The Project entitled Immigrant Movement International by Cuban artist Tania Bruguera will be inaugurated on July 30 at The Tanks, the new exhibition space of the Tate Modern. This is a venue exclusively dedicated to the exhibition of performances, installations, and film works. It will be officially launched on July 18 of this year, as part of the closing events of The London 2012 Cultural Olympiad.
Bruguera's work is presented in Tank 2. It is one among several projects aimed at approaching the history of performance art and cinema in an interdisciplinary manner. It will be presented alongside other works commissioned to be part of focus groups that will require the active and explorative involvement of participants.
Immigrant Movement International is a long-term project jointly presented by Creative Time and the Queens Museum of Art. It began in 2010 and it will finish by the end of 2015. Bruguera conceived this project as a socio-political movement approached from an artistic perspective. Its main location is in the neighborhood of Corona Queens, in New York City. Since 2010, Bruguera has focused on working with local and international communities, public service organizations, public representatives, and artists who address the theme of immigration reform and who explore and delve into the issue of political representation and the conditions immigrants are forced to face. For the purposes of the project, the term "immigrants" is defined as: any given group of people who live outside their place of origin and who left behind a common language, nationality, ethnicity, etc. Through public workshops, events, actions, and alliances with social and immigrant organizations, reasons and meanings are explored—along with any shared values—that pertain to those defined as immigrants. The inquiry never loses sight of the project's central question: what does it mean to be a citizen of the world? Bruguera developed a manifesto and launched a public awareness campaign that advocated respect toward immigrants and that prompted other actions around the world by other artists. It began on December 18 of 2011, on the same day that the UN celebrates the International Migrants Day.
For this occasion, Bruguera will occupy Tank 2 as a residence to continue this questioning of a global problematic from an artistic perspective. Part of the project involves artists, the public, immigration attorneys, politicians, and non-profit organizations, in a debate about the political representation and conditions faced by immigrants.
Some of the methodologies and interests incorporated by this artist in earlier works are also part of this project. The project's modus operandi and intentionality clearly reflects Bruguera's goal of creating art that is practical—in which the socio-political elements serve as tools or currency to actively target the cultural power structures—and not just merely representative. Likewise, Bruguera has always been interested in conceiving the museum space as a forum, as a space for socio-political participation through art.
The project by Tania Bruguera at The Tanks is one among the many projects that will be showcased throughout a festival that includes the participation of 40 emerging and consolidated artists.