14ymedio, Havana, 28 October 2022 — Cuban artist and professor Tania Bruguera has been selected to join the U.S. National Academy of Design, along with 16 other figures from the world of architecture and the arts.
The institution, which made its decision last Saturday, defines Bruguera in a statement as “a performance artist who seeks her motivation in politics,” and who explores the link between “art, activism and social change.”
Among the achievements that support her entry into the Academy is her expansion of “the definition and degree of performance art, sometimes alone but very often through participatory events and interactions,” which interpret “the policy of repression and control.”
Bruguera, who currently resides in Queens (New York, USA), was born in Havana in 1968. Her nomination to the Academy, founded in 1825, was promoted by its members, a group of about 450 intellectuals, architects and artists who live and work in the United States.
The winners must offer the Academy some of their most representative work, which then becomes part of the art collection, one of the most notable on the continent, and which will be exhibited in 2023.
Along with Bruguera, Laurie Anderson, Edgar Arceneaux, Radcliffe Bailey, Deborah Berke, Huma Bhabha, J. Yolande Daniels, Leonardo Drew, Nicole Eisenman, Julie Eizenberg, Hank Koning, Rick Lowe, Jean Shin, Arthur Simms, Michael Van Valkenburgh, Dan Walsh and Nari Ward were incorporated into the Academy.
Tania Bruguera studied in the Cuban capital and at the Art Institute of Chicago. She has been featured in international events such as Documenta Kassel and the biennials of Venice, São Paulo, Shanghai and Havana, in addition to being the founder of the Hannah Arendt International Institute of Artivism.
Her pieces and performances have been exhibited at the Tate Modern in London, the Santa Monica Museum of Art, the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum in the Netherlands, the New Museum in New York, and the Wifredo Lam Contemporary Art Centre in Havana.
She has earned important international recognitions and awards, such as the Guggenheim Scholarship (USA), the Prince Claus Prize (Netherlands), the Meadows Prize (USA) and the Velázquez Prize (Spain).
Bruguera combines her artistic work with activism in favor of creative freedom and expression. Linked to the creators who protested before the Ministry of Culture of Cuba, on November 27, 2020, she has been one of the most critical voices against the Island’s regime for years.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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