‘I’ll give you just enough to keep you from dying’

Abstract

Tania Bruguera’s work combines performance with installation art, addressing the imbalance between politics and power on a one-to-one human scale. For Bruguera, a Cuban artist and activist, Endgame is a tool for examining and discussing mind-structures around and about control. This chapter focuses on her recent approach to Endgame, which explores violence, domination, servitude, authority, transgression and the possibility of challenging power. Respecting Beckett’s text completely, Bruguera challenges public and spectator through a setting reminiscent of Foucault’s ‘Panopticon’. Through detailed description and in-depth analysis of Bruguera’s stage proposal, this chapter provides elements to approach the point of view of an artist ready to bring Beckett to the contemporary art arena as well as to the contemporary post-democratic chorus.