Tania Bruguera is the lead artist for the third year of Tate Exchange. Alongside her Hyundai Commission, the artist is helping to shape the programme of events and activities in the dedicated Tate Exchange space on level 5 of Tate Modern’s Blavatnik Building.
Bruguera is renowned for creating art that addresses major political issues, often looking at institutional power, borders and migration. For Tate Exchange, her work will address what it means to be a neighbour and how to create change where you live.
Throughout the summer, the artist has been working closely with 21 Tate Neighbours, a group of people living or working near Tate Modern, taking a distinct approach to community programmes through civic responsibility, creating a manifesto and a terms and conditions document. From 1 to 28 October, Bruguera will present Our Neighbours, a programme led by Tate Neighbours, combining activations, discussions, mini-lectures and workshops to equip visitors with skills for neighbourly action. The group has renamed Tate Modern’s Boiler House the Natalie Bell Building for a year in honour of this local community activist’s positive contribution to the lives of others in SE1.
Dr Cara Courage, Head of Tate Exchange said: ‘It has been an inspiring experience working with Tania and Tate Neighbours, showing how this international institution can learn from and work with its local community. This has created a call to action for visitors to consider the neighbourhood they are entering at Tate, and to think about what it means to be and act as a neighbour. We are very much looking forward to what this will generate in the year ahead.’
This year’s Tate Exchange will comprise 59 Associates at Tate Modern and 25 Associates at Tate Liverpool. The theme will be movement, including social movement, the movement of bodies (dance and mobility), moving image, lifestage, identity, transition and migration.
Tania Bruguera follows Clare Twomey in 2017/18 and Tim Etchells in 2016/17 as the Tate Exchange lead artist. Tania Bruguera has also collaborated on her project with Tate Exchange Associate, Counterpoints Arts, a national organisation that supports art by and about migrants and refugees.
Other highlights in Tate Exchange 2018/19 will include, in November, Community Southwark who will host a Southwark Stars awards ceremony with a programme celebrating volunteering and social action in the borough. Pempeople will focus on DIY culture as a tool for social movement, providing a platform for young people to experiment with DIY practices, particularly film. The Activism Research Network of Canterbury Christ Church University will present Political Movement(s), Art and Activism, and will bring together Tate Exchange Associates who are interested in the theme of political movement, activism and artistic practice. And Spike Island will present Days of Action, inviting visitors to engage in collective and embodied movement.
Tate Exchange examines art and its importance to society with public and external organisations, tackling subjects such as migration, homelessness, mental health and identity. Tate Exchange’s Associates include charities, universities and healthcare trusts as well as smaller organisations from a wide range of disciplines involving, among others, architects, writers, health professionals and musicians. Admission is free.
Tate Exchange: Movement is supported by Maryam and Edward Eisler and Red Hat Inc. With founding support from Freelands Foundation.
Hyundai Commission is in partnership with Hyundai Motor