The Bodies That Were Not Ours (review)

The Bodies That Were Not Ours COCO FUSCO LONDON: INIVA & Rout ledge, Publishers, 2002 I n t hi s new vol ume of essays, int erviews, document at i on and t r anscr i pt s publ i shed bet ween 1995 and 2000, Coco Fusco, associ at e pr of essor of ar t at Col umbia Universit y, writ es as a vet er an of t he Cul t ure Wars. Thr oughout t he 90s, Fusco w as t here, on t he gr ound, an act i vi st crit ic, acerbic perf ormance art ist and mil it ant t heor i st , f i ght i ng t he good f i ght f or t he kind of soci al l y engaged ar t r i ght wi nger s woul d lat er st i gmat i se as pol it ical correct ness. Consequent l y, The Bodies That Were Not Ours (TBTWNO) i s mot i vat ed by a desire t o count er an ongoi ng conser vat i ve r evi si oni sm t hat masquer ades as com m on sense. TBTWNO ret urns t o t hemat ics of i dent i t y pol it ics t hat have pr eoccupi ed Fusco al l al ong. These concer ns are now rat her unf ashi onabl e t hr oughout t he art worl d. Such unf ashi onabi l i t y here becomes a st r engt h; i t al l ows Fusco, a consummat e insider, t o posi t i on herself as an out sider, someone alive t o t he endl ess war of posi t i on t hat i s t he cont emporary art market . It i s a st ance exemplif ied i n her prose st yle whi ch i s at one and t he same t ime f rank and combat i ve, gossi py and mal icious, hist orical l y mi nded and ear nest l y, even r i ght eousl y pessi mi st i c. TBTWNO anal yses t he last years of t he 20t h Cent ury w hen t he art world and t he busi ness world became i nt er l ocki ng sect ors of a gl obal i sed market cult ure. The i nt er nat i onal biennal e and t he cor por at e f oundat i on al ike adopt ed a model t hat Fusco, like Kobena Mercer, t erms 'corporat e mult icult uralism'. Aest het i c repr esent at i on became separ at ed f r om pol i t i cal r epr esent at i on. Racial vi si bi l i t y t ransl at ed i nt o privat ized success rat her t han democrat ic progress. I n parallel wi t h t hi s kind of bureaucrat ic m ut i cul t ur al i sm , an emer gent cybercult ure inf il t rat ed t he ar t worl d, of f ering vi r t ual dreams of di sembodi ment but , i n realit y, ext endi ng st rat egies of dom i nat i on over mi l l i ons of di spl aced, di senf r anchi sed and br ut al l y expl oit ed people. Poised as we now are on t he brink of world wide r ecessi on, i t i s easy t o see how bot h of t hese t endenci es were aspect s of a boom t ime economy. Hi st or i ans will learn t o r ecogni se t he mai nst ream i nt er nat i onal cult ure of t hi s era by i t s part icular t one of unf l aggi ng boost er i sm , sm ug sel f - assur ance and danger l ess milit ancy. These general condi t i ons were experienced wi...