A/ K/ A MRS. GEORGE GILBERT

Coco Fusco, USA, 2004, 31', Beta SP

Nel video l’artista fonde in maniera decisa l’interesse per l’immaginario razziale e un’acuta analisi dell’uso politico della sorveglianza elettronica. Combinando immagini d’archivio e fiction, Coco Fusco ricostruisce le operazioni che il Federal Bureau of Investigation (Fbi) mise in piedi contro gli intellettuali e attivisti neri negli anni Sessanta e Settanta del Novecento. “a/k/a Mrs. George Gilbert” mette in scena la confessione di un agente del Fbi che ha preso parte alla caccia di Angela Davis, la filosofa nera iscritta nella lista dei dieci principali ricercati dal governo statunitense. Durante i due mesi di latitanza di Angela Davis, centinaia se non migliaia di donne furono erroneamente identificate dalle forze di polizia e molte di loro furono arrestate.

The film extends Coco Fusco's in depth examination of racialized imagery.
Fusco combines fictional and documentary source materials to reflect on the use of electronic surveillance against black intellectuals and activists in the 1960s and 1970s. a/k/a Mrs. George Gilbert is the story of an FBI agent who confesses his involvement in the nation-wide search for Angela Davis, the black philosopher who was placed on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted List" after which she went underground. During the two months that Davis was a fugitive, hundreds, if not thousands, of other women were incorrectly identified by law enforcement officials and many were arrested as Miss Davis.
Fusco weaves together archival footage, simulated surveillance footage of many Davis "lookalikes," actual trial transcripts, FBI records and press clips.

Coco Fusco è una artista e scrittrice, con base a New York, che si muove al confine tra più discipline. Dal 1988 ad oggi ha realizzato decine di mostre, installazioni video, performance on-line e off-line. È autrice di English is broken here (The New Press, 1995), The Bodies That Were Not Ours and Other Writings (Routledge/inIVA, 2001) e curatrice di Corpus Delecti: Performance Art of the Americas (Routledge, 1999), e Only Skin Deep: Changing Visions of the American Self (Abrams, 2003). Coco Fusco ha ricevuto nel 2003 il Herb Alpert Award in the Arts. I suoi lavori sono stati selezionati da numerosi eventi culturali di primo piano come The Whitney Biennial (New York), The Sydney Biennal, The Johannesburg Biennial, The Kwangju Biennale, The London International Theatre Festival, and the National Review of Live Art.
Il suo documentario del 1993, sulla sua performance sull’esposizione degli amerindi, realizzata con Guillermo Gómez-Peña, The Couple in the Cage, è stato proiettato in oltre duecento posti in giro per il mondo. Il suo ultimo video, a/k/a Mrs. George Gilbert, è stato selezionato per la Biennale di Shanghai del 2004 e sarà proiettato al MoMa di New York nel corso del 2005. La sua video installazione, Dolores from 10 to 10, ha ricevuto una menzione d’onore alla Transmediale di Berlino del 2003.
Attualmente Coco Fusco è professore associato in Visual Arts alla Columbia University’s School of the Arts.

Coco Fusco is a New York-based interdisciplinary artist and writer. She has performed, lectured, exhibited and curated around the world since 1988. She is the author of English is broken here (The New Press, 1995), The Bodies That Were Not Ours and Other Writings (Routledge/inIVA, 2001) and the editor of Corpus Delecti: Performance Art of the Americas (Routledge, 1999). and Only Skin Deep: Changing Visions of the American Self (Abrams, 2003). Fusco is a recipient of a 2003 Herb Alpert Award in the Arts.
Fusco's performances and videos have been included in such events as The Whitney Biennial, Sydney Biennale, The Johannesburg Biennial, The Kwangju Biennale, The London International Theatre Festival, and the National Review of Live Art. Her 1993 documentary about her caged Amerindian performance with Guillermo Gómez-Peña, The Couple in the Cage, has been screened in over two hundred venues around the world. Her latest video, a/k/a Mrs. George Gilbert, was selected for the 2004 Shanghai Biennale. Her video installation, Dolores from 10 to 10, received an honorable mention from the 2003 Transmediale in Berlin.

Tekfestival ed. 2005, Finestra panorami