Podcast Summary: All Of It with Alison Stewart
Episode: Cuban-American Artist Coco Fusco Receives Her First US Museum Survey
Date: September 18, 2025
Host: Alison Stewart (WNYC)
Guest: Coco Fusco, Artist and Writer
Episode Overview
This episode centers on Coco Fusco, a Cuban-American artist and writer, as she discusses her first-ever museum survey in the United States, “Tomorrow I Will Become an Island,” held at El Museo del Barrio in her hometown of New York City. The conversation explores Fusco's approach to art, the politics of her work, personal and collective memory, and how art addresses social transformation, migration, and death. Fusco shares insights into selecting works for the survey, reflects on her most famous pieces, and describes recent projects addressing migration and the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on New York.
Key Discussion Points and Insights
1. The Meaning Behind the Exhibition Title: “Tomorrow I Will Become an Island”
- Inspiration: The exhibit’s name is a “paraphrase of a line from a poem by Cuban writer Virgilio Pineda.”
- Coco Fusco [01:13]: “In the poem, he talks about transformation... tomorrow, at a certain time, I will become an island. And, you know, that basically new life will spring from me... The power and potential of transformation and of art to transform.”
2. Curating a Survey: Deciding What to Include
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Selection Process: Curators, not just the artist, make selection decisions, shaping the show’s focus by collaborating with Fusco and considering existing collections.
- Coco Fusco [01:58]: “Those decisions are not entirely up to the artist, ever in a retrospective.”
- Discusses earlier versions of the exhibit in Berlin (KW Institute of Contemporary Art) and Barcelona (“Swimming on Dry Land”).
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Intent: Fusco wants the survey to reflect the “spectrum” of her 30+-year practice, not just her most publicized project, “The Undiscovered Amerindians.”
- Coco Fusco [03:29]: “It's important to me to present the spectrum of what I've done over the last, you know, 30 some years.”
3. Legacy and Education: “The Undiscovered Amerindians”
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Art history and evolving perceptions:
- Coco Fusco [03:29]: “I think that in the United States, most people... identify me with the undiscovered Amerindians piece... it was not without controversy... but as time has gone on, people’s ideas have changed about what that piece means.”
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Student Responses: Fusco, a professor, notes younger students’ unfamiliarity with her earlier work and their pressing interest in the present.
- Coco Fusco [04:48]: “I still get, you know, I would say every month at least a couple of letters from... people who are doing research of some kind and want to question me again about a performance that took place more than 30 years ago... But I think my students are very concerned about what's going on in the present.”
4. Representing the Past: Teaching Through Art
- Challenging authenticity and imagination:
- Fusco recounts taking students to the Met’s Afrofuturist period room, using it to open conversations about “inventing history” and parallel questions in Western art.
- Coco Fusco [06:29]: “You guys, you see a lot of paintings of Jesus Christ in the history of Western painting. None of the people who made those paintings ever saw Jesus Christ... It's equally valid to ask that question about half the history of Western painting. But you don't ask that. You're asking only about this room.”
5. Case Study: “La Plaza Vacía” (Empty Plaza) [07:22–11:38]
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Background: Film work depicting Havana’s Plaza de la Revolución, Cuba’s historic site for mass political rallies.
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Political Shifts and Emptiness:
- Coco Fusco [08:15]: “At this point in time... it’s empty. The only people you see going through there are guards... and a handful of tourists... its role is, has, is severely diminished.”
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Arab Spring Inspiration:
- The piece emerged during the era of the Arab Spring, when public plazas elsewhere were “full of people” expressing desire for change; in contrast, Cuba’s plaza was empty—a silence that is itself political.
- Coco Fusco [09:39]: “...I started thinking about the emptiness of the plaza as a political statement. Because we were so focused on the plazas that were full.”
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Artistic Process under Surveillance:
- Shooting had to be done stealthily, blending in as tourists to avoid state interference.
- Coco Fusco [10:37]: “We would shoot as long as we could before guards would start asking us questions and then go away for a while, wait for a changing of the guard, then come back... to show morning, afternoon, night, sundown, and nighttime in that plaza and the continued emptiness of the space.”
6. “Everyone Who Lives Here Is a New Yorker” [11:55–14:46]
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Public Art in Contemporary NYC:
- Project started as a 30-second animated spot for LinkNYC kiosks near Union Square, supported by arts nonprofit More Art.
- Coco Fusco [12:24]: “What I wanted to do was to create a piece for Link NYC signs... a kind of something that looked like an old silent movie.”
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Historical Echoes:
- Juxtaposes Lewis Hine’s early 20th-century immigrant portraits with contemporary New Yorkers.
- Coco Fusco [13:12]: “...to photograph the immigrants now the way Hein had photographed immigrants... to understand that we have... always experienced waves of immigration and that the people who now consider themselves to be fully American are the children and grandchildren of those who emigrated seeking the same thing... opportunity, safety, freedom.”
7. “Rowing Past Hart Island” [14:47–21:13]
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Hart Island Significance: Final resting place for New Yorkers who died unclaimed, including many COVID-19 victims.
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Personal Resonance with Death:
- Coco Fusco [15:23]: “I stayed in New York during COVID... I was very aware of other people who did not have that privilege who were getting sick. Many people I know... died of COVID.”
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Witnessing COVID’s Tolls:
- Descriptions of refrigerated trucks, lines outside crematoriums; echoing epidemics of the past.
- Coco Fusco [17:08]: “The idea of being surrounded by the dead, I thought, this really ties us to deep, you know, past, right? To plagues in the Middle Ages...”
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Artistic Process:
- Creating a visual ritual, with Fusco in a dinghy throwing flowers near Hart Island, filmed by drone for an aerial “death’s viewpoint,” referencing religious and historical plague art.
- Coco Fusco [20:16]: “I wanted to... represent that in a way by having a bird's eye view of the island, right? As if we were looking from the point of view of death.”
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Memorable Quote:
- Coco Fusco [20:58]: “I was so struck by the feeling in the early months of COVID when New York was so heavily affected, that it felt like being in a war with an invisible enemy... the enemy is the air, right?... Nothing protects you from the air.”
8. Satire and Activism: “The Siren” [21:22–21:45]
- Recent Project: Fusco introduces “The Siren,” a satirical online/print publication she co-founded to “poke the bear” regarding right-wing American politics (MAGA).
- Coco Fusco [21:22]: “The Siren is an online and print publication... a collection of satirical cartoons and writings that tries to poke the bear in terms of going after Maga.”
Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
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On Transformation and Art:
- Coco Fusco [01:35]: “The power and potential of transformation and of art to transform.”
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On Her Most Famous Work’s Legacy:
- Coco Fusco [03:29]: “At the beginning... it was not without controversy and not without negative criticism. But as time has gone on, people's ideas have changed about what that piece means.”
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On Challenging Historical Narratives:
- Coco Fusco [06:29]: “None of the people who made those paintings ever saw Jesus Christ... it's equally valid to ask that question about half of the history of Western painting. But you don't ask that. You're asking only about this room.”
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On the Politics of Emptiness:
- Coco Fusco [09:52]: “What does it mean when people refuse to go to the square, when people don't want to go demonstrate their support or can't come out to protest?”
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On Representing the Dead During the Pandemic:
- Coco Fusco [20:58]: “It felt like being in a war with an invisible enemy, right? That... the enemy is the air... Nothing protects you from the air.”
Timestamps for Key Segments
- Introduction and Exhibition Overview: 00:09–01:58
- Exhibit Title and Philosophy: 01:08–01:53
- Curatorial Process and Artist-Show Relationship: 01:58–03:20
- Legacy of “The Undiscovered Amerindians” and Teaching: 03:29–05:45
- Art, History, and Authenticity in Museum Education: 05:45–07:03
- Discussion of Specific Works: “La Plaza Vacía”: 07:17–11:38
- “Everyone Who Lives Here Is a New Yorker”: 11:55–14:46
- “Rowing Past Hart Island”: 14:47–21:13
- On Political Satire: “The Siren”: 21:22–21:45
Episode Takeaways
- Fusco’s survey presents not only her best-known works but also recent and more intimate explorations of identity, history, and the politics of space and death.
- Her approach bridges personal, historical, and political narratives, challenging mainstream perceptions and sparking intergenerational conversations.
- Art for Fusco is a means of transformation—of people, places, history, and understanding.
For further information or to view the works, visit El Museo del Barrio’s exhibit “Tomorrow I Will Become an Island,” running through January 11th.