Coco Fusco is an interdisciplinary artist and writer whose work critically examines histories of oppression, structures of geopolitical power and gender identity with a focus on Cuban, Latin American and Indigenous experiences. C. Fusco graduated with a B.A. in Semiotics from Brown University in 1982, earned her M.A. in Modern Thought and Literature from Stanford University in 1985 and her Ph.D. in Art and Visual Culture from Middlesex University in 2007.

Born to a mother who had fled Cuba during the revolution, C. Fusco’s work is largely rooted in her own heritage and contemplations of cultural exile. In her early career, C. Fusco travelled to Cuba, embedding herself in the vibrant, politically motivated art scene, which led to her collaborating with fellow artists. C. Fusco’s work considers the marginalised human condition under the scope of war, diaspora as a result of violence, as well as the politics of belonging and, in contrast, otherness.

Amongst her most renowned works is her 1992–1994 collaboration with artist Guillermo Gómez-Peña (1955–), The Year of the White Bear. The exhibition, which premiered at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, is a reconsideration of Christopher Columbus’ expedition, and launched on the quincentennial of that event. The project included the performance Two Undiscovered Amerindians Visit the West, which featured the two artists posing in a cage, referencing the voyeuristic gaze of Europeans in relation to colonized peoples, and the mysticism assigned to indigenous populations.

The performativity of C. Fusco’s work is deeply rooted in political realities and the lasting impacts of untold histories and veiled truths. Her work Bare Life Study #1 (2005), for example, explores labour and cruelty in US military prisons while A Room of One’s Own: Women and Power in the New America (2006–2008) interrogates the role of women in the so-called American War on Terror in the early 2000s. Themes of techno-cultural violence, human behaviour and the logics of domination are present in The Incredible Disappearing Woman (2003) and Observations of Predation in Humans: A Lecture by Dr. Zira, Animal Psychologist (2013). Her video piece, Your Eyes Will Be An Empty Word (2021) documents the artist operating a rowboat in the waters around Hart Island, the burial site of New York’s unclaimed victims of COVID-19 and other pandemics including the 1918 flu and AIDS.

C. Fusco’s considerations of cultural positionality and post-colonialism extend into her written works. Her literary contributions include: Dangerous Moves: Performance and Politics in Cuba (2015), A Field Guide for Female Interrogators (2008) and English is Broken Here: Notes on Cultural Fusion in the Americas (1995). C. Fusco’s performances and videos have been presented internationally as a part of notable events such as the 56th Venice Biennale (2015), Frieze Projects (2016) and three Whitney Biennials (1993, 2008 and 2022). C. Fusco’s works are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, The Walker Art Center, the Centre Pompidou and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona.