SOLD OUT! - LONG LVIVE LVIV | Westfälischer Kunstverein with Slavs and Tatars 

 Support for Ukraine!

Together with Slavs and Tatars, the Westfälischer Kunstverein is releasing an exclusive edition of 100 sweaters and 100 T-shirts (T-shirts are sold out!). The proceeds will go to the Blau-Gelbe Kreuz, Deutsch-Ukrainischer Verein e.V., which supports humanitarian aid in Ukraine.

The design of the clothing goes back to the exhibition project LONG LVIVE LVIV, which Slavs and Tatars presented at the end of 2021 in Wroclaw (OP ENHEIM) and subsequently at the Neubauer Collegium of the University of Chicago.

They focused on the intertwined histories of Lviv and Wroclaw from a particular, orientalist perspective. This is typical of the artists’ approach; they are interested in “how the East looks East”. With its geographical location at the eastern end of Poland and the western end of Ukraine, Lviv was an appropriate place for this artistic research.

After the Second World War, there were many shifts in the borders of nation states. In the Polish-Ukranian border region as well: Lviv was annexed to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. The Polish population of the city had to emigrate to Wroclaw, which in turn fell to Poland. As a result, most of the academics of the Johann Kasimir University (today: Ivan Franko University) also left Lviv to work for the University of Wroclaw.

Slavs and Tatars was interested in one particular faculty that did not survive this move: The department of Oriental Studies. In pre-war Poland, the institute in Lviv was one of the leading orientalist study centres in Europe. For their exhibitions in Wroclaw and later Chicago, Slavs and Tatars devised a present in which this institute and its research would still exist in Lviv.

Part of the exhibition was a whole merchandise collection. The jumpers and T-shirts that the artist collective updated for the fundraiser at the Westfälischer Kunstverein refer to this.

The design includes the pun “Long Lvive” in the top line, “Львів”, Ukrainian for Lviv, in the bottom line, and the initials of the Ivan Franko University of Lviv фЛI (F L I) in the middle, superimposed on a large у (U) for university.

While the exhibition project originally focused on what was certainly a conflict-laden and traumatic situation of border displacement and migration between Ukraine and Poland, it is hopeful that the city of Lviv and the surrounding border region have now become an important centre of humanitarian aid and solidarity between the two countries.

You wish to support the campaign and buy a sweater or a t-shirt? Come and see us (cash payment only!) or write us an email with the billing and delivery address and your desired size. Dispatch is possible. Only while stocks last!

You wish to support the fundraiser and acquire a sweater or a t-shirt?

Vistit us or send us an email with the billing and delivery address and your desired size. Shipping is possible.
Only while stocks last!

The sweater and t-shirts run large, you can find a size chart here!