Tania Bruguera to Stage 'Tatlin's Whisper #6' in Times Square on May Day

Cuban artist and activist Tania Bruguera will perform "Tatlin's Whisper #6" in Times Square, Manhattan, on May 1 (May Day/International Workers' Day) at noon on Broadway between 46th and 47th Streets. The one-hour performance, organized as part of the Fall of Freedom initiative, features a raised platform and microphone where participants can speak for one minute each. Originally created for the 2009 Havana Biennial, the work invited Cubans to exercise free speech under dictatorial rule. A 2014 restaging at Havana's Plaza de la Revolución led to Bruguera's arrest along with dozens of participants. The work is in the Guggenheim Museum's collection; in 2015, when acquired, Bruguera joked it could only be performed in the US if there were a dictator. The performance arrives amid Trump's oil blockade worsening Cuba's humanitarian crisis and what Bruguera describes as silencing tactics in the US. Bruguera emphasizes that art must be political in such moments and that the work functions as a "thermometer of the political moment." She also notes that the first iteration in Valencia, Spain at IVAM was a failure due to lack of political friction, leading her to understand the concept of "political-timing-specific."