Public Works: Artists’ Interventions 1970s – Now

Tania Bruguera’s, Tatlin’s Whisper #6 (2009) is a 40 minute video of a free speech performance at the Havanna Biennial in March 2009. Bruguera set up a stage and microphone and invited the people in the crowd to speak. They could say whatever they wanted for one minute. During this minute a white dove was placed on the speaker’s shoulders, referencing the white dove that landed on Fidel Castro’s shoulder during his first televised speech to the Cuban nation in January 1959. The title of the piece itself, Tatlin’s Whisper, is a reference to the Russian artist and architect Vladimir Tatlin. He designed a tower, a place where the public could gather, work and share information. It was to be the headquarters of the Communist International. The tower was never built.
Bruguera hired two actors to dress in military style clothes and handle the dove. She handed out 200 disposable cameras so the crowd could document the event. Also there were speakers placed outside, so those on the street could hear what was being said. Bruguera was the first to speak, followed by 39 other participants; men, women, young and old.
The video is silent most of the time, except when a person does come up to speak and the dove is placed on them, then audio is heard. The background noise of the crowd, a mixture of activity and voices. The participants speak Spanish but English subtitles are provided in the video. Sometimes the microphone will distort and give high pitched feedback. Most people talked about freedom, the awareness of their isolation and lack of technology. One participant said, «I only know I am afraid.» Another warned to «defend pleasure» and another participant told the crowd, «I expect you to protest.» One participant asked for a minute of silence. Another wore a black mask and said he did not agree with the free speech performance. The Biennial committee called Bruguera’s work, «an anti-​cultural event of shameful opportunism.»
The ability and power to protest, to say no, is just as important as the power of yes. Freedom is choice, the individual has options and can decide for him or herself what to do. Cubans are using technology to express themselves but also to express to others that Cubans are similar to them. Governments and geography can separate people but humans will adapt and connect in different ways.
Bruguera has set up «Tatlin’s Whisper» in other countries, in other venues, like the Tate Modern in London. In December 2014 she planned to perform the piece again in Havana’s Plaza de la Revolución, but was arrested and taken into custody on charges of disrupting public order. Her passport was confiscated and she was threatened to be expelled from her own country; for talking and giving space for others to talk. She was interrogated intensely by the police, at one point; she ironically thanked them — for making the piece better, for making her a better person.
Bruguera is an artist who explores and exemplifies politics and art outside Cuba, and within. She has written, «The most important element in this series is the participation of spectators who may determine the course the piece will take… The experience of the audience within the piece may allow them to understand information in a different way and appropriate it because of having lived through it.» Freedom of expression is an essential part of art and life, but it is not granted to every person equally. Freedom of speech is critical and questioning, but it also allows for connections to be made. We can’t change our problems if we refuse to hear them.