i'm stephen sackur and this is the vast turbine hall in london's tate modern gallery.has been home to a series of installations by some of the world's leading contemporary artists, and right now it is showing a work by my guest today, the cu ban conceptual artist, tania bruguera. her installations and performances have won her acclaim right around the world. also, they have prompted harassment, censorship and detention inside cuba. so is she an artist, activist, or maybe both at once? tania bruguera, welcome to hardtalk. here we are in the tate modern gallery. it is stuffed full of things, of paintings, sculpture, and yet you as an artist seem much less concerned about things, much more focused on ideas. would that be fair? absolutely. i think the work i do as an artist is focused on gestures, i want to do political gestures, institutional gestures, human gestures, and i always feel that some things are invisible. and in a sense, it strikes me that the tools of your art are people, both yourself but also the viewers, the audience as well. rather than paint or material,

has transformed the tate's turbine whole a space for risk taking she sees her as an agent of change the museum has a for the public debate i think a social responsibility and unfortunately we had to go into such an extreme by having all of these political struggles and all these the partition. and the things that we need political that is sustainable this is how bruguera intends to wake us up to the rising global tide of nationalism and xenophobia and even provoke a physical reaction entering the visitors with a number. the people who are. trying an inside. trying to provoke a collective emotional response. these are the neighbors of the tate modern who collaborated on the project and nominated a local charity worker natalie bell her name is now on the building and on a usually reserved for the big donors and royalty i have. this being in time and kindness and laugh and compassion. and they have just as much it was natalie who chose the image that lies underneath it's a view of a syrian refugee wants homeless in london now studying medicine in this space the artists intends to. for the