![\"Bruguera-bruises\"](\"http:\/\/freedimensional.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Bruguera-bruises-300x211.jpg\")
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by Jillian Steinhauer<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n This weekend artist Tania Bruguera was\u00a0arrested\u00a0once\u00a0again in Cuba,\u00a0along with dozens of other activists, and was manhandled by the police. As with most information about Bruguera over the past few months, the news\u00a0\u2014\u00a0which Hyperallergic has not been able to independently verify\u00a0\u2014\u00a0comes via the Facebook page for her project #YoTambienExijo<\/a> (\u201cI also demand\u201d), which was a planned participatory performance on New Year\u2019s Eve in Havana\u2019s Revolution Square that led to Bruguera being arrested multiple\u00a0times<\/a>.\u00a0Cuban authorities also confiscated\u00a0her passport and are allegedly pressing charges against her.<\/p>\n On Sunday, June 7, Bruguera was\u00a0visiting and observing a weekly silent protest by the Ladies in White<\/a>, a group of female relatives of imprisoned dissidents who attend mass every Sunday at the\u00a0St. Rita of Cascia Church\u00a0in Havana wearing white, then march through the streets\u00a0with photos of their missing loved ones.\u00a0Bruguera attended in part because she\u2019d heard\u00a0that the Ladies in White had been attacked and arrested\u00a0by police for the last eight Sundays, and this one\u00a0was\u00a0no different: according to a Facebook post<\/a>, police descended in a raid \u201cwhich included 3 buses, several patrol cars, 2 motorcycle police and more than a hundred agents of the National Revolutionary Police.\u201d Bruguera was not beaten \u2014 the Facebook post says she received \u201cspecial treatment,\u201d and in an interview with PanAm Post<\/a>, she clarified that an officer specifically said,\u00a0\u201cnot her, not her, she\u2019s Tania.\u201d Still, she says she was pulled by the hair, thrown into a bus, and handcuffed. The Facebook\u00a0post claims that she has \u201cseveral hematomas\u201d on her arms due to her handling by police, and another one<\/a> shows photos of the severe bruising.<\/p>\n Bruguera\u00a0had also been attending the Ladies in White protest as research for a new project she\u2019s working on, \u201cto present a law which will penalize violence due to political hate and which would propitiate freedom of expression in public spaces,\u201d according to a Facebook post. The legal research is one of two\u00a0branches of her current work in Cuba; the other is the establishment of the Hannah Arendt International Institute for Artivism, which she inaugurated with a 100-hour reading of the philosopher\u2019s landmark book The Origins of Totalitarianism<\/em> in her home beginning on May 20, Cuban Independence Day. The Havana Biennial<\/a> opened two days later, and two days after that, when\u00a0she finished reading, Bruguera\u00a0was arrested<\/a>\u00a0again. (On May 23\u00a0she was also denied entry\u00a0to the Museum of Fine Arts<\/a> for an opening to which she\u2019d been personally invited.)<\/p>\n Those in charge of the #YoTambienExijo Facebook page have been stressing the importance of framing Bruguera\u2019s actions as art, not politics: they\u2019ve posted a 2010 \u201cPolitical Art Statement<\/a>\u201d by Bruguera that outlines her thoughts on political art \u2014 \u201cIt is intervening in the process that is created after people think the art experience is over\u201d \u2014 and a clarification<\/a>\u00a0about her\u00a0current position (translated by Hyperallergic):<\/p>\n The only group Tania Bruguera belongs to is the platform #IAlsoDemand, which is the structure of her work. Tania does not belong to any group of opposition, nor of dissidence, nor of activism in Cuba. Tania is an artist who works in an independent manner with EVERYONE \u2026 Tania is not an opposition, nor a dissident, but an artist who works with political art and who believes that art can help transform the social and political reality we live in.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Bruguera was released around 4pm on Sunday after her arrest. Forty-seven Ladies in White and other activists were detained\u00a0along with her, according to PanAm Post.<\/p>\n Article and image reposted from Hyperallergic.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n