Journal Article

Participatory Performances by Tania Bruguera: Untitled and Tatlin's Whisper #6

White, Bretton

2015

Overview

According to Bishop, participatory performance is a kind of art that is capable of repairing the social bond through the act of witnessing in proximity, because it includes what is otherwise excluded from society (28). Instead of what we see (or hear), staying with the feeling of not getting it becomes a productive way to be together in a state of unknowing, even with the specter of contentiousness. [...]by presenting the ethical in an art form with a reduced aesthetic project-reduced because of the inherent frustration in not seeing or not being able to see the larger project, because it is internal or unknown- the spectator's focus is drawn to what is felt. [...]in Untitled, part of not getting it means experiencing frustration from not grasping the whole of the piece. Because the performance presents itself as an accumulation of its parts, but not its whole, even an understanding of several of the work's components can still leave the entirety of the piece unknown. Here, with regular people on stage, speaking briefly, but publicly to other audience members who are afforded the same opportunity, Tatlin 's Whisper #6 lays bare the everyday lack of other Cuban venues for public self-expression that includes critique. Since in Cuba an open and amplified platform for free speech is rare, and speaking openly can constitute risky behavior, whether to speak and what to say is laden with personal and political weight.

• Publisher: Gestos,University of California Irvine, Department of Spanish and Portuguese
• Subject: Audience participation / Audiences / Bruguera, Tania / Civil war / Cocaine / Colombian theater / Crítica social / Drug trafficking / Ethics / Guerra civil / Narcotráfico / Politics / Social criticism / Social theatre / Spectatorship / Teatro colombiano / Teatro social / Ética