October 17 | Tania Bruguera for president?

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In a video released last Friday at the Creative Time Summit in Washington — a conference that looks at how art affects social change — artist Tania Bruguera announced she would run in the 2018 Cuban presidential race “to change the culture of fear” currently oppressing the country.
As presidential candidates can only be elected by the National Assembly, Bruguera’s bid served more as a call to arms to the Cuban public, asking them to imagine how things could be different if power was invested in the masses rather than the privileged few. “Let’s start thinking: what if we actually had that power,” said Bruguera. “Who would we be? What would we do?” Artforum has more.

Gaurav Bhatia, who previously served as the head of marketing at Moët Hennessy India, has been appointed as managing director of Sotheby’s India.  Bhatia, who will be based in Sotheby’s Mumbai, will work with the auction house’s international team to serve collectors in India. Sotheby’s said the appointment reflects its aim to deliver a higher level of service to its Indian clients, and to develop its calendar of events in the country. More info via Artforum.

Today, Paris-born artist Kader Attia opens La Colonie: a new, three-storey exhibition and events space near Gare du Nord in Paris, which will host workshops, conferences, lectures and readings. The space opens today to commemorate those who lost their lives at a protest for Algerian independence in Paris on October 17, 1961. According to Attia, La Colonie will be a space for sharing ideas and displaying work in the post-Brexit age, hoping to stand for inclusivity and diversity at a time when racial tensions are mounting across Western Europe. It is an entirely independent project, receiving no subsidy from the state. Details of the exhibition program are yet to be announced. The Art Newspaper has more.

Christie’s have just revealed an exciting new addition to their New York Modern and Impressionist sale that will take place this November: Claude Monet’s 1891 painting La Meule, part of his famous Grainstack series. The series, made up of around 25 canvases in total, was begun by the painter at the age of 50. Christie’s target price for La Meule is around $45 million, almost half the top price realized by a Monet painting at auction, which was $80.4 million for Le Bassin aux Nympheas (1899), sold at Christie’s London in June 2008. More details on Art Market Monitor.