News & Advocacy
Open Letter: Artist Tania Bruguera harassed by Cuban government despite forced exile
December 11, 2023
Recently, harassment against exiled Cuban creatives and collectives has escalated to new levels. In the context of the IV INSTAR Film Festival, Cuban public officials, government-affiliated artists, and other entities have participated in an extensive campaign of harassment against the renowned Cuban artist Tania Bruguera and the Hannah Arendt Institute of Artivism (INSTAR), of which she is the founder and director.
Independent artists and cultural professionals are human rights defenders who have long stood on the frontlines of social movements in Cuba aimed at creating greater spaces for creative expression and artistic freedom. As ARC, PEN International, and Cubalex document in our report Método Cuba: Independent Artists’ Testimonies of Forced Exile, the repressive tactics of the Cuban State have led to a criminalization of creativity. The 17 testimonies shared express the difficult situation faced by some critical or independent voices on the island, leaving these artists to confront an impossible choice: continue to suffer harassment at the hands of the Cuban State or enter into exile.
The letter, led by PEN America’s Artists at Risk Connection (ARC), PEN International, and the PEN Cuban Writers in Exile Center includes signatories such as the International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality), Justicia 11J, PEN America, PEN Argentina, PEN Guatemala, PEN Nicaragua, PEN Perú, among others.
Our letter calls on the Cuban government to cease its targeted harassment of Cuban artists, both within the country and in exile, to stop all state-sponsored actions aimed at undermining free thought and artistic expression, and to respect the role art and artists play in society.
Read the full text of the letter below.
Cuba: Performance artist Tania Bruguera harassed by Cuban government despite forced exile
11 December: We, the undersigned civil society organizations, call upon the Cuban government and Cuban State entities to immediately cease all efforts to discredit Cuban artist Tania Bruguera and the IV INSTAR Film Festival, being held in 7 countries worldwide. This incident is the most recent of many where the Cuban government has attempted to suppress critical forms of free thought and expression that diverge from the state’s singular and totalizing narrative, both on the island and abroad.
A renowned multidisciplinary artist whose work has been shown at the Tate Modern in London, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, and the New Museum in New York, Bruguera was forced to leave Cuba in 2021 as a result of government pressure and persecution for her artistic work. Currently a senior lecturer and affiliate faculty at Harvard University, Bruguera is the founder and director of the Hannah Arendt Institute of Artivism (INSTAR). In 2019, INSTAR put on the first edition of their film festival, an annual event that seeks to support and showcase independent film production, particularly spotlighting countries where freedom of expression is under threat.
For well over a decade, Tania Bruguera has faced persistent harassment by the Cuban government. This campaign to delegitimize her began in Cuba and has continued during her exile from 2021 onwards.
The Cuban government aims to limit her creative and professional spaces worldwide. Extraordinary efforts are currently underway to discredit INSTAR, with state-controlled media outlets suggesting that the festival and its accompanying activities constitute an attack on Cuban culture and an endorsement of terrorism, further asserting alleged links to foreign intelligence agencies.
Coordinated social media smear messaging by the Minister of Culture Alpidio Alonso Grau and Cuba’s First Lady Lis Cuesta Peraza, among other public officials and government-affiliated artists, have depicted Cuban “artivists” (artist-activists) and independent filmmakers participating in this year’s INSTAR Film Festival, December 4-10, as "unhappy (unfortunate) and uncreative." In addition, Cuban cultural institutions have launched a mass mailing campaign to cultural institutions and individuals around the world, in an attempt to discredit the festival and its organizers (email documentation has been provided to PEN International and the Artists at Risk Connection (ARC).
Cuba is one of the few countries in the region that imprisons artists, journalists, and writers for exercising their freedom of expression, according to the data compiled by PEN International and ARC, along with information from international civil society organizations. These individuals face severe harassment and persecution, as documented in the recent Método Cuba report, among other punitive measures imposed on those who question the institutional order. These coordinated efforts, aligned with broader patterns of suppression by the Cuban government that target any form of dissident or diverse thought, particularly when expressed through art and writing, were also addressed during the United Nations 44th session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), which included a joint human rights submission by a coalition of civil society organizations, among them PEN International and ARC.
We, the undersigned organizations, call on the Cuban government to immediately cease the aggressive harassment of Cuban artists, both within the country and in exile. In particular, we call on the Cuban authorities to stop the ongoing smear campaign against Tania Bruguera and the INSTAR festival, and to put an end to all state-sponsored actions aimed at undermining free thought and artistic expression among the Cuban people. Safeguarding art and artists is imperative, as they constitute vital components of a flourishing, equitable, and healthy society.
SIGNATORIES
- ARTICLE 19 Regional Office for Mexico and Central America
- Artists At Risk Connection (ARC)
- English PEN
- Estonian PEN
- Independent Chinese PEN Center
- International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality)
- Justicia 11J
- PEN America
- PEN Argentina
- PEN Bangladesh
- PEN Belarus
- PEN Chiapas Pluricultural
- PEN Chile
- PEN Colombia
- PEN Croatia
- PEN Cuba en el Exilio
- PEN Flanders Belgium
- PEN Guadalajara
- PEN Guatemala
- PEN-Haiti
- PEN International
- PEN Melbourne
- PEN Nicaragua
- PEN Perú
- PEN Québec
- PEN San Miguel
- PEN Suisse Romand
- Rialta
- Slovenski PEN | PEN Eslovenia
- Swedish PEN