30r364 boek.qxd:awards book 11 - Prince Claus Fund

Tania BrugueraCubaUsing the human body in powerfully evocative performance art, Tania Bruguera (b. 1968, Havana)is concerned with concepts such as restraint, abuse and freedom. Bruguera’s artworks induce avisceral response that breaks down the rationalising distance of the viewer. In some works, bodyfluids increase intensity, for example the experience of exile is handwritten in blood on a wall(Rastros Corporales, 1982-93). In other works, ritualised actions transform history with contem -porary relevance. In Burden of Guilt (1997-99), she stands beneath a Cuban flag made of humanhair with a butchered lamb round her neck and eats dirt, alluding to Cubans who refused to submitto conquistadors, evoking human desperation for self-determination.Bruguera maintains her independence by addressing the universal in the complex localcontext. She exhibits internationally and teaches in Italy, America and Cuba, building bridgesbetween cultures. She founded the first performance studies programme in Latin America(2002), organising international exchanges and debates that impact on emerging generationsof artists and audiences.Tania Bruguera is awarded for the outstanding quality of her artwork, for clearly demonstratingthe role of the body as a political site, for re-generating performance art in the cultures of theCaribbean and Latin America, and for her inspirational role in Cuban arts.[from the 2008 Prince Claus Awards Jury Report]Culture and the Human Body45