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COCO FUSCO
coco.fusco [at] gmail.com | D.O.B.: 6/18/60
EDUCATION
2007 Ph.D., Art & Visual Culture, Middlesex University
1985 M.A., Modern Thought and Literature, Stanford University
1982 B.A., Literature and Society/ Semiotics (double major), magna cum laude,
Brown University
BOOKS
2008 A Field Guide for Female Interrogators, (Seven Stories Press)
2003 Only Skin Deep: Changing Visions of the American Self, Editor with
Brian Wallis, (Harry Abrams Publishers, Inc.)
2001 The Bodies that Were Not Ours and Other Writings, (Routledge/INIVA)
1999 Corpus Delecti: Performance Art of the Americas, Editor, (Routledge)
1995 English is Broken Here: Notes on Cultural Fusion in the Americas
(The New Press)
EMPLOYMENT
2008 - Associate Professor, Fine Arts, Parsons The New School for Design
2006 - 2008 Visiting Associate Professor, Spanish Dept. and The Center for the
Study of Ethnicity and Race, Columbia University
2001 - 2006 Associate Professor, Visual Arts Division, School of the Arts,
Columbia University
1998 - 2001 Associate Professor, Painting, Drawing and Sculpture Department,
Tyler School of Art, Temple University
1995 - 1998 Assistant Professor, Painting, Drawing and Sculpture Department,
Tyler School of Art, Temple University
AWARDS
2009 Shortlist, Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards
2003 Alpert Award in the Arts, Film/Video category
Honorable Mention, Transmediale Festival, Berlin, for Dolores from 10 to 10
2000 Tyler School of Art Merit Award for Outstanding Research
1995 Critics' Choice Award from the American Educational Studies Association for
English is Broken Here: Notes on Cultural Fusion in the Americas.
ATHE Research Award for Outstanding Journal Article from the Association
of Theatre in Higher Education. For the essay, The Other History of
Intercultural Performance, published in The Drama Review, Spring, 1994.
FELLOWSHIPS AND GRANTS
2011 Faculty Development Fund, The New School
2009 Faculty Development Fund, The New School
2006 Creative Time Commission, Who Cares? initiative
2004-5 InSite Biennial, Commission for Internet based artwork
2002 Arts International Commissioning Grant for performance
2000-1 Temple University Junior Research Leave
1999 Temple University Summer Research Fellowship
1998 Multi-Arts Production Fund, Rockefeller Foundation
1998 Franklin Furnace Fund for Performance Art
1995 Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, Artist's Fellowship
1994-95 Mellon Fellowship, Critical Studies, California Institute for the Arts,
Valencia, California.
1994/1997/2003 Arts International Travel Grant
1991 New York State Council on the Arts, Media Artist Fellowship
1991 National Endowment for the Arts, Inter-arts Artist Fellowship
1991/1997 New York Foundation for the Arts, Non-Fiction Fellowship
1989 New York State Council on the Arts, Critical Writing on Media
VISITING APPOINTMENTS
2011 Juror, MFA in Live Art, Universidad Nacional, Bogota, Colombia
2010 Artist in Residence, Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Culture,
University of Chicago
2008 Visiting Artist/Scholar, Bar Ilan University, Tel Aviv, Israel
2007 University Hood Fellowship, U. of Auckland, New Zealand
2007 Visiting Artist, Colorado College
2007 Artist in Residence, MIT, Cambridge
2007 Visiting Artist, Santa Fe Art Institute
2006 Adjunct Visiting Professor, NYU, Dept. of Art & Public Policy
2006 Visiting Professor, Black Mountain (Western Carolina U.)
2005-2006 Visiting Critic, University of Pennsylvania, Art Dept.
2005 Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Humanities, Grinnell College
2005-2006 Visiting Critic, Art Dept. University of Pennsylvania
2004 Visiting Critic, Sculpture Department, Yale School of Art
2004 Honorary Professor, Hist. & Criticism, Glasgow School of Art
2002 Visiting Artist, NES Theater, Amsterdam, Holland
2002 Visiting Artist, DASARTS, Amsterdam, Holland
2000 Visiting Artist, Arts Council of Andalusia, Spain
2000 Visiting Artist, X-Teresa Arte Alternativo, Mexico City
1999 Visiting Artist, Santa Fe Art Institute, New Mexico
1999 Visiting Artist, La Quam, Barcelona, Spain
1997 Visiting Artist, Otago Polytechnic, Dunedin, New Zealand
1996 Visiting Artist, Colorado University, Boulder
1994 Visiting Professor, Art and Art History Department, Colgate University
1993 Artist in Residence, Art Department, University of Illinois-Chicago.
1992 Artist in Residence, California Institute for the Arts, Valencia, California
1992 Visiting Critic, Maryland Art Place, Baltimore, Maryland.
PROFESSIONAL OFFICES AND COMMITTEES
Franklin Furnace, Board of Directors, 2006 -
College Art Association, Board of Directors, 2004 – 2007
College Art Association, Chair of Diversity Committee, 2005-2007
College Art Association, Nominating Committee, 2006
Cultural Politics Journal, Editorial Advisory Board, 2004 -
PEN American Center, Member, 2003 -
NKA: Journal of Contemporary African Art , Consulting Editor, 1998-
London Live Art Development Agency, International Advisory Board Member, 1999 –
Performance Research Journal, Editorial Board, 1998 -
Board of Directors, Yaddo Artists Residency, 1999 – 2002
EXTERNAL TUTORIALS
Ph.D. Co-Supervisor for Tracey Rose, Wits School of Arts,
University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
Whitney Independent Study Program, Critical Studies Tutor, 2007
Whitney Independent Study Program, Critical Studies Tutor, 2002
Whitney Independent Study Program, Critical Studies Tutor, 2000
SELECTED LECTURES
2012 Visiting Artist Lecture, Center for Transdisciplinary Gender Studies,
Humboldt University, Berlin (May)
Visiting Artist Lecture, Portland State University (May)
Distinguished Humanities Lecture, Arizona State University (March)
Keynote Lecture, Vulnerability in the Humanities Conference,
Barnard U. (March)
2011 Keywords Lecture Series Speaker, InIVA, London (May)
Keynote Lecture, Sight Unseen Symposium, Trinity College, Cambridge (May)
Artist’s Lecture, Whitney Independent Study Program (March)
2010 Panelist, “Que Faire?” Conference, Pompidou Center, Paris
Faculty-Graduate Seminar Leader, Center for African-American Studies, Princeton University (December)
Visting Artist Lecture, University of Virginia, (October)
School of Visual Arts, New York (October)
Liverpool Biennial, (May)
Visiting Artist Lecture, Ruskin School of Art, Oxford U., UK (May)
Lecturer, Feminist Theory Workshop, Duke U., (March)
Visiting Artist Lecture, CU Boulder (March)
Unexpected Desire Panelist, SPE Conference, Philadelphia (March)
Keynote Lecture, Confronting Images and Testimonials Conference,
Ohio State U.,(March)
Castillo Corrales Gallery, Paris, (February)
Artist in Residence Lecture, Center for the Study of Race,
Ethnicity and Culture, University of Chicago (January)
2009 Frank Davis Memorial Lecture, Courthauld Institute, London, (November)
Keynote Lecture, II Foro Internacional Mujeres, Teatro y
Performance, Seville, Spain, (November)
Visiting Artist, University of Virginia, (October)
Panelist, Middle Eastern Art in Translation, Kevorkian Center, NYU
(September)
Panelist, Status Report, Bric Art Gallery, New York (September)
Visiting Artist, Espacio Aglutinador, Havana, (June)
Eyzaguirre Keynote Lecture, “New Perspectives on Race, Politics and
Cultural Agency” Conference, U. of Connecticut, (April)
Visiting Artist, California Institute for the Arts, (March)
Visiting Artist, Painting Program, Yale School of Art (March)
Lecture, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (January)
Lecture, Oslo National Academy of the Arts (January)
2008 Lecture, Whitney Independent Study Program (October)
Panelist, “Virtuality + Performance + Social Critique,” NYU (September)
Panelist, “Identity and its Aftermaths,” Guggenheim Museum, (September)
Keynote Speak, Schermz Symposium, Zürcher Hochschule der Künste,
Zurich (June)
Keynote Speaker, Visual Culture Workship, Bar Ilan University, Tel Aviv
(May)
Lecture, University of Richmond, (February)
Lecture, SUNY Albany, Women’s Studies, (February)
2007 Lecture, University of Pennsylvania, (November)
Respondent, “Retro Coco” panel, American Studies Association Conference
(October)
Performance/Lecture, “F” Word Feminist Art History Conference, Rutgers U.
(October)
Lecture, Whitney Independent Study Program (October)
Lecture, University of Auckland, New Zealand, (August)
Panelist, Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics
Encuentro, Buenos Aires (June)
Invited Lecturer, IUNA Art School, Buenos Aires, (June)
Invited Speaker, Global Feminisms Exhibition, Brooklyn Museum, (May)
Panelist, “On the Documentary Turn,” Whitney Museum, (April)
Panelist, Crosstown Connections, Asian-American Studies Conference,
New York (April)
Invited Speaker, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto (April)
Invited Speaker, Feminist Futures Symposium, MoMA (January)
Lecture, Johns Hopkins University (April)
Invited Speaker, Yale University (March)
Panelist, “Talks About Acts, LAX<ART, Los Angeles, (January)
2006 Lecture, Whitney Independent Study Program, (November)
Invited Speaker, Columbia College, Chicago, (November)
Invited Speaker, Northwestern University, (November)
Invited Speaker, Performance Studies International Conference, London
(June)
Lecture, Glasgow School of Art, Scotland (June)
Invited Speaker, Museo del Chopo, Mexico City (May)
Lecture, Modern Culture and Media, Brown U. (April)
Visiting Artist, DasArts, Amsterdam (April)
Lecture, U of Chicago, (February)
Lecture, World Arts and Cultures, UCLA (January)
Visiting Artist, Art Dept., UCLA
2005 Lecture, Art and Art History, U of Tulsa, (December)
Lecture, Whitney Independent Study Program, (November)
Lecture, Miami University, Ohio (September)
Lecture, Oberlin College, Ohio (September)
Lecture, Cooper Union, New York (September)
Lecture, Escuela de Arte, UAEMEX, Mexico (June)
Invited Speaker, Courtauld Institute, London, (May)
Invited Speaker, Middlesex University, London (May)
Lecture, Glasgow School of Art, Scotland (May)
Panelist, Vera List Center for Art and Politics, The New School,
New York (May)
Invited Speaker, International Association of Art Critics Conference,
Los Angeles (May)
Invited Speaker, Performance Studies International Conference,
“Retro-Coco” panel on my work, Brown U., Providence, (April)
Lecture, Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, (April)
Visiting Artists Lecture, Scripps College, Claremont, California (April)
Invited Speaker, Bronx Museum of Art, New York (March)
Lecture, Loyola College, Maryland (February)
Lecture, U. of Pennsylvania, Africana Studies, (February)
Lecture, Cranbrook Art Academy, Michigan (January)
2004 Lecture, Art Institute of Chicago, (November)
Lecture, Pratt Institute, New York (November)
Lecture, University of Southern California, Los Angeles (November)
Lecture, University of California-Irvine, (November)
Keynote lecture, Latino Leadership Summit, U. of Texas-Austin (October)
Lecture, Whitney Independent Study Program (October)
Lecture, Rutgers University, Art History Department (October)
Invited Speaker, Shanghai Biennale Symposium, China (September)
Invited Speaker, Artificial Emotion Conference, Itau Cultural Center,
Sao Paolo, Brazil (July)
Lecture, Glasgow School of Art (May)
Lecture, SUNY Stonybrook, New York (April)
Respondent, “Thinking Social/National Formation: Ethnic Studies
and American Studies Encounters” conference, Center for the Study of
Ethnicity and Race, Columbia University, (April)
Lecture, Brown University Theater Department (lecture) (April)
Invited Speaker, A Free State Conference, The British Museum, London,
Gallery Talk (at ICP) for Barnard College, Art History Department (February)
Gallery Talk (at ICP) for NYU Photography Department (February)
Lecture, Whitney Independent Study Program (February)
2003 Lecture, Institute for Research in African-American Studies,
Columbia University, (November)
Lecture, Yale University, Sculpture Department (November)
Invited Speaker, Maquiladora Murders Conference, UCLA
Lecture, Film/Video Department, California Inst. for the Arts
Keynote Speaker, Society for Photographic Education,
Regional Conference (October)
Lecture, House of World Cultures, Berlin (June)
Lecture, Univ. of North Carolina Art Department (April)
Invited Speaker, Women on the Line Conference, Institute for the Study of
Women and Gender, Columbia University (April)
Invited Speaker, Midnight’s Children Humanities Festival,
Columbia University (April)
Lecture, Women’s Studies, Harvard University (February)
Lecture, Art Department, Wellesley College (February)
College Art Association annual meeting, New York, (February),
Panel on tactical media practices
Inviting Speaker, Tanzquartier, Vienna, (January)
2002 Panelist, Conference on Judy Chicago’s “The Dinner Party”,
The Brooklyn Museum (November)
Lecture, Whitney Independent Study Program, (November)
Gallery Talk, Museum of Contemporary Art, Barcelona (November)
Invited Speaker, Conference on Transculturalism, House of World Cultures,
Berlin (November)
Lecture, Center for Ethnicity and Race, Columbia U. (October)
Lecture, Wesleyan University (September)
Invited speaker, The Jewish Museum, conference on Nazi Imagery/Recent
Art (June)
Gallery Talk, CCA, Glasgow, (May)
Panelist, Performance Studies International Annual Conference, (April)
Lecture, Latino Studies, Rutgers University (April)
Lecture, U. of Wisconsin, Milwaukee (April)
Lecture, New Media Department, Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland (April)
Lecture, Art in Motion Festival, LA MoCA and USC (March)
Lecture, Translating the Globe Series, Yale University (March)
Lecture, NSCAD, Halifax, Nova Scotia (February)
Invited Speaker, Panel discussion on Cultural politics and New Media,
Centro de Arte, Madrid (February)
2001 Lecture, Whitney Independent Study Program
Invited speaker, Roundtable discussion on pedagogy and globalization,
Boijmans Museum, Rotterdam (December)
Invited Speaker, Symposium on New Media, Kiasma Museum of
Contemporary Art, Helsinki (November)
Gallery talk in conjunction with publication of The Bodies That Were Not Ours,
Victoria Miro Gallery, London (November)
Lecture, Kapelica Gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia (October)
Invited Speaker, Conference on Transcultural Aesthetics, Museum of
Contemporary Art, Montreal (October)
Lecture, Center for Ethnicity and Race, Columbia U. (October)
Lecture, Victoria College of Art, Melbourne, Australia (July)
Invited Speaker, Globalization and Culture Conference, Sydney,
Australia (July)
Lecture, Art History and Africana Studies, Cornell U. (May)
Invited Speaker, Race and Digital Space Conference,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston (April)
Lecture, Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City (February)
Lecture, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas (February)
2000 Invited Speaker, Roundtable on Issac Julien’s Artworks,
Studio Museum in Harlem (December)
Lecture, Whitney Independent Study Program (November)
Lecture, Sapporo University, Japan (October)
Lecture, Macalaster University, Minneapolis (October)
Invited Speaker, Symposium on Art and Politics, Fundacion Picasso,
Malaga, Spain (May)
Lecture, Dennison University, Ohio (April)
Lecture, Tufts University, Boston (February)
Lecture, Art Dept, Georgia State University, Atlanta (January)
1999 Lecture, Royal College of Art, London, November)
Invited Speaker, Art History, SUNY-Stonybrook, (November)
Lecture, Institute of International Visual Art, London, (November)
Lecture, Northwestern University, Illinois, (October)
Lecture, U of Wisconsin, Madison, (October)
Lecture, Massachusetts College of Art (September)
Invited Speaker, Consejo Para la Cultura, Monterrey, Mexico, (June)
Invited speaker, Making a Scene: Performing Culture,
Performing Politics Conference, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, (June)
Lecture, Museum of Contemporary Art, Barcelona (May)
Invited Speaker, Humanities Institute Conference, Wesleyan University (May)
Lecture, Williams College (April)
Invited Speaker, Reverberations: Tactics of Resistance, Forms of Agency
in Transcultural Practice Conference, Jan Van Eyck Akademie,
Maastricht, Holland (April)
Lecture, U of Illinois - Champaign-Urbana (April)
Invited Speaker, Latino Studies Conference, Ohio State University (April)
Keynote Speaker, FATE (Foundations in Art Theory and Education)
Biennial Conference, (March)
Invited Speaker, Vera List Center for Art and Politics,
New School for Social Research (March)
Keynote Speaker, Women’s Caucus for Art, Los Angeles (February)
Lecture, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, (January)
Lecture, Whitney Independent Study Program, (January)
1998 Lecture, Vassar College (November)
Keynote Address, ISEA (International Symposium of Electronic Arts)
Liverpool (September)
Invited Speaker, Bienal de Barro, Museum of Fine Arts, Caracas,
Venezuela (July)
Invited Artist, Conversations with Contemporary Artists Series,
The Museum of Modern Art, New York (May)
Lecture, Theater and Latino Studies, Duke University, (March)
1997 Invited Speaker, Artists Lecture Series, Comune da Milano,
Milan, Italy (December)
Invited Speaker, Border Culture Conference, InSite ’97 Biennial,
San Diego (October)
Lecture, Art and Art History Department, Otago Polytechnic,
Dunedin, New Zealand (August)
Invited Speaker, Conference on transculturalism and theater, Intercult,
Stockholm, Sweden (April)
Lecture, San Francisco Art Institute ( April )
Invited Speaker, Panel discussion on Contemporary Latin American Art,
ARCO Art Fair, Madrid, Spain (February)
VIDEOS AND PERFORMANCES
2012
LA PLAZA VACIA/THE EMPTY PLAZA (video & photographs)
2008 - 2010
BURIED PIG WITH MOROS (Multi-media Installation)
A solo exhibition exploring the life of a myth about how to quell Islamic insurgents that emerged from the first American war against Muslims – the Moro Rebellion of the early 20th century. The exhibition centerpiece is a disembodied performance (presented as a power point display with audio) dramatizing an actual transcript of a lecture that was given at a military university in the US in 2005. Premiered at The Project (New York). Also shown in "Self as Disappearance" exhibition at Centre d'Art Contemporain-Synagogue de Delme (France) in 2010.
2006
OPERATION ATROPOS (Video)
A video documentary about Fusco’s undertaking training with retired US Army interrogators. Premiered in Fusco’s solo exhibition at MC Projects, Los Angeles in March, 2006. Subsequent screenings at Palais de Tokyo (Paris), PS 122 (New York), The Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto), Performance Studies International 2006 conference (London), Centro Cultural de la Recoleta, (Buenos Aires), Transmediale (Berlin), and several educational institutions.
Selected for the 2008 Whitney Biennial.
2006
A ROOM OF ONE’S OWN (Performance)
A monologue performance about the role of female Interrogators in the War on Terror. Premiere at The Kitchen as part of Performa 05, New York. Also presented at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, Oslo’s Kunstnerneshus, New York’s PS 122, FIU’s Frost Museum, Yale U., the Philadelphia Fringe Festival and Auckland’s Maidment Theater in 2006-2009. Selected for the 2008 Whitney Biennial.
2005
BARE LIFE STUDY #1 (Performance)
A street performance involving 50 participants. An
exploration of contemporary military scenarios as intercultural encounters. Premiere at VideoBrasil’s 15th Festival of Electronic Art and Performance, Sao Paolo.
2005
TURISTA FRONTERIZO (Net.Art)
Collaboration with Ricardo Dominguez. An interactive on-line game about social and geographic mobility at the US-Mexico border. Commissioned by InSite 05.
2004
A/K/A MRS. GEORGE GILBERT (Video)
A single channel video, 31 minutes. Combining fictional and documentary materials, this piece is a reflection on the use of electronic surveillance to repress intellectual endeavor and political dissent. An FBI agent’s confesses his involvement in the pursuit of Angela Davis. Premiere at Fusco’s solo exhibition at The Project Gallery, New York. Selected for the 2004 Shanghai Biennial, the Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival, Transmediale 2005, and the Women in the Director’s Chair Festival as well as exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, The Bronx Museum, Jack Shainman Gallery, The Brooklyn Museum and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
2001 - 2003
THE INCREDIBLE DISAPPEARING WOMAN (Performance)
A multimedia performance with video projections about women, sex and death in the US-Mexico border region. Premiere at Berlin’s House of World Cultures in June, 2003. Also presented at London’s, ICA, The Time Based Arts Festival at the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, and the International Performance Festival in Pancevo, Serbia.
2001 - 2002
DOLORES FROM 10 TO 10 (Performance/Video Installation)
In collaboration with Ricardo Dominguez. A 12-hour net. performance about surveillance and the disciplining of female bodies in the global economic order. Presented by Kiasma, Helsinki’s Museum of Contemporary Art on November 22nd, 2001. The video installation based on this performance premiered at the Dundee Contemporary Arts Center in May, 2002 and has been included in the “What? A tale in Free Images” at the Memlingmuseum in Brugge, Belgium; “Artificial Emotion” at Itau Cultural Center in Sao Paolo, Brazil; “Proof: The Act of Seeing with One’s Own Eyes” at the Australian Center for the Moving Image; “La Costilla Maldita” exhibition at the CAAM (Center for Contemporary Art, Canary Islands); the “Day Labor” exhibition at New York’s PS 1; and “Killing Time” at Exit Art in New York. The video installation also received an Honorable Mention from the Transmediale Festival in Berlin in 2003.
2001
ELS SEGADORS (THE REAPERS) (Video)
A video about the integration of immigrant populations into European national cultures. Commissioned by Rotterdam 2001 Cultural Capital of Europe for the “Unpacking Europe” Exhibition. Presented at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, Artists’ Space in New York, ARCO 2002’s Project Rooms and La Casa Encendida in Madrid, and at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona. Selected for ICP 2003’s Triennial.
2000
EL EVENTO SUSPENDIDO (Performance)
A site-specific performance about the symbolic presence and absence of exiles in Cuba. Presented at El Espacio Aglutinador, in Havana, November 13, 2000.
1999 - 2000
VOTOS (Performance)
A durational performance inspired by the writing of Catholic women mystics of the 16th and 17th centuries. Premiered at the Third International Performance Art Festival of Odense, Denmark in September, 1999. Toured to Washington State University Museum, November 1999; Nexus Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, January, 2000; The Project Gallery, New York, June, 2000; Open Space, Internationale Frauen Universitat, Hannover, Germany, August, 2000; and The Hull Time Based Arts Festival, Hull, England, October, 2000.
1996 - 1999
STUFF (WITH NAO BUSTAMANTE) (Performance)
A performance about Latin American women and global tourism, commissioned by London's Institute for Contemporary Art, Portland Center for Contemporary Art and Highways. Premiered in November 1996 at the National Review of Live Art in Glasgow and toured to ICA, London, Nov. '96; Highways, Los Angeles, Dec. '96; PICA, Portland, Jan. '97; Brady Street Theatre, San Francisco, April, '97; Intercult, Stockholm, April, '97; Artspace, Auckland, July, '97; Otago Polytechnic, Dunedin, New Zealand, Aug. '97; Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Aug. '97; Waves Festival, Vordingborg, Denmark, Sept. '97; Arizona State University, Phoenix, Sept. '97; University of Michigan, Oct. '97; The MAC, Dallas, Dec. '97; Western Front, Vancouver, January, '98; Notre Dame University, Indiana, February, '98; Duke University Institute of the Arts, March '98; The Painted Bride, Philadelphia, March '98; Harn Museum of Art, Gainsville, April, '98; Cleveland Performance Art Festival, May '98; PlanB Evolving Arts, Santa Fe, June '98; Urban Institute for Contemporary Art, Grand Rapids, June '98; MACLA, San Jose, August. '98; Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, September '98; Cal State U., Chico, October, '98; Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland, Nov. '98; Dixon Place, New York, January, '99; Rhode Island School of Design, January, '99.
1997
RIGHTS OF PASSAGE (Performance)
A site-specific performance about race and state control of internal and external migration. Created for and performed at the Johannesburg Biennale, South Africa, 1997.
1997
EL ULTIMO DESEO/THE LAST WISH (Performance)
A site-specific performance about death and repatriation of exiled Cubans. Presented at the Galeria Tejadillo 214, Havana, Cuba, May 1997.
1996
BETTER YET WHEN DEAD (Performance)
A performance installation about necrophilia and Latin American women artists. Premiered at YYZ Artists Outlet in Toronto, 1997 and performed at the Arts Bienal of Medellin, Colombia, 1997.
1995
POCHONOVELA (DIRECTOR/PRODUCER) (Video)
A 30-minute parody of a Latin telenovela (soap opera) featuring the comedians of Chicano Secret Service. Premiere: October 1995 Honorable Mention, Cinefestival Latino. Broadcast on KCET in 1996.
1995
MEXARCANE INTERNATIONAL (Performance)
A site-specific performance-installation designed for malls and public plazas. Created with Guillermo Gómez-Peña. Premiere at The National Review of Live Art in Glasgow and presented at the Dufferin Mall in Toronto under the auspices of YYZ Artists Outlet and Mercer Union, 1994 and at The London International Theatre Festival, 1995.
1992
THE COUPLE IN THE CAGE (Video)
A 30-minute video documentary about the performances that Fusco and Gómez-Peña carried out in 1992, in which they presented themselves as inhabitants of a Caribbean island that had never been "discovered" by the West. Directed and produced by Fusco in collaboration with Paula Heredia. Selected for 1993 New York Film Festival Video Visions Program. Best Performance Documentary Award, Atlanta Film and Video Festival, 1994. Aired on KCET and WGBH in 1994.
1992
THE YEAR OF THE WHITE BEAR (Exhibition)
An interdisciplinary arts project that premiered in September 1992 at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. Created in collaboration with Guillermo Gómez Peña. Consists of a multi-media installation, experimental radio soundtrack and several performances. The project is a creative investigation/ interpretation of the history of representations of the so-called "discovery" of America. Toured to the The Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum, Chicago, 1993; and The Otis Gallery, Los Angeles, 1993. Radio Pirata Broadcast on NPR and Pacifica radio throughout the US in 1992.
1992
TWO UNDISCOVERED AMERINDIANS VISIT THE WEST (Performance)
For this performance, a component of The Year of the White Bear project, Gómez-Peña and Fusco presented themselves as “undiscovered Amerindians” from an island in the Gulf of Mexico. Toured to University of California - Irvine, 1992; Edge Arts Festival, London and Madrid, 1992; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis 1992; The Smithsonian Institution, 1992; The Sydney Biennale, 1992; Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, 1993; The Whitney Biennial, 1993; Fundacion Banco Patricios, Buenos Aires, 1994
1991
LA CHAVELA REALTY COMPANY (Performance)
A site-specific performance held at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in conjunction with Guillermo Gómez-Peña's 1991: A Performance Chronicle, in which Fusco as Queen Isabella sold patrons deeds to the New World. Costume designed by Pepón Osorio.
1990
NORTE:SUR (Installation/Performance)
An interdisciplinary arts project commissioned by the 1990 Festival 2000 in San Francisco. Composed of installation, multi-media, experimental radio program and performances; produced in collaboration with Guillermo Gómez-Peña and René Yánez. The project explored the cultural, linguistic, political and demographic presence of Latin America in the United States and vice versa. Performed at The Mexican Museum, Sept - Nov., 1990.
1987
HAVANA POSTMODERN: THE NEW CUBAN ART (Video)
A video documentary for public television made with support from the Bela Balasz Studio in Budapest, Hungary, in collaboration with Robert Knafo and Andras Mesz. Aired through KCET Latino Consortium and for WNET's Hispanic Season in 1989.
CURATORIAL PROJECTS
2003
ONLY SKIN DEEP: CHANGING VISIONS OF THE AMERICAN SELF
A comprehensive exhibition about race in American photography. Opened the International Center of Photography in the winter of 2003 and traveled to the Seattle Art Museum and the San Diego Museum of Art.
1998
MEXICO IN BLACK AND WHITE: THE CINEMATOGRAPHY OF GABRIEL FIGUEROA
An homage to the celebrated Mexican cinematographer for the Brooklyn Museum, June 1998.
CORPUS DELECTI
A season of performance by Latino/a artists in North and South America, London's Institute for Contemporary Art.
BLACK AMERICAN SHORT FILMS AND VIDEOS
A five-part program organized for the 1993 Oberhausen International Festival of Short Film in Germany. Fusco also presented related programs in Cologne, Dortmund and Munster.
1991
THE HYBRID STATE FILM SERIES
Sponsored by Exit Art. Held at Anthology Film Archives in November, 1991. The two-week program looks at filmic representations of cultural experiences resulting from migration from the Third World to the First.
ROBERT FLAHERTY SEMINAR, Programmer (with Steve Gallagher)
Special program on Arab cinema from North Africa.
BLACK IN A WHITE WORLD
Sponsored by the Gallery Association of New York State. A touring program of short films by African American independent filmmakers.
1989 INTERNAL EXILE: FILMS AND VIDEOS FROM CHILE
A touring exhibition of works by emerging directors produced in the last years of the Pinochet regime. Premiered in May 1990 at the Museum of Modern Art (films) and Exit Art (videos). Program traveled to The Pacific Film Archives, The Los Angeles Festival, The La Jolla Museum of Art, The Neighborhood Film and Video Project (Philadelphia), and other locations. Organized with Third World Newsreel.
BORDER CROSSINGS
A series of documentary films exploring issues of multicultural literacy. Program toured New York State in 1989. Curated while on staff as program officer for the New York Council for the Humanities.
YOUNG, BRITISH AND BLACK: THE WORKS OF SANKOFA AND BLACK AUDIO FILM COLLECTIVE
Film series that introduced the independent media produced by the pioneers of Black avant-garde cinema to American audiences. The program toured the US. Organized with Third World Newsreel.
REVIEWING HISTORIES: SELECTIONS FROM THE NEW LATIN
AMERICAN CINEMA
A retrospective series for Hallwalls Art Center in 1987.
PERFORMANCE SCRIPTS
“A Room of One’s Own: Women and Power in the New America,” The Drama Review, 51, 4 (T196), Winter, 2007.
“The Incredible Disappearing Woman,” Macalaster International, issue on International Feminisms: Divergent Perspectives, Volume 10, Spring, 2001, pp. 3-44.
“Stuff,” The Drama Review, Vol. 41, No. 4, Winter, 1997, pp. 63-82.
SELECTED ARTICLES AND INTERVIEWS
(in addition to those reprinted in my essay collections listed above):
“On Line Simulation/Real Life Politics: A Discussion with Ricardo Dominguez on Staging Virtual Theater,” The Drama Review, (T178), vol. 47, no. 2, pp. 151-162.
“Wide Area Disturbance” (a published discussion with Ricardo Dominguez),
(The New Press), Mute Magazine, March 10, 2002.
“Transformational Acts: An Interview with Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset,” Taking Place: The Works of Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset, Kunsthalle Zurich and Danish Contemporary Art Foundation (Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2002).
“All Too Real: The Tale of Black Sale: Coco Fusco interviews Keith Townsend Obadike,” Thing Reviews, bbs.thing.net, September, 2001.
“Modernity Deferred: The work of Luis Simon Molina Pantin,” (catalogue essay), Confort Exhibition, Museo Alejandro Otero, Caracas, Venezuela, 2000.
“At Your Service: Latina Performance in Global Culture,” Reverberation: Tactics of Resistance, Forms of Agency in Trans/cultural Practices, ed. Jean Fisher, (Maastricht: Jan Van Eyck Akademie, 2000).
“Una Inmodesta proposición, (An Immodest Proposal),” Zehar Magazine (Spain), Summer, 1999.
“Elevator Repair Service,” (interview), BOMB Magazine, Summer, 1999.
En la encrucijada Norte-Sur: Videos de Juan Downey,” With Energy Beyond These Walls, (Valencia: IVAM, 1998).
“We Wear the Mask,” Talking Visions: Multicultural Feminism in a Transnational Age, ed. Ella Shohat, (Cambridge/New York, MIT Press?New Museum of Contemporary Art, 1998).
"The Magnificat", in Joyful Noise: The New Testamant Revisted, ed. Rick Moody and Darcy Steinke, (New York: Little, Brown, 1997).
Carrie Mae Weems, (review), NKA: Journal of Contemporary African Art, Spring, 1996.
"Performance and the Power of the Popular" in Let's Get It On: The Politics of Black
Performance (London/Seattle: The ICA and Bay Press, 1995).
"Cuban Art, Foreign Interests," catalogue essay for Cuba: La Isla Posible, an exhibition of the Centro de la Cultura Catalana, Barcelona, Spain, 1995.
"A Letter to South African Artists," (catalogue essay) 1995 Africus: Johannesburg Biennale (Johannesburg: Transitional Metropolitan Council, 1995).
"Reflections on the Temple", (catalogue essay for performance installation by Guillermo Gómez-Peña), The Detroit Institute of Art, 1994.
"Magdalena Campos-Pons at INTAR", review, Art in America, February, 1994.
"Pepon Osorio: En la Barberia No Se Llora", (catalogue essay), Real Art Ways, Hartford Connecticut,1994.
"Family Matters: Race, Ethnicity and the American Family", (catalogue essay) Atlanta College of Art, 1994.
"Cuba's Artworld Comes Undone," The Los Angeles Times, Friday, December 24, 1993.
"Pan-American Post Nationalism: Another World Order", in Black Popular Culture, a project by Michele Wallace, edited by Gina Dent, (Seattle: Bay Press, 1992).
"The Hybrid State", film exhibition catalogue essay, published by Exit Art, New York, 1991.
"Art and National Identity", Art in America, Sept. 1991.
"Art and Cuba Now", The Nation, June 24, 1991.
"The Latino Boom in American Film," El Boletin, Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies, 1990.
"Managing the Other" in Lusitania, Vol. 1, No. 3, Fall, 1990, and Futur Antérieur, Nos. 12-13, 1992, L'Harmattan, France.
"Internal Exile: New Films and Videos from Chile," (catalogue essay). Third World Newsreel, 1990.
"Ethnicity, Politics and Poectics: Latinos and Media Art" in Illuminating Video: An Essential Guide to Video Art, edited by Doug Hall and Sally Jo Fifer, (San Francisco: Aperture and the Bay Area Video Coalition, 1990).
"Black in a White World: Short Films by African-American Independents", (catalogue essay), The Gallery Association of New York State, 1990.
"About Locating Ourselves and Our Representations", Framework, Third Scenario: Theory and the Politics of Location, no. 36, 1989, (England).
"Cuba Libre?," The Village Voice, January 10, 1989.
"Fantasies of Oppositionality", Screen: The Last Special Issue on Race?, Vol. 29, No. 4, Autumn, 1988, (England) Reprinted in Art, Activism, and Oppositionality: Essays from Afterimage, ed. Grant H. Kester, (Durham: Duke University, 1998).
"Drawing New Lines", The Nation, Vol. 247, No. 11, Oct. 24, 1988.
"Signs of Transition: '80's Art from Cuba," (catalogue essay), Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art and The Center for Cuban Studies, 1988.
“Reviewing Histories: Selections from The New Latin American Cinema,” (exhibition catalogue), Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center, 1987.
"Cuba: Cultural Policy, Cultural Politics" Impulse Magazine, Summer, 1987.