Tania Bruguera can't leave Cuba, so the Hammer will stage work in her honor

Tania Bruguera can't leave Cuba, so the Hammer will stage work in her honor
Carolina A. Miranda
LOS ANGELES TIMES
carolina.miranda​@latimes.com

The @hammer_museum is restaging a controversial work by Cuban artist
Tania Bruguera on Monday
As part of a special performance, the Hammer invites the public to speak
for 1 minute about free speech
A controversial work of performance art is being staged at the Hammer
Museum on Monday, but the artist who created it will be thousands of
miles away.

Tania Bruguera has been unable to leave Cuba since the end of 2014, when
she was first detained for attempting to stage the piece called
"Tatlin's Whisper #6" in Havana's Revolution Square.

Bruguera, after being detained and released on multiple occasions while
the Cuban government decides whether to pursue criminal charges, is not
currently being detained. But her passport has been confiscated.

The artist was born in Cuba, but normally spends much of her time
teaching and making work abroad. In "Tatlin's Whisper #6," a podium is
set up and members of the public are allowed to step up and express
themselves freely for a period of one minute.

The Hammer will stage "Tatlin's Whisper #6" for two hours on Monday
afternoon in its lobby gallery, even though the museum is generally
closed on that day. The performance is being done in collaboration with
the arts nonprofit Creative Time, which will stage its own version of
the performance on Monday in Times Square. The New York-based
organization has been calling on institutions and the public to join in
and host their own versions of the piece via its Facebook page.

Tania Bruguera on her art, her detentions and what happens next
Allison Agsten, curator of public engagement at the Hammer, says the
museum got on board as a gesture of support for freedom of expression.

"The Hammer is in complete solidarity with Tania," Agsten says. "It is
vital to the work that we do and it is part of the fundamental belief
system of the museum."

The event is also in support of two other Cuban figures who have been
detained for their work: graffiti artist Danilo Maldonado, known as "El
Sexto," and Angel Santiesteban, a dissident blogger — both of whom are
in jail.

Bruguera had staged the work once before in Cuba without incident — at
the 2009 Havana Biennial. But her attempt to do it in Revolution Square,
a public site identified with Castro and the revolution, led to the
detentions and, ultimately, her current state of legal limbo.

For the performance at the Hammer, the museum is setting up a platform
in the lobby that the public will be invited to use.

"Anybody who is here," says Agsten, "will have one minute to speak
uncensored about freedom of expression."


"#YoTambienExijo: A Restaging of Tatlin's Whisper #6," will take place
at the Hammer Museum on Monday from noon to 2 p.m. 10899 Wilshire Blvd.,
Los Angeles, hammer.ucla.edu.

Source: Tania Bruguera can't leave Cuba, so the Hammer will stage work
in her honor - LA Times -
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/miranda/la-et-cam-hammer-museum-to-stage-cuban-artist-tania-bruguera-work-20150408-column.html