Office of Useful Art Talks: Tania Bruguera
Political Timing
Salt Galata
November 16, 2019 15.00
Tania Bruguera, Displacement, 1998-1999
Courtesy the artist
Courtesy the artist
Floor 3, Office of Useful Art
The public programs by the Office of Useful Art, a two-year project conducted in collaboration with the Asociación de Arte Útil, will be concluded with Tania Bruguera’s talk. Artist and co-director of the association, Bruguera will explore the notion of political-timing-specific art and its role in her practice. A term developed by Bruguera, “political timing specific” is a work method in which the piece is linked to and depends of the political circumstances in the moment it is made or exhibited. It is a type of work created to exist at a specific political moment and, therefore, once the moment goes by, the piece loses its potential political impact and tends to become a document of that specific political moment.
The program will be held in English.
Established in September 2017 on the third floor of SALT Galata, the Office of Useful Art initiated research on case studies of artworks matching the definition of “useful art” from Turkey and surrounding regions. It provided a platform for in-depth discussions of social and political impact of art in contemporary world. For further information about the Asociación de Arte Útil platform, its international participants, and the list of case studies from the archive by category and year: www.arte-util.org
Tania Bruguera is a Cuban artist based in New York and Havana. Her installations and performances often expose the social effects of political and economic power. Her work has been presented at international exhibitions and institutions including documenta 11, the 56th Venice Biennale, Tate Modern (London), Guggenheim and MoMA (New York). She established the Arte de Conducta (Behavior Art) program at Instituto Superior de Arte in 1998, and the Hannah Arendt International Institute for Artivism—a school, an exhibition space and a think tank for activists, artists, and Cubans—in 2015 in Havana.
The public programs by the Office of Useful Art, a two-year project conducted in collaboration with the Asociación de Arte Útil, will be concluded with Tania Bruguera’s talk. Artist and co-director of the association, Bruguera will explore the notion of political-timing-specific art and its role in her practice. A term developed by Bruguera, “political timing specific” is a work method in which the piece is linked to and depends of the political circumstances in the moment it is made or exhibited. It is a type of work created to exist at a specific political moment and, therefore, once the moment goes by, the piece loses its potential political impact and tends to become a document of that specific political moment.
The program will be held in English.
Established in September 2017 on the third floor of SALT Galata, the Office of Useful Art initiated research on case studies of artworks matching the definition of “useful art” from Turkey and surrounding regions. It provided a platform for in-depth discussions of social and political impact of art in contemporary world. For further information about the Asociación de Arte Útil platform, its international participants, and the list of case studies from the archive by category and year: www.arte-util.org
Tania Bruguera is a Cuban artist based in New York and Havana. Her installations and performances often expose the social effects of political and economic power. Her work has been presented at international exhibitions and institutions including documenta 11, the 56th Venice Biennale, Tate Modern (London), Guggenheim and MoMA (New York). She established the Arte de Conducta (Behavior Art) program at Instituto Superior de Arte in 1998, and the Hannah Arendt International Institute for Artivism—a school, an exhibition space and a think tank for activists, artists, and Cubans—in 2015 in Havana.
