Tania Bruguera: Cuban born artist Tania Bruguera, who divides her time between New York and Havana, makes performances exploring issues of power and control, social responsibility, art ethics, and civil society. Her art, which often involves multi–year projects, blurs the border between creativity and resistance, utopia and reality, artistic practice and activism. In addition to performances, she has created videos and installations, and initiatives such as #yotambienexijo and Immigrant Movement International.

She has conceived of “Arte Útil,” which aims to transform some aspects of society through the implementation of art, transcending symbolic representation or metaphor and proposing solutions for what she calls “deficits in reality.” The Arte Útil Association, created by Bruguera in 2011, provides a platform to meet, exchange ideas, and share strategies on how to implement the merger of art into society. The association works in an open manner through discussions, printed texts, group actions, and public events examining what it means to create Arte Útil.

Bruguera’s work has been shown throughout the world, including at MOMA, Centre Pompidou, and the Tate Collection. She is the recipient of numerous awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship.

In December 2014, in order to publically discuss the new situation that emerged after the opening of a dialogue between Cuba and the United States, Bruguera unsuccessfully attempted to re–enact a performance giving one minute of free expression on a microphone to whoever wanted to speak. The Cuban government stopped the performance; now, her passport withheld, she awaits a decision about three criminal charges. More than 2500 international artists and intellectuals have signed a letter in her support. The work in question, “Tatlin’s Whisper #6,” is being internationally performed as a demand for her release.
http://www.taniabruguera.com