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

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Against the Forms of Powerby Octavio ZayaBorn in Havana (Cuba) in 1968 – that year of anti-establishment uprisings, political deceptionand important global events – Tania Bruguera has gained international reputation thanks to abody of work which, in general, succinctly analyses, is unfolded and projected around the relation -ships between power and desire. Whether or not she is the most acclaimed or important Cubanartist of her generation is not relevant. What I believe is undeniable is that her work bringstogether the psychological and emotional impact, the conceptual depth and formal innovationthat have characterised Cuban artists that began to get international attention in the 1990s.Throughout her short but prolific career, Tania Bruguera has expressed the powerful desireto contribute to a certain form of art, and of life, based on a sustained, and partially achieved,effort to transform that desire into reality. Yet it is still very early for conclusions or for a definitiveassessment of Tania Bruguera and her artwork. I am sure that she has not said and done every -thing in her ongoing work, where there is undoubtedly so much still to come. I am also sure thatother voices and other assessments, which are still unheard or yet to emerge, will help to revealand bring us closer to the ideas, languages and practices of this extraordinary artist. It is alsodifficult, in just a short tribute, to gauge the complexity of an artist who moves between so manydisciplines, whose work continues to raise so many doubts about personal identity, and whoquestions the very concepts of ‘truth’ and ‘certainty’.Despite all those circumstances, Bruguera has already produced a significant body of workthat continues to deserve awards and recognition; a work woven out of the conviction that ourpersonal history must be understood within the context of historical and social experience;a frequently ephemeral work without stable patterns or essentialisms, that tackles in the sameway topics concerning women’s experiences and emigration issues, political questions andcultural problems, personal memories and violent actions. The recurrent theme, the leitmotivof all the works – irrespective of their formats and media – circulates around and considers theimpact that the mechanisms of power, ideology and political discourse have on our lives andactions, on our choices and behaviour. According to Bruguera, in the end, only the body, our body,provides us with the means to express ourselves or to resist. And it is the body that Bruguerauses as an instrument, the place where to locate her thoughts and her emotions, where she hasdeveloped her most brilliant and outstanding work.It is difficult to consider the creative activity of Tania Bruguera, or to approach her work, with -out referring to Cuba, to insularity and to what can be conditioned, or inspired by the experienceof growing up and being educated in the institutionalisation and sclerotisation process of aparadigmatic revolution in our contemporary history, in its irreversible and progressive dete ri -oration and in its consequent authoritarian transformation. Perhaps Bruguera’s most challengingworks reflect – when they are not directly related to – that unique experience, that unrepeatable‘experiment’. Her acclaimed El Peso de la culpa (The Burden of Guilt), where Bruguera borrowedfrom a legend of the Cuban war of independence to project a desperate plea for freedom throughsuicide, belongs to her first series of performances, known as the Memorias de la Posguerra(Postwar Memories). And other iconic pieces along her career, from Estadisticas (Statistics)to El cuerpo del silencio (Body of Silence), likewise exude an unyielding and deeply problematicpreoccupation with Cuba.However, the work that summarises the conditions of a regime that fosters and proliferatesrevolutionary discourse and meanings while abjectly confining anyone who individually or462008 Prince Claus Awards
‘Poetic Justice’ by Tania Bruguera, 2002-03, 62.33’ x 6.2’ x 11.8’, video installation with used tea bags,8 one-second selections from several international historic newsreels, 8 LCD screens, 8 DVD discs, 8 DVD playersPhoto © Michael TropeaCulture and the Human Body 47
Page 1 and 2: Prince Claus Fund forCulture and De
Page 3: 2008 PrinceClaus AwardsPrix PrinceC
Page 6: Forewordby HRHPrince FrisoandHRH Pr
Page 9 and 10: The 2008 Prince Claus Laureates rem
Page 11: 92 Elia SuleimanLike Nazareth or Ra
Page 14 and 15: IntroductionThrough its diverse pro
Page 17 and 18: From the series ‘Road to National
Page 21: and innovation, to appreciate audac
Page 24 and 25: 2008 Theme: Culture and the Human B
Page 27 and 28: ‘Dadawa concert’, costume desig
Page 30 and 31: IndiraGoswamiPortrait of Indira Gos
Page 32 and 33: Writer, Woman, Activistby Supriya C
Page 34 and 35: Religion, especially the practices
Page 36 and 37: Extract 1 from The Moth-Eaten Howda
Page 38 and 39: Extract 2 from The Moth-Eaten Howda
Page 40 and 41: LoveWhen my beloved diedI felt as i
Page 42: Ten 2008Prince ClausAwards
Page 45: Tania BrugueraCubaUsing the human b
Page 49 and 50: Images from a performance of ‘The
Page 51 and 52: Carlos Henríquez ConsalviEl Salvad
Page 53 and 54: Indigenous People Rights activity i
Page 55 and 56: Carlos Henríquez Consalvi, alias
Page 57 and 58: Li XiantingChinaCurator and critic,
Page 59 and 60: Li Xianting at an exhibitionPhoto:
Page 61 and 62: Portrait of Li XiantingPhoto: court
Page 63 and 64: Ma KeChinaA bold voice in contempor
Page 65: From the collection ‘WUYONG, the
Page 68 and 69: VenerablePurevbatLama Purevbat plac
Page 70 and 71: Master Artist of Mongolia’s Moder
Page 72 and 73: of the sacred image is never determ
Page 74 and 75: JeanguySaintusPortrait of Jeanguy S
Page 76 and 77: Passion, Courage and Perseveranceby
Page 78 and 79: the Artcho Danse school. This is ve
Page 80 and 81: DayanitaSinghPortrait of Dayanita S
Page 82 and 83: Through the Cracks of a Mirrorby Sh
Page 84 and 85: ‘Untitled’ from the series 'Go
Page 86 and 87: OusmaneSowOusmane Sow with one of h
Page 88 and 89: Exposing the Limitations of Categor
Page 91 and 92: Ousmane Sow in his workshopin Dakar
Page 93 and 94: Elia SuleimanPalestineBorn into a P
Page 95 and 96: Elia Suleiman at workPhoto © Marce
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Elia Suleiman at workPhoto © Marce
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James Iroha UchechukwuNigeriaJames
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Photographs at a slaughterhouse in
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‘Vaseline Beads’Photo © James
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An OverviewThe Prince Claus Fund is
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Artistic ProductionsInnovative cult
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One of the fashion shows at Alokpa
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Capoeira action in the roda in Sout
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Provoking the audience on the stree
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Stage on Redondo Beach, PeruPhoto
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118 2008 Prince Claus AwardsFilm st
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Essam Marouf, ‘Untitled’, 2007,
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‘Buddhist Religious Representatio
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Metis participants at the XVII Inte
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Poster for a performance in Burkina
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Rajanikara Leng Kaewdee in ‘Spiri
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Damage to cultural heritage at the
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‘Hidden Afghanistan: The Collecti
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Contributing AuthorsShahidul Alam i
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Els van der Plas, art historian and
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The 2008 Prince ClausAwards Committ
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Rahul Mehrotra studied at Ahmedabad
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Laureates of the Prince Claus Fund
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The 1998 Prince Claus AwardsThe Pri
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Faustin Linyekula, the 2007 Princip
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AcknowledgementsThe Prince Claus Fu
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The Prince Claus FundThe Board of t
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Published and produced by the Princ
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