Art Futures: Platforms for Dissent with Tania Bruguera and Pankaj Mishra

Join us for a discussion about the relationship between politics, culture and dissent.

In recent years, artists and arts institutions have been at the centre of fiercely contested debates about their roles and responsibilities in relation to contemporary political developments. How might we analyse and understand these recent examples? What’s needed for cultural organisations to become platforms for dissent?

This special Art Futures event brings together two internationally acclaimed cultural figures to consider these vital issues: the artist and activist Tania Bruguera and the essayist and novelist Pankaj Mishra.

The discussion will be chaired by Gilane Tawadros, Director of Whitechapel Gallery. There will also be an opportunity for audience questions and contributions.

Art Futures is a major new Whitechapel Gallery series which looks at the role of public art institutions at a time of multiple crises, bringing together audiences with artists, writers, academics and policy-makers to collectively imagine alternative visions.

Art Futures is generously supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art.

Tania BrugueraTania Bruguera (Cuban, b. 1968) is an internationally renowned contemporary artist, activist, and cultural strategist. Her performances and social interventions focus on political power dynamics and their implications for social justice. Her art pushes boundaries by exploring how art can intersect with everyday political realities, aiming to empower individuals to become active citizens rather than passive spectators.

Bruguera introduced groundbreaking concepts like Arte Útil, Political Timing-Specific Art, Art For The Not Yet, and Est-ética. Through long-term projects like Cátedra Arte de Conducta, Immigrant Movement International, and Institute for Artivism Hannah Arendt (INSTAR), she has challenged institutional norms and reshaped collective memory, education, and politics. Tania Bruguera’s multifaceted contributions to the intersection of art and activism have left an indelible mark on the global cultural landscape.

Bruguera has been honored with numerous prestigious awards including the American Academy’s Rome Prize, Velázquez Prize, Prince Claus Laureate, Arnold Bode Prize, and Alpert Award. Her work has been showcased worldwide including the Tate Turbine Hall, Documenta, and the Venice Biennale. She had solo projects at MoMA, Queens Museum of Art, Centre d’Art Pompidou, and Hamburger Bahnhof Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, among others, and received honorary doctorates from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Maryland Institute College of Art.

Pankaj MishraPankaj Mishra is an essayist and novelist, a long-time contributor to the New York Review of Books, London Review of Books and the New Yorker, and the author of several books, including From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia and Age of Anger: A History of the Present. His most recent books are Run and Hide: A Novel and The World After Gaza. He is a co-founder of Equator.org, a new multimedia platform that seeks to highlight non-western experiences and perspectives.