MIDDELBURG.- Grounded in the personal stories of the artists and curators, Tatar* Kiss explores the often-invisible entanglements of colonialisms, from a primarily Dutch and Russian perspective. The exhibition highlights stories of collective resistance, joy and love that emerge from complex cultural histories, while acknowledging and revealing violence and cultural erasure that these empires and regimes have caused.

The title of the exhibition, Tatar* Kiss, refers to an open-mouth kiss in the Tsardom of Muscovy—now known as Russia. By the 18th century, this term was changed to “French kiss”, reflecting broader political shifts such as racialization of the non-Christian and nomadic peoples Indigenous to Asia, who were homogeneously described as Tatars (or Tartars). These changes were also influenced by the European Enlightenment and major written works such as North and East Tartary (1692) by Dutch geographer and politician Nicolaes Witsen.

While “Tatars” were framed as “barbaric” and thus subjected to colonization, Russia, in contrast, positioned itself as a proper “civilizing” empire and actively colonized the nations described by Witsen. Many of them still constitute what is known as the Russian Federation today.

The group exhibition Tatar* Kiss showcases seven artists, among them are Bashqort, Buryad-Mongolian, Circassian, Volga Tatar, Kalmyk (which belong to the earlier-mentioned nations) and Curaçaoan. Juxtaposed to each other, their artworks expose the complicity of imperial regimes, resist framing colonial and post-colonial as temporally distinct periods, and acknowledge the simultaneity of colonizing efforts and decolonial resistance. Some of the artists in this exhibition highlight how Indigenous peoples once colonized by Russia also participated in European colonial projects such as the Napoleonic wars (Stas Shärifullá and Ziliä Qansurá) or human zoos (Victoria Sarangova). They question existing practices of reconciliation and follow the routes that brought uprooted enslaved people to plantations and so-called colonial goods to Europe for global trade, also with Russia (Lakisha Apostel). Some turn to the precolonial past to envision a more sustainable future (Milana Khalilova), while others address ongoing cultural erasure, creating spaces where their languages can be freely spoken and heard (Yaniya Mikhalina and Natalia Papaeva).

Tatar* Kiss explores a bright collection of stories—woven by the hands of women, danced with ancestors, sung by the comrades, whispered by the wind, and witnessed by water and land. The exhibition is an act of emancipation and care; it acknowledges hatred, exploitation, and violence and is eager to replace them with love and joy. We are kissing empires back, kissing with tongues that they made us forget.

Tatar* Kiss includes six works commissioned for the exhibition or developed as part of Vleeshal’s International Nomadic Program 2024–2025 Repetition is a Form of Changing, curated by League of Tenders (Maria Sarycheva and Elena Ishchenko).

Artists: Lakisha Apostel, Milana Khalilova, Yaniya Mikhalina, Natalia Papaeva, Victoria Sarangova, Stas Shärifullá, Ziliä Qansurá