Faced with Tania Bruguera's impossibility of traveling from Havana to Buenos Aires, since her passport is still retained by authorities, the Bienal de Performance BP.15 sent a representative who shot a long record of Bruguera's performance in Havana, and an exclusive interview with the artist.
On May 20, 2015 at 10 a.m., the artist Tania Bruguera began her 100-hour uninterrupted reading of Hannah Arendt's The Origins of Totalitarianism. With this act, she founded the 'Hannah Arendt' International Institute of Artivism, which comprises four different labs on Useful Art, Behavior Art, Applied Arts, and AEST-ethics.
Between May 20 and 24, different situations arose when a simple reading of Arendt's book led to a complex collective performance between the artist, the participants of the workshop, and different official representatives.
We invite you to participate of the first public presentation of these archives, along with the exhibition of selected material.
Date: June 7
Time: 5 pm
Venue: Centro de Arte Experimental UNSAM
Tickets: Free admission. Limited capacity.
Production BP.15
Curated by Andrea Giunta
Tania Bruguera 1968, Havana, Cuba.
She works and lives in Havana, Cuba
and Chicago, United States.
Interdisciplinary artist whose work focuses mainly on behavior art, performance, installation, and video, Bruguera defines her work as "useful art", using it as a tool for the transformation of certain aspects of society. She studied at the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes San Alejandro (Havana, Cuba) and earned an MFA from the School of Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, United States) and the Instituto Superior de Arte (Havana, Cuba), where she has founded the program of Behavior Art, focused on the analysis and debate of the sociopolitical behavior, and the understanding of art as a tool for ideological transformation. She was artist in residence of various institutions, such as the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (New York, United States); San Francisco Art Institute (San Francisco, United States); Khoj International Artists' Association (New Delhi, India); Headlands Center for the Arts (California, United States); Western Front Society (Vancouver, Canada); Gasworks Studio (London, England), and OMI International Arts Center (New York, United States). She participated in dOCUMENTA (Kassel, Germany, 2002), as well as in numerous international art biennials, such as Liverpool (England, 2010); Venice (Italy, 2009); Shanghai (China, 2004); SITE Santa Fe (United States, 1999); Johannesburg (South Africa, 1997); São Paulo (Brazil, 1996), and Havana (Cuba; 1994, 1997, 2000, 2003 and 2009). Her work has been exhibited at the New Museum (New York, United States); Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (Chicago, United States); Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (Rotterdam, Netherlands); Museum für Moderne Kunst (Frankfurt, Germany); Whitechapel Gallery (London, England); Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Wifredo Lam (Havana, Cuba), and the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Havana, Cuba). She presented performances at the Kunsthalle Wien (Vienna, Austria); Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (Ghent, Belgium); Museo Ex Teresa Arte Actual (Mexico City, Mexico); Museo de Bellas Artes (Caracas, Venezuela), and at the Institute of International Visual Art (London, England). She gave many conferences internationally at The New School (New York, United States); School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, United States); Royal College of Art (London, England), and at the Museum of Modern Art (New York, United States). She received important awards such as the Guggenheim Fellowship (United States, 1998); the Prince Claus Award (Netherlands, 2000) and the Meadows Prize (United States, 2013-2014). Her projects can be classified under three main categories: "Long-term Projects", "Short-term Projects" and "Collaborations". Among the projects of the first category we find Homenaje a Ana Mendieta, exhibited at No por mucho madrugar amanece más temprano (Fototeca de Cuba, Havana, Cuba, 1988); La nube en pantalones (Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana, Cuba, 1993); Anima. The Visible and the Invisible: Representing the Body in Contemporary Art and Society (St. Pancras Church, International Institute of Visual Arts, London, England 1996); The Life of Others. Repetition and Survival (Akbank Sanat International Curator Competition 2012's winning proposal, Istanbul, Turkey); Behavior Art program, presented at the Sound Exhibition (Centro de Desarrollo de las Artes Visuales, Havana, Cuba, 2003); Centrífuga (Centro de Desarrollo de las Artes Visuales, Havana, Cuba, 2004); Ni a favor ni en contra, todo lo contrario (Facultad de Artes y Letras, Universidad de La Habana, Havana, Cuba, 2007); Defensa eslava (Mall Carlos III, Havana, Cuba, 2008), and Inmigrant Movement International (still implemented). Chief among her "Short-Term Projects" include IP Détournement (Centre Pompidou, Paris, France, 2010); La huelga general (Pac Murcia, Dominó Caníbal, Murcia, Spain, 2010); Surplus Value, exhibited at Phronesis (Galería Juana de Aizpuru, Madrid, Spain, 2010); El susurro de Tatlin #6, exhibited at Under the Same Sun (Guggenheim UBS MAP, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, United states, 2014); Unresolved Circumstances: Video Art from Latin America (Museum of Latin American Art, California, United States, 2011); Que Faire? Art, Film, Politique (Centre Pompidou, Paris, France, 2010); El susurro de Tatlin #5, exhibited at Cavalli e Cavalieri (Museo d’Arte Provincia di Nuoro, Nuoro, Italy, 2012), and UBS Openings: Live the Living Currency (Tate Modern, London, England, 2008), among others. Among her projects in "Collaboration" are: El acuerdo de Marsella, co-authored by artist Jorge Luis “Jota” Castro, exhibited at Persona Ficta (Curatorial Studies Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, New York, United States, 2013), and Tania Bruguera: On the Political Imaginary, (Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, State University of New York, New York, United States, 2010); An Object for TH - Disciplined Trust, next to Thomas Hirschhorn (2009-2010), and Autobiography (The Remix), with Achy Obejas, exhibited at Maintenant, Ici, Là-bas [Now, Here, Over There] (Frac Lorraine, Metz, France, 2003).
1st Performance Biennial
April 27 thru June 7, 2015
Argentina 2015
2015 Biennial