Tania Bruguera’s Traveling Autobiographies: A Global Performance

  • Abstract:

    Tania Bruguera’s “travelling” sound installations accompanied by texts and microphones are turning the autobiographical genre into multimedia happenings. Bruguera’s Installations have been exhibited worldwide and are also to be found on the internet. The Cuban artist has spent the last ten years between Havana and Chicago. She is involved in a project called Immigrant Movement International, located in Queens, New York and, more recently, she has been very active in the process of resuming relations between Cuba and the United States. My presentation will focus on Autobiography, a piece in two slightly different versions, one to be staged in Cuba and the other, abroad. I will dwell on the Version inside Cuba, held in the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes during the 8th Havana Biennial (2003). It is this particular work that foregrounds the controversial nature of Bruguera’s art which explores the relationship between art, activism and political power. In Autobiography, Tania Bruguera synthesizes image, sound and video, developing new narrative possibilities which encourage the audience to react. The concept of sound is used as an independent and self-sufficient means capable of creating images in the conscience of the individual. The visualization of her minimalist performance is made possible by the spectator’s memory and knowledge of the experience of the Cuban Revolution. This interaction with the audience elicits images related to the collective emotional memory even as it brings to the fore hitherto unexpressed personal emotions. I will also consider the changes Bruguera introduced in the performances that took place in the US and in Europe. Given the political underpinnings of Bruguera’s art, the paper will question and discuss the implications of what appears to be a revival of militant auto/biographical practices, involving artists and spectators on a worldwide scale.