Tania Bruguera was born in 1968 in Havana, Cuba. As a politically motivated performance artist, she explores the relationship between art, activism, and social change in works that examine the social effects of political and economic power. By creating proposals and aesthetic models for others to use and adapt, she often collaborates with multiple institutions as well as many individuals. She expands the definition and range of performance art in both solo and participatory performances that build on her own observations, experiences, and interpretations of the politics of repression and control.
Tania has explored both the promise and failings of the Cuban Revolution in performances that provoke viewers to consider the political realities masked by government propaganda and mass-media interpretation. Advancing the concept of arte útil, she proposes solutions to sociopolitical problems through the implementation of art, and has developed long-term projects that include a community center and a political party for immigrants, and a school for behavior art. She attended art schools in Havana, including the Instituto Superior de Arte (1987-92), and received an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2001).
Tania received a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship (1998), and has been awarded many successive residencies in numerous counties around the world. She lives and works in Queens, New York.
