Tania Bruguera

Tania Bruguera’s concept for Immigrant Movement International (IM International) was motivated by the civil unrest in the suburbs of Paris in 2005, led by immigrants. In view of the lack of political representation and committed dialogue from politicians with respect to the immigrant community, Bruguera was inspired to create a transnational political party for migrant people. Despite individual circumstances and places of origin, there are commonalities that exist between all immigrants; a political party would unite immigrants and place them in a position of power.

Immigrant Movement International was launched in March 2011 in Corona, Queens, New York. It is an art project implementing the concept of “useful art,” in which artists actively introduce art into society’s urgent social, political, and scientific issues. Due to the constraints of forming a political party within a non-profit organization in the United States, IM International took on the form of a community centre. The project functions on multiple levels; as a think-tank for issues related to immigration, as a community centre offering free services, and as an advocate for immigrant respect, fighting progressive immigration policies through political and artistic actions.

There follows a discussion with Christoph Draeger.