País mío, tan joven, no sabes definir! is part of a series of eight videos entitled La isla en peso (Island Burden), also presented in the form of an installation. The series alludes to a poem by Cuban writer and poet Virgilio Piñera, born in Havana in 1912 and prohibited from publishing in his country until his death in 1979. This long poem, written in 1943, powerfully evokes the heavy feeling of insularity and the impossibility of getting away from an island. Bruguera does not illustrate the poem, but rather, by reinterpreting the poetic language with a physical, visual metaphor, attempts to bring out feelings which still persist, more than sixty years later. País mío, tan joven, no sabes definir! (My country, so young, you don't know how to define!) is constructed on the same principle as the other videos of the series: first the title (a verse from Piñera's poem), then the appearance of the artist's face, followed by an action which is both physical and symbolic in relation to the title, here, twisting the mouth with the hands until it is disfigured. The use of the close-up, slow motion and black and white accentuate the performative dimension of this work as well as its evocative power.

Etienne Sandrin
Translated by Miriam Rosen