19 November 2026
Language knows no borders. It travels with people, changes along the way and leaves traces wherever it goes. In Mouthfool, the artist collective Slavs and Tatars explores how language migrates: from mouth to mouth, from generation to generation.
Almost nothing is what it seems
In Mouthfool, language becomes tangible. In the tapestry Mother Tongues and Father Throats, an open mouth becomes an anatomical map of language. Arabic, Hebrew, Persian and Cyrillic letters appear where their sounds are formed in the mouth and throat. In Tongue Twist Her, a three-metre-high tongue twists around a dance pole. And in Alphabet Abdal, Arabic letters are given arms and legs, as if they are on the move.
Through humour, wordplay and absurd imagery, Slavs and Tatars shows that language is much more than a means of communicating with one another. Language shapes who we are and how we understand the world. It travels with us: in our heads, on our tongues and in stories, rituals, recipes and myths.
Tongue Twist Her, 2013. Palazzo Capris, Turin, 2016.
Moving forwards while looking back on Plein
Climb backwards into a bright red racing car and drive around a course. Molla’s Reverse Ride by Slavs and Tatars is inspired by Molla, a legendary trickster and folk philosopher who is often depicted riding his donkey backwards. Stories about Molla, also known as Hodja or Nasreddin in different cultures, have been told for more than seven hundred years.
Commissioned by Fenix, Slavs and Tatars creates the installation especially for Plein, the museum’s freely accessible indoor public square.
20 years of Slavs and Tatars
Slavs and Tatars was formed by Payam Sharifi, Kasia Korczak and Stan de Natris in 2006. Their work spans a vast region stretching from the former Berlin Wall to the Great Wall of China. While the region is often viewed through the lens of war, conflict and national borders, the collective takes a different starting point: language, and in particular the encounter between Slavic and Turkic linguistic and cultural worlds. With humour and sharp observations, the collective shows how little political borders can contain language, food and myths.
Following presentations at institutions including MoMA, Tate Modern and La Biennale di Venezia, Mouthfool is the first major solo exhibition by Slavs and Tatars in the Netherlands.
Mother Tongues and Father Throats, 2012. Pejman Foundation, Tehran, 2017. Photo: Hamid Eskandari
A new exhibition space
With Mouthfool, Fenix opens a new space for temporary exhibitions this autumn. Here, international artists will explore migration from new perspectives. Slavs and Tatars is the first to take over the space.
