ACTIVIST ART
Tania Bruguera helps bring new undergrad program in social change to OCAD University,
What’s art? What’s activism? Where do they intersect?
Those were the first questions Tania Bruguera got from a group of art students and advocates at the workshop of the “Nomadic Resident,” which runs this week at Toronto’s OCAD University as the school inches toward launching Canada’s first undergraduate degree program in art and activism.
To the renowned Cuban-American performance and installation artist, art is the impetus for social change, whether the issue is anti-immigration backlash, poverty, gender inequality, racism or global warming.
“It’s not just about poster-making to create awareness about an issue, but you want people to think of other ways to implement new solutions for our problems,” said Bruguera.
“I want to do art where people are part of the process, and not just a passive audience, but sitting at the table.”
Bruguera, a daughter of a diplomat, is no stranger to controversy. She was arrested by Cuban authorities for planning a public performance that left an open microphone to fellow Cubans to let them express their thoughts after the U.S. resumed diplomatic ties with the nation in 2014.
In Queens, N.Y., she started Immigrant Movement International, a multimedia project sparked by her spending a year in 2011 with five immigrants and their children. The project, funded by the Queens Museum of Art and a not-for-profit art group called Creative Time, explored the precarious status of undocumented migrants.
One of its participatory works, Surplus Value, involved museum visitors waiting in a long line, facing random admission to the show, undergoing a lie-detector test and being asked about their travel history.
Min Sook Lee, an assistant professor at OCAD, said Bruguera’s work exemplifies the vision of the univer-
“You want people to think of other ways to implement new solutions for our problems.” TANIA BRUGUERA PERFORMANCE AND INSTALLATION ARTIST
sity’s Art and Social Change program, which is only available as a minor, but will become a full-time undergraduate degree program in 2020.
“War, colonial legacies, climate change, economic inequality, forced migration and border imperialism, global health and the increased precarity of labour are some of the daunting realities our students face today,” said Lee, herself a documentarian and producer of the awardwinning film Migrant Dreams.
“As change-makers, students have the opportunity to use their work as a catalyst for social justice . . . respond creatively to global issues through intersections with fields as diverse as philosophy, technology, medicine, spirituality and political science.”
The study of art and activism is relatively new, said Lee, citing a recent New York Times story that dated the movement back to 2005, when the first academic program was established at California College of the Arts in San Francisco.
There are now at least 10 schools south of the border offering graduate degree programs in this area. OCAD’s proposed program will be a first in Canada at the bachelor level.
Recent social movements in Canada, such as Black Lives Matter and Idle No More, used art elements including poetry, dance and music to convey messages and issues, said Lee, and many artists were involved in those campaigns.
Caleigh Clements, a fourth-year OCAD student, said in most public art, audiences are passive viewers, and she would like to learn from Bruguera how to better engage people and move them.
“Through art, we can create a com- munity and a future that does not exist,” said Clements, a photography major who is particularly interested in promoting women’s reproductive health issues.
Alexia Breard-Anderson, also a fourth-year student, said the study of art tends to fall into the academic or commercial streams, and art and activism provides a new way of thinking.
“People have different ideas of change and change is not always tangible,” said the art criticism and curatorial practice major. “Art can create dialogues and change perspectives. It is a long-term process.”
And it could be something as simple as creating a narrative that disrupts comfort, said Bruguera, who insists on travelling back to Cuba even though she claims she gets hassled by Cuban customs upon her return each time.
“This is my country and I’m coming back,” vowed Bruguera, who has already declared her candidacy for the 2018 Cuban presidential race.