Tania Bruguera

She was born Tania Brugueras, the daughter of diplomat and politician Miguel Brugueras, but aged 18 changed her name to Bruguera, "her first act of political rebellion".[5]

With her father being a diplomat and minister in the Fidel Castro government, Tania moved three times throughout her childhood. Her father's career took the family to Paris (1973–1974), Lebanon (1974–1977), and Panama (1977–1979). In 1979, two years after her third move, Bruguera decided to return to Cuba.[6]

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.[7][3][2] 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 through 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.[3][8][9]

Tania Bruguera's 1997 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.[10][11] Bruguera interpreted their act of eating dirt as "a weapon of resistance."[10] In her performance, Bruguera stood, naked, with a lamb carcass hanging from her neck, creating both a physical and symbolic burden.[10] For 45 minutes, she consumed soil mixed with water and salt, representing tears.[10][12] 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."[12]

In 1998–9 Tania created a behavior art piece titled "Desierro," which translates into ‘displacement’ in English.[13] This piece of work resembles the power figure ‘Nikis Nkonde’ and is supposed to draw attention to the empty promises the Cuban government made to its people during the revolution.[13] With this piece of art Tania calls upon the Cuban people to take an active stance and demands from the Cuban government to finally fulfill their promises.[13]

In 2002 Tania Bruguera founded the Cátedra Arte de Conducta (Behavior Art School) in Havana to provide a space for the training of alternative art studies in contemporary Cuban society.[14] The focus of the Cátedra was to educate Cubans on diverse styles of art, and to show how art could be used as a tool for the transformation of ideology.[14]

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.[15][16][17] 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."[15][18]

In 2011, Bruguera began working on Immigrant Movement International, a multi-part artwork expected to continue through 2015.[19] Bruguera began in 2011 by spending a year living in a small apartment in Corona, Queens, with five immigrants and their children.[9] She was interested in experiencing some problems immigrants without residency papers encountered trying to survive on low pay and without health insurance.[9] 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.[9]

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.[19] The exhibition space contained four reproductions of signs from Nazi labor camps.[19]

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).[20] 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.[21] Alistair Hudson, director of the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (MIMA) is co-director with Bruguera of the Asociación.

In 2017, Bruguera proposed herself as a candidate in the 2018 Cuban Presidential Election in a video called #YoMePropongo en Cuba. In this project, she challenges the audience to imagine what they would do to create a better future Cuba, if they were elected president. To date, Bruguera has received 70 video responses from everyday Cubans expressing their desires to reform the corrupt government, include affordable housing, and improve their weak economy.[22]

In 2018, she was the recipient of a commission for the Tate Modern's Turbine Hall.[23] For the installation, Bruguera covered part of the floor with heat-sensitive black paint; when visitors sat or lay upon it, part of a vast portrait of a Syrian refugee beneath was revealed. Curator Catherine Wood explained, "It is a call to action, because there's no way that you can see this picture unless you join together with many, many other people."[24]

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).[2] 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.[2]

• 2018: Inga Maren Otto Fellowship. The Watermill Center. Long Island, New York, United States.[46]
• 2013: Meadows Prize. Meadows School of Art and The Meadows Foundation. Texas, United States.
• 2012: Honorary Committee. 40 Years of Latino Arts & Culture. El Museo del Barrio. New York, United States.
• 2012: Derek Williams Trust Purchase Award. Amgueddfa Cymru — National Museum Wales, Contemporary Art Collection. Wales, United Kingdom. 
• 2012: Artes Mundi Finalist. National Museum of Art. Wales, United Kingdom.
• 2011: Mid-Career Artist CIFO Grant. Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation. Florida, United States.
• 2011: Best Show in a University Gallery in 2010: “Tania Bruguera: On the Political Imaginary.” AICA Awards. New York, United States.
• 2011: The Bronx Museum of the Art's recognition. The Bronx Museum of the Arts. New York, United States.
• 2010: Biennial Competition Award. The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation. New York, United States.
• 2009: Ordway Prize Finalist. Creative Link for the Arts / The New Museum. New York, United States. 1st Neuberger Prize. Neuberger Museum. New York, United States.
• 2008: Prince Claus Award. Prince Claus Fund. Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
• 2007: European Commission for Descentralized Cooperation. European Union.
• 2005: Fundación Amistad Travel Grant Support. Fundación Amistad. New York, United States.
• 2002–2004: Cuban Arts Fund Grant. Cuban Arts Fund. New York, United States.
• 2001: MFA Graduate Fellowship, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Illinois, United States.
• 2001: Odyssey Travel Grant. The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Chicago. Illinois, Chicago.
• 2000: Prince Claus Grant. Prince Claus Fund. Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
• 1999: Merit Scholarship. The School of The Art Institute of Chicago. Illinois, United States.
• 1998: Fellowship. The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. New York, United States.

• Art21 episode featuring Tania Bruguera https://art21.org/artist/tania-bruguera/
• Dignity Does Not Rest: An Interview with Tania Bruguera, MoMA Magazine
• Tania Bruguera, Untitled (Havana 2000) at The Museum of Modern Art
• Hear Bruguera speak about her work Untitled (Havana 2000)
• Official webpage of the artist
• Interview with Paul O'neil in Bomb Magazine
• Tania Bruguera: the more the secret police torture me, the better my art gets, The Guardian
• Tania Bruguera: Yale World Follows
• Tania Bruguera: Rebel with a Cause