political art is uncomfortable knowledge

An extract from 'Political Art Statement' by tania bruguera (Cuban performance artist) - full version - here

tania bruguera - 'IP Detournement' (Permit from artist to reproduce and pirate their work in the collection of new media at the Centre Georges Pompidou to be sold in the streets around the center for 1 Euro)

While politics is the action of changing things in society, in art there are many artists working with images from the media and from politics, but not interested in the consequences of their work. Political art is the one that works on the consequences of its existence, of its interactions and does not remain in the level of association or graphic memory. It is intervening in the process that is created after people think the art experience is over. Political art is the one transcending the field of art, entering the daily nature of people, an art that makes them think. Art is something that must be considered disposable, a means for other things, a protection layer. I understand there are artists that are consistent and that I respect who focus on the search of new associative combinations, but this experience in itself, without a purpose outside the world of art, does not excite me. Art, as happens with a scientific discovery, should be seen in its applications. Art can also be used with political purposes, but that is not political art, it is art-propaganda. Political art has doubts, not certainties; it has intentions, not programs; it shares with those who find it, not imposes on them; it is defined while it is done; it is an experience, not an image; it is something entering the field of emotions and that is more complex than a unit of thought. Political art is the one that is made when it is unfashionable and when it is uncomfortable, legally uncomfortable, civically uncomfortable, humanely uncomfortable. It affects us. Political art is uncomfortable knowledge.