About the project
INSTAR (The Institute of Artivism Hannah Arendt) will work with “cubanos de a pie” (everyday cubans) from housewives to professionals, activists to students to energize democracy in Cuba. Asking for their rights and fighting for social justice in their schools and jobs, the audience transforms into active citizens. This project will create bridges of trust where there is fear, helping Cuban people come together to articulate a new future for this new country. Like the Literacy Campaign of the 1960s, INSTAR aims to create a civil rights literacy campaign, helping people understand ways to defend their rights. It will include prints and a website, where we will distribute information about human rights beyond our core group.
Programs:
1-Think Tank-a space to rethink policy and constitutional change. The work will address the Cuban context either through direct reference or by providing working samples that resonate with the ongoing social and political transformations in the country.
2-Do Tank-Workshops that will culminate in public performances. The public sphere is where we will be developing a common language towards freedom of expression and social responsibility. Workshop participants will learn their human rights and how to enact them. Participants will be exposed to case studies/transitional processes in former socialist countries to see what the future can be and how to create a society that responds to our needs.
3-Wish Tank-Residencies for artists, activists, political scientists, economists, urban planners, etc. They will activate a public event, while in residency, as well as have Cuban assistants that will be working closely with their research. Research subjects do not have to be about Cuba exclusively, but they will be selected for their proximity or reflection on Cuba’s political developments.
About the artist
Bruguera researches ways art applies to everyday political life; focusing on the conversion of social affect into political effectiveness. From 2002-´09 she created the Arte de Conducta (Behavior Art) program at Instituto Superior de Arte, Havana. From 2010-´15, Immigrant Movement International became a community agency providing social services to immigrants and transnational residents. From 2010-´15, Migrant People Party was a party of ideas, enacting a new form of mass political organization.