ART NOW: Coco Fusco- Observations of Predation in Humans, A Lecture by Dr. Zira, Animal Psychologist

The Chimp psychologist from Plant of the Apes is back! Zira travelled back in time to visit us 20 years ago and narrowly escaped death at the hands of the paranoid humans who could not tolerate the idea of other primates as equals. After living in seclusion for 20 years and conducting ethological studies of our species from her hideout, she has emerged in order to share her findings relating to aggressive behavior in members of the home genus. Her lecture is introduced by esteemed posthuman cultural theorist Donna Haraway and is followed by a question and answer session with human audience members. Dr. Zira draws on the cutting edge research in the fields of neuroscience, primatology and evolutionary biology to interpret the predatory activities of human beings in postindustrial societies around the world.

Coco Fusco is an interdisciplinary artist and writer and MIT’s MLK Visiting Scholar for 2014-2015. She is a recipient of a 2013 Guggenheim Fellowship, a 2013 Fulbright Fellowship, and a 2012 US Artists Fellowship among other prestigious awards, and her performances and videos have been presented in two Whitney Biennials, BAM’s Next Wave Festival, as well as numerous international Biennials and festivals.  Her works have appeared at the Tate Liverpool, The Museum of Modern Art, The Walker Art Center and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona. 

Fusco is the author of English is Broken Here: Notes on Cultural Fusion in the Americas (1995) and The Bodies that Were Not Ours and Other Writings (2001), and A Field Guide for Female Interrogators (2008). She is also the editor of Corpus Delecti: Performance Art of the Americas (1999) and Only Skin Deep: Changing Visions of the American Self (2003). She is currently working on a new book entitled Dangerous Moves: Performance and Politics in Cuba. 

Fusco’s work combines electronic media and performance in a variety of formats, from staged multi-media performances incorporating large scale projections and closed circuit television to live performances streamed to the internet that invite audiences to chart the course of action through chat interaction. 

Fusco received her B.A. in Semiotics from Brown University, her M.A. in Modern Thought and Literature from Stanford University, and her Ph.D. in Art and Visual Culture from Middlesex University.

More information on Coco Fusco here