Tania Bruguera

Tania Bruguera

Havana City, Havanna, 31 March 2009
Born 1968 (age 47–48)
Havana, Cuba
Alma mater Instituto Superior de Arte,
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Known for Performance art, installation, and video
Awards Guggenheim Fellowship (1998), Prince Claus Prize (2000)
Website http://www.taniabruguera.com

Tania Bruguera (born 1968 in Havana, Cuba) is a Cuban installation and performance artist. Bruguera lives and works between New York and Havana.

Biography

Bruguera studied at the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana and then earned an M.F.A. in performance from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.[1][2][3]

She is the founder and director of Catédra Arte de Conducta (behavior art school), the first performance studies program in Latin America, which is hosted by Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana.

From 2003 – 2010, she was an Assistant Professor at the Department of Visual Arts of The University of Chicago, United States and is an invited professor at the Università Iuav di Venezia in Venice, Italy.[2][4][5]

On January 2, 2015, she was freed after having had three back-to-back detentions in three days, and after over a thousand artists worldwide signed an open letter to Raúl Castro calling for her release.[6]

Work

Bruguera's work pivots around issues of power and control, and several of her works interrogate and re-present events in Cuban history.[2]

Her 1998 work The Burden of Guilt (El peso de la culpa) was the artist's take on a story that indigenous people in Cuba vowed to eat dirt and nothing else rather than be the captives of the Spanish conquistadors.[7] Bruguera interpreted their act of eating dirt as "a weapon of resistance."[7] In her performance, Bruguera stood, naked, with a lamb carcass hanging from her neck, creating both a physical and symbolic burden.[7] For 45 minutes, she consumed soil mixed with water and salt representing tears.[7][8] As Edward Rubin described it, "The harrowing piece was first performed in Havana, where the audience was duly reminded that freedom, liberty and self-determination are not abstract ideals, but achievements that deeply inscribe their meaning on our physical being."[8]

A March 2009 performance by Tania Bruguera at an arts centre in Havana has been involved in controversy. During the performance Bruguera put up a microphone and told people in attendance they could say whatever they wanted for one minute. Various of the attendees use the opportunity to ask for “freedom” and “democracy”. One of these was the awarded blogger Yoani Sánchez.[9][10][11] The Cuban government denounced this in a statement saying that it considered “this to be an anti-cultural event of shameful opportunism that offends Cuban artists and foreigners who came to offer their work and solidarity."[9][12]

In 2011, Bruguera began working on Immigrant Movement International, a multi-part artwork expected to continue through 2015.[13] Bruguera began in 2011 by spending a year living in a small apartment in Corona, Queens, with five illegal immigrants and their children.[5] She was interested in experiencing some problems illegal immigrants encountered trying to survive on low pay and without health insurance.[5] The project, funded by the Queens Museum of Art and a nonprofit arts group called Creative Time, also involved opening a storefront in New York where Bruguera wanted to hold arts workshops for immigrants, but found that most of the people who came to the store were interested in learning English or help finding employment or legal aid.[5] As part of the work, Bruguera has launched an Immigrant Respect Awareness Campaign and launched an international day of actions on 18 December 2011 (which the UN has designated International Migrants Day), in which other artists will also make work about immigration.[13] In 2012, she presented Surplus Value, a participatory work as part of the larger project of Immigrant Movement International. In order to enter Surplus Value, museum visitors waited in a long line, and some were randomly allowed to enter, while others were submitted to lie detector tests asking about their travel history.[13] The exhibition space contained four reproductions of signs from Nazi labor camps.[13]

In 2013 she initiated the project The Museum of Arte Útil in collaboration with Queens Museum of Art in New York and the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven (NL).[14] Arte Útil in Spanish roughly translates as useful art, but also suggests art as a device or tool. Arte Útil imagines, creates and implements socially beneficial outcomes. The Museum of Arte Útil evolved in the Asociación de Arte Útil, a new, international membership organisation that seeks to promote and implement Arte Útil.[15]

Bruguera has participated in numerous international exhibitions, including Documenta 11 (2002), the Bienal Iberoamericana in Lima, Peru (2002), the Istanbul Biennial (2003), the Shanghai Biennale (2004), and the Gwangju Biennale in Gwangju, Korea (2008).[3] Her work is also in the permanent collections of many institutions around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art and Bronx Museum of the Arts in New York and the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de La Habana.[3]

Bruguera was arrested and freed three times between December 2014 and January 2015[16][17][18] for having organized a public performance in La Havana’s Plaza de la Revolución. She was detained with several other Cuban artists, activists, bloggers and journalists who participated in Yo Tambien Exijo campaign. The campaign arose after Raúl Castro and Barak Obama’s declarations on December 17th, 2014[19][20] about  the restoration of diplomatic ties, potentially bringing an end to five decades of hostility. The first arrests were made on Tuesday, December 30th after Bruguera called a public performance whose aim was to leave an open microphone so that Cubans could freely express their thoughts. The performance, titled Tatlin’s wisper #6 – Havana Version, was already staged in 2009 during the 10th Havana Biennial.[21]

The event has attracted widespread media coverage[22][23][24][25][26] both in favour and against her action and a public letter[27] in support of Tania addressed to Raúl Castro was written and signed by over a thousand people around the globe. The petter stated: ‘We firmly believe her detention, and the withdrawal of her Cuban passport, are inappropriate responses to a work of art that simply sought to open space for public discussion.’ Eventually she was released and the Cuban government returned Tania Bruguera’s passport on 10 July 2015, six months after confiscating it.[28]

Speaking in December 2015, Bruguera said that she still may return to Cuba. She said that at the time of her detention she only agreed to leave under two conditions: that dissidents who were arrested after attending her aborted performance in Revolution Square be release; and that the Cuban government give her a signed and stamped letter guaranteeing that she could return to Cuba.[29]

On March 3, 2016 she launched a Kickstarter campaign to rais funds for INSTAR (Institute of Artivism Hannah Arendt). The Institute is about creating bridges of trust where there is no fear of each other; to create a peaceful and considered response where there is violence; to create a place where people with different political views can come together to build a better country.[30]

Exhibitions

2004 Dated Flesh Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, United States Solo
2004 Art Projects Art Basel, Miami, United States Group
2004 Shangai Bienale Shangai, China Group
2004 Island Nations Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Rhode Island, United States Group
2003 Esercizio di resistenza Franco Soffiantino Gallery, Turin, Italy Solo
2003 Autobiografia Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana, Cuba Solo
2003 The Royal, royal trip PS1, New York, New York Group
2003 Untitled Palacio del Patio Herreriano, Valladollid, Spain Group
2003 Poetic Justice 8th Istanbul Bienale, Istanbul, Turkey Group
2003 The living museum Museum fur Modern Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany Group
2002 Ingeniero de almas Palacio de Abrantes, Salamanca, Spain Solo
2002 Tania Bruguera – Ghada Amer San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, California, United States Solo
2002 Fusion Cuisine Deste Foundation, Athens, Greece Group
2002 Extreme Existance Pratt Institute. New York Group
2002 Documenta 11 Kassel, Germany Group
2002 The Stone and water Helsinki Art Museum, Helsinki, Finland Group
2002 No place IFA Gallery, Bonn, Germany Group
2002 III Bienal de Lima Lima, Peru Group
2002 Untitled F.A.I.R The Royal College, London Group
2001 La isla en peso Casa de las Américas, Havana Solo
2001 Tania Bruguera LiebmanMagnan Gallery, New York Solo
2001 A little bit of history repeated Kunst Werte, Berlin, Germany Group
2001 Mercancias Espacio C, Cantabria, Spain Group
2001 Span International Performance Arts Residency Project, London, United Kingdom Group
2001 The Plateau of Humankind 49th Venice Bienal, Venice, Italy Group
2001 Do you have time? LiebmanMagnan Gallery, New York Group
2000 Uno mas cerca del otro, VII Bienal de la Habana Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabaña, Galería de Contraminas de San Ambrosio, La Habana Group
2000 Arte all Arte, 5th edition Fortezza di Poggio Imperiale, Arte Continua, Poggibonsi, Tuscany, Italy Group
2000 Exotica Incognita 3rd. Kwangju Bienale, Kwangju Group
2000 Cutting Edge ARCO: Feria de Arte Contemporáneo, Recinto Ferial Juan Carlos I Madrid, Spain Group
1999 Recent work Vera van Laer Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium Solo
1999 Videodrome The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York Group
1999 Utopia-Distopia 8va. Muestra Internacional de Performance, Mexico City, Mexico Group
1999 Looking for a Place, III International Biennial SITE Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States Group
1999 Happening Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Gent, Belgium Group
1999 Cuba – Maps of desire Kunsthalle Wien, Austria Group
1998 Art in Freedom Boymans van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam, The Netherlands Group
1998 The Garden of Forking Paths Helsinski City Art Museum, Helsinski, Finland Group
1998 II Salón de Arte Contemporáneo Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Wifredo Lam, La Habana Group
1998 Obsesiones Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Wifredo Lam, Havana Group
1998 De discretas autorías. Cuba y Venezuela: Nuevas poéticas Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Mario Abreu, Maracay, Venezuela Group
1998 Fragmentos a su imán Galería Latinoamericana, Casa de las Américas, Havana Group
1998 III Bienal Barro de América Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, Venezuela Group
1998 Desde el cuerpo: Alegorías de lo femenino Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas Group
1997 El peso de la culpa Tejadillo 214, Havana Solo
1997 Anima The School of the Art Institute of Chicago,Illinois, U.S Solo
1997 Trade routes, 2nd Johannesburg Biennale The Electric Workshop, Johannesburg, South Africa Group
1997 1990's Art from Cuba, a national residency and exhibition program Betty Rymer Gallery The School of the Art Institute, Chicago Group
1997 Trabajo por cuenta propia acultad de Artes y Letras, University of Havana, Havana Group
1997 New Art from Cuba: Utopic Territories Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada Group
1997 Las mieles del silencio Galería Latinoamericana, Casa de las Américas, Havana Group
1997 El ocultamiento de las almas Centro de Desarrollo de las Artes Visuales, Havana Group
1996 Cabeza abajo Espacio Aglutinador, Havana Solo
1996 Lágrimas de tránsito Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Wifredo Lam, Havana Solo
1996 23rd Sao Paolo International Biennial Parque do Ibirapuera, Sao Paolo, Brazil Group
1996 La carne Espacio Aglutinador, Havana Group
1996 I Salón Internacional de Estandartes Centro Cultural Tijuana, Tijuana, México Group
1996 Otras Escri(p)turas Centro Provincial de Artes Plásticas y Diseño, Havana Group
1996 Un giro de tuerca Galería Taller de Serigrafía René Portocarrero, Havana Group
1996 Mujeres por mujeres Galería Imago, Gran Teatro de la Habana, Havana Group
1995 Lo que me corresponde Artist's home, Havana Solo
1995 Soñando, with Fernando Rodriguez Gasworks Studios Gallery, London, England Solo
1995 1st Contemporary Art Competition Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana Group
1995 II Bienal del Barro Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Lía Bermudez, Maracaibo, Venezuela Group
1995 La Isla Posible Centro di Cultura Contemporania, Barcelona, Spain Group
1995 New Art from Cuba Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, England Group
1995 Las formas de la tierra Galería Buades, Madrid Group
1994 La otra orilla, V Havana Biennial Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro, Centro Wifredo Lam, Havana Group
1994 Una brecha entre el cielo y la tierra Centro Provincial de Artes Plásticas y Diseño, Havana Group
1994 Utopía Galería Espada, Casa del Joven Creador, Havana Group
1994 Catálogo Galería Catálogo, Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba, Havana Group
1994 Salón de la Ciudad '94 Centro Provincial de Artes Plásticas y Diseño, Havana Group
1993 Memoria de la postguerra Galería Plaza Vieja, Havana Solo
1993 XI International Drawing Biennial Middlesbrough Fine Arts Museum, Cleveland, England Group
1993 La nube en pantalones Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana Group
1993 Dibujo no te olvido Centro de Desarrollo de las Artes Visuales, Havana Group
1992 Ana Mendieta. Sala Polivalente Centro de Desarrollo de las Artes Visuales, Havana Solo
1992 2nd International Poster Biennial Museo José Luis Cuevas. Mexico City Group
1989 II Festival de la Creación y la investigación Instituto Superior de Arte, Havana Group
1989 Fotografía manipulada, workshop’s exhibition Fototeca de Cuba, Havana Group
1988 No por mucho madrugar amanece más temprano Fototeca de Cuba, Havana Group
1987 I Festival de la Creación y la investigación Instituto Superior de Arte, Havana Group
1986 Marilyn is alive Galeria Leopoldo Romañach. Academia de San Alejandro, Havana Solo
1986 Proteo,Galería Leopoldo Romañach Academia de Artes Plásticas San Alejandro, Havana Group

Awards

References

  1. ↑ Curriculum Vitae
  2. 1 2 3 IUAV, Faculty of Arts & Design
  3. 1 2 3 Reilly and Nochlin, Eds (2007). Global Feminisms: New Directions in Contemporary Art. London and New York: Merrell. p. 270.
  4. ↑ University of Chicago, Department of Visual Arts
  5. 1 2 3 4 Dolnick, Sam (May 18, 2011). "An Artist’s Performance: A Year as a Poor Immigrant". New York Times. Retrieved May 17, 2013.
  6. ↑ "Artist Tania Bruguera and Others Detained in Havana [UPDATED]". fredlarson123.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Bruguera, Tania. "The Burden of Guilt". Tania Bruguera. Retrieved May 17, 2013.
  8. 1 2 Rubin, Edward. "Art in America Featured Installation by Cuban Artist at Neuberger Museum". Artes Magazine. Retrieved May 17, 2013.
  9. 1 2 Reuters, Cuba accuses blogger of "provocation".
  10. ↑ The Miami Herald, Artist's work lets Cubans speak out in Havana for freedom
  11. ↑ La Repubblica, Cuba, blogger sul palco per un grido di libertà.
  12. ↑ La Jiribilla:, Declaración del Comité Organizador de la Décima Bienal de La Habana.
  13. 1 2 3 4 "Tania Bruguera: Immigrant Movement International". Tate Modern. Retrieved May 17, 2013.
  14. ↑ "Museum of Arte Útil".
  15. ↑ "Asociación de Arte Útil".
  16. ↑ Archibold, Randal C. (2015-01-01). "Cuba Again Arrests Artist Seeking Dissidents’ Release". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
  17. ↑ "Artist Tania Bruguera Arrested Again in Havana, Injured by Police". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
  18. ↑ "Tania Bruguera on her art, her detentions and what happens next". latimes.com. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
  19. ↑ "Statement by the President on Cuba Policy Changes". whitehouse.gov. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
  20. ↑ York, Alan Yuhas in New. "Obama and Castro hail historic breakthrough for US-Cuba relations – as it happened". the Guardian. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
  21. ↑ "Tatlin's Whisper #6 (Havana version)".
  22. ↑ "How Tania Bruguera’s Free Speech Performance Was Mishandled, and Misreported, in Cuba". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
  23. ↑ "On the detention of Cuban artist Tania Bruguera, by Coco Fusco | e-flux". www.e-flux.com. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
  24. ↑ "Tania Bruguera’s 2014 Whisper Performance – artnet News". artnet News. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
  25. ↑ "Tania Bruguera’s Tatlin’s Whisper #6 and the Hannah Arendt International Institute for Artivism | Art Agenda". www.art-agenda.com. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
  26. ↑ Hoby, Hermione (2015-10-13). "Tania Bruguera: the more the secret police torture me, the better my art gets". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
  27. ↑ "Libertad a Tania Bruguera / Free Tania Bruguera". Google Docs. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
  28. ↑ name, Site. "Cuban authorities return Tania Bruguera's passport but a further arrest and release ensues / Art Review". artreview.com. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
  29. ↑ "Cuban Artist Tania Bruguera Speaks the Truth". W Magazine. 2015-12-02. Retrieved 2015-12-29.
  30. ↑ "Institute of Artivism / Instituto de Artivismo Hannah Arendt". Kickstarter. Retrieved 2016-03-05.

External links

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