Tania Bruguera files lawsuit against Cuban government

Our daily round-up of news from the art world

Tania Bruguera files lawsuit against Cuban government | The artist Tania Bruguera is suing the Cuban government for defamation, Hyperallergic reports. The artist, who was detained in Havana earlier this month after she and fellow activists attempted to stage a protest against the proposed cultural censorship law Decree 349, claims in a statement to have suffered ‘defamations in state media publications’. Bruguera is not asking for economic compensation, she states, but rather ‘a public retraction of such defamation in the same newspapers where they originally appeared’. The artist’s lawyers believe this case to be the first of its kind.

Hashim Sarkis to curate Venice Architecture Biennale 2020 | The Lebanese architect Hashim Sarkis has been appointed as the curator of the 17th International Architecture Exhibition, to take place in Venice in 2020. Sarkis, the principal architect at Hashim Sarkis Studios, served as a member of the jury of the Biennale in 2016; his firm designed the US Pavilion in 2014, and the Albanian Pavilion in 2010.

Amale Andraos to design Beirut Museum of Art | The Lebanese-born architect Amale Andraos will design the Beirut Museum of Art (BeMA), it was announced yesterday. Andraos is currently the dean of the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University; in 2003, she cofounded the firm WORKac in New York. Andraos has said that her six-storey design, which incorporates indoor and outdoor spaces, is intended ‘to break down the sense that art is elitist and closed’. The museum, which will feature a permanent collection of modern and contemporary works from Lebanon, is scheduled to open in 2023.

Shortlist for Margaret Tait Award announced | LUX Scotland has announced the shortlist for the 2019 Margaret Tait Award, Scotland’s most prestigious award honouring artists who work with film. The shortlisted artists – Jamie Crewe, Winnie Herbstein, Stuart Middleton and Margaret Salmon – will each submit a proposal for a £15,000 commission; the winning proposal, to be announced in February 2019, will premiere at Glasgow Film Festival in 2020.