Tania Bruguera on Why Today’s Art Must Be Political
Cuban artist and activist Tania Bruguera will stage her performance Tatlin’s Whisper #6 in Times Square on May 1 (May Day/International Workers’ Day) at noon on Broadway between 46th and 47th Streets, in a one-hour event organized as part of the Fall of Freedom initiative. First presented at the 2009 Havana Biennial, the work uses a platform and microphone to invite public speech with each participant limited to one minute, and Bruguera has said a later attempt to restage it in Havana led to arrests by state police. In an interview with Hyperallergic, Bruguera described the piece as “arte de conducta” and a “thermometer of the political moment,” arguing that art must be political amid rising authoritarianism and drawing parallels between repression in Cuba and threats to free expression in the United States. The article also notes her view that authoritarianism and totalitarianism can emerge across ideological contexts, citing Hannah Arendt.
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This story was covered in Restitution Reckonings and Scandals Shaking the Art World