“On behalf of free Cubans everywhere, I challenge you to deny any regime that is based on fear.”
Multi-city performances of Tania Bruguera’s “Tatlin’s Whisper #6,” for which the artist was arrested earlier this year, called attention to oppression in all its forms on Monday and demonstrated the reach of Bruguera’s protest piece beyond her native Cuba.
New York’s performance found artists and supporters making themselves heard in a crowded Times Square (Creative Time.)
The performances were staged by Creative Time, and saw supporters gather at museums and prominent public space in New York, Dallas, Chicago, Rome and Rotterdam to speak their mind for one minute at a time. The Voice Project was present at the performance in New York’s Times Square, where we read our open letter to Raúl Castro and María Esther Reus González, Cuba’s President and Minister of Justice.
#YoTambienExijo :”Freedom has a price, and artists like Tania & El Sexto know that. But art, like light, is eternal.” pic.twitter.com/isb6xuQwSa
— The Voice Project (@thevoiceproject) April 13, 2015
Demonstrators made it clear that freedom of expression is not only a Cuban issue, but a global one. In Times Square, between messages of solidarity with Tania and her fellow artists imprisoned in Cuba were rallying cries to the United States, with one speaker under the pseudonym Dred Scott, using his minute to call for an end to systemic racial injustice. Others drew attention to limits to free speech regarding the environment, and the Citizens United ruling.
“We cannot deny that free speech in America depends on economics.” on Citizens United, Ferguson at #YoTambienExijo pic.twitter.com/0FHxTaHVY1 — The Voice Project (@thevoiceproject) April 13, 2015
Each speaker, in keeping with the guidelines for performance established by Bruguera in her original piece, among them that “all reviews are welcome” and that “this work is an art space where we can all design our desires and our human imaginations,” spoke with two activists acting as guards on either side and a white dove placed I n their shoulder. The other aesthetic particulars of each performance were up to the host, and each venue approached this differently, with settings ranging from public soapboxes to museums to mock jail cells.
In Los Angeles, a mock jail cell was used for the performance (Creative Time.)
Other speakers drew attention to human rights violations in China, other artists oppressed for their work around the world, and the rights of immigrants (outspokenly supported by Tania Bruguera for years.)
“Dignity has no nationality.” – Immigrant Movement International at #YoTambienExijo in Times Square pic.twitter.com/JYCLg3wc15
— The Voice Project (@thevoiceproject) April 13, 2015
The overwhelming message of the performance was one not of defeat, but rather one of solidarity, hope, and defiance. The global importance of freedom of expression, at the very core of the artwork, was essential to each message, as supporters worked to ensure that any silenced voice would be met with a multitude of others in support.
You can add your voice to ours in The Voice Project’s campaign for Tania here.