Tania Bruguera (Kuba/USA)

Tania Bruguera refers to her works as Arte de Conducta, behavioural art. She creates ‘vitro worlds’, laboratory conditions in which she confronts her audience with impressions that elicit extreme feelings. In Havanna, as well at the documenta in Kassel, she created installations that involved her putting visitors in shafts and prison cells; at an exhibition in London, she sent in police with tracker-dogs. Although the officers had been given strict instructions neither to speak to the visitors nor to establish eye contact with them, an oppressive atmosphere nevertheless arose automatically. ‘I am interested in fear, because it’s something that politicians work with, and, more importantly, because it makes it impossible for viewers to pass by a work with a mild smile on their faces. ‘Tania Bruguera does not want to inject reality into art, but art into reality. She consistently takes this path in her new works.’ ‘Instead of creating objects and events, I create temporary institutions with all their inherent contradictions as symbolic capital.’ In her contribution to IN TRANSIT 08 she is presenting a new performance-work as well as she is launching the project "The Migrants" that will be running for an entire year: archives of memories of and for immigrants and emigrants, with a special party, as well as workshops and empowerment strategies.

The Project "The Migrants" is being supported by the Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung.