MEDIATHEK

As the daughter of Cuban immigrants, Coco Fusco discusses why those who are ethnically Cuban but reside elsewhere still feel passionately about their homeland. This work includes her study of these intense feelings and discussions about other cultural issues related to being a person of color, especially Latino, in white society. Essays about contemporary artists Lorna Simpson, Pepon Osorio, and Juan Sanchez are featured, as are interviews with Andres Serrano and Guillermo Gómez-Pena. Serrano's photographs, along with those by Robert Mapplethorpe, ignited the far right's indignation toward NEA grant recipients. With Gómez-Pena, Fusco co-wrote two scripts that were broadcast on National Public Radio. Especially provoking is their collaboration on "The Couple in the Cage," a performance-art piece in which they pretended to be Amerindians from an undiscovered island. Exhibited in a cage and dressed in primitive garb, the couple appeared in several museums. They kept records of the public's reactions on a laptop computer incongruously used during their time in the cage. The essay about their experiences also includes a listing of various "ethnographic exhibitions of human beings," from Christopher Columbus to 20th-century circus displays. (Jennifer Henderson) (Quelle: amazon.com) /cp Leihgeber: Kanadische Botschaft