Solidarity and support to Tania Bruguera
Yesterday the Ministry of Culture of Cuba held a press conference. In order to avoid any interference from dissenters, it decided to keep all members, including Tania Bruguera, of the 27N Movement, under house arrest. This is a group of artists and intellectuals created democratically during a peaceful demonstration, bringing together more than 500 artists before the Ministry of Culture for a dialogue on November 27th. Yesterday, in addition to having been under surveillance throughout the day, Tania Bruguera’s telephone line and all possible access to the internet were cut off, keeping her in total isolation and unable to work with the group.
Around 9 pm the visual artist Sandra Ceballos visited Tania at her home and they decided to go out to a Cuban religious celebration in a private home. While they were travelling in the car, another car stopped them abruptly and several people in civilian clothes opened the back door to force Bruguera out. Sandra embraced Tania to avoid her being taken away while screaming: “I want to go with her, take me away.” They separated them with force and, although the people in Tania’s car asked where they were taking her, there was no response of any kind, only the violence of taking her forcibly. Her whereabouts were unknown for many hours. Finally, she was released late in the night. Our grave concern is that this pattern of oppression will continue.
As the Asociación of Arte Útil, we want to express our solidarity and support to Tania Bruguera and the members of the 27N Movement, calling for an end to violence and the persecution of artists by the government of Cuba.
A comment about the recent events published via ArtForum could be read here.
To follow all the developments please visit 27N movement platform on Facebook
| Following are links to yesterday’s (December 3rd) public statements by Tania Bruguera on the threats she has received from the Cuban Government: Statement Tania Brugera 1/2 Statement Tania Bruguera 2/2 |