#ybca

Rafael Casal

YBCA 100 Summit

11/03/18

This week, I was fortunate to visit the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in Downtown San Francisco. The art institution has at its heart the use art as an instrument for social change. Currently, this is presented in the exhibition of the long-term work of political artist Tania Bruguera. The exhibition, titled Talking to Power, contained various artwork by Bruguera presenting her activism and usage of art to address power structures and political issues.

In total, the art gallery presented six of Bruguera’s artworks in all different styles. One of the projects that stood out to me, was the Immigrant Movement International, which was a grand interactive display. The room was dominated by gigantic recitations, in English and Spanish, of the 10 principles of Immigrant Movement International. There are banners with phrases such as “Immigrant rights are citizen rights”, and, “The right to be included belongs to everyone”, showing her passion for immigrant inclusion.

 She uses her art to show how immigrants are citizens just like everybody else. I think that with the presidency of Donald Trump it makes this gallery a very relevant issue. Donald Trump has generated much publicity on his proposed reforms and remarks about the issue of immigration in the United States in the past year. The growing concerns about the political representation and conditions facing immigrants make this exhibition very relatable. She focuses on the state of immigration in the United States and throughout the world today, in an effort to see immigrants as citizens with their full political rights.

Right next door there is a polling area, called the Referendum, which asks audiences the question, “Borders kill, should we abolish Borders?”, on a voting ballot with the options of “Yes” or “No”. 

The responses to this question are tallied and presented on a screen. This polling booth makes the exhibit very interactive and really made me think about how life would be without the existence of borders. Especially due to the European refugee crisis as well as Donald Trump’s plan to build a wall between the United States and Mexico this question is a very relevant question to ponder. Donald Trump also focuses his immigration reform on the principle that a nation without borders is not a nation, and with this has brought the idea of a wall between the United States and Mexico into question, which would lead to even stronger borders than are present currently. Bruguera challenges his thinking and with this, her art presents a form of political activism.

The large and open gallery presented further displays, such as full-scale stages, video cameras and standing rooms for audiences. For example, the staging of Tatlin’s Whisper #6, 2009,  presented a piece calling for audience activation by presenting an open mic that offered a platform for Cuban citizens to talk freely. 

These make it seem very authentic and immerse the viewer into what was going on. Instead of simply presenting historical artifacts, I was able to interact with the art and immerse myself into her work.

Her work demonstrated to me how art can be used as a way for social and political action. She creates awareness for the inclusion of immigrants through her use of various displays in the gallery. With this, she can be viewed as a political artist who uses her projects to create awareness and social engagement. Overall, the YBCA creates awareness of culture through their art and with this a catalyst for change to spur and support social movements. With this, the YBCA demonstrated to me how an art institution can play a big roll in the community it serves.

SOMA