"Immigrant Movement International"
Tania Bruguera · Tania Bruguera · Aliza Nisenbaum
Immigrant Movement International (IMI), an ongoing project initiated by artist Tania Bruguera in 2010, located in Corona, Queens, New York, functions as a community space where art and education are used to empower immigrants personally and politically. Bruguera says that by engaging with contemporary art “[immigrants] understand how to work from their fear and the limitations they put on themselves once they enter this country.”
Artist Aliza Nisenbaum, who taught an English class at IMI using art, painted portraits of her students. “A lot of these women are people that hide in some way,” says Nisenbaum. “I was trying to give a sense of agency to the women that were here in terms of finding their voice, in terms of art, and in terms of basic English skills.” Members of Tletlpapalotzin, an Aztec dance group, perform a traditional ceremony at IMI’s Community Celebration Day and discuss their experiences as immigrants living in New York City. “For me being in a ceremony gives me the strength to go forward day to day,” says Tletlpapalotzin member Ana Ramirez. “It gives me pleasure to work together with my family of the Tletlpapalotzin group.”
Featured artists
About the artists
Tania Bruguera, a politically motivated performance artist, explores the relationship between art, activism, and social change in works that examine the social effects of political and economic power. By creating proposals and aesthetic models for others to use and adapt, she defines herself as an initiator rather than an author, and often collaborates with multiple institutions as well as many individuals so that the full realization of her artwork occurs when others adopt and perpetuate it. She expands the definition and range of performance art, sometimes performing solo but more often staging participatory events and interactions that build on her own observations, experiences, and interpretations of the politics of repression and control.
Aliza Nisenbaum was born in 1977 in Mexico City, Mexico, and lives and works in Queens, New York. In 2001 Nisebaum received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, later receiving her MFA from the same institution in 2005. Painting portraits of individuals and groups, the artist forms intimate relationships with her sitters that become evident in highly detailed paintings that humanize, honor, and make visible the underrepresented and underserved. Her portraits often depict her subjects in moments of reprieve or contemplation, revealing an interiority to the figure while situating them in environments that reflect their cultures, personalities, and relationships. Throughout her practice, Nisenbaum demonstrates the value of caring, compassionate, and ethical relationships and makes politically potent work through who and how she chooses to represent.
