Tomorrow, I Will Become an Island Charts Coco Fusco's Radical Path of Social Reckoning @ KW Institute in Berlin

Tomorrow, I Will Become an Island is the first major retrospective of Cuban-American artist Coco Fusco (b. 1960, US). For more than three decades, she has been a key voice in discourses on racial representation, feminism, postcolonial theory, and institutional critique. The exhibition seeks to trace the profound influence that Fusco’s work has had on contemporary art discourses in the Americas and Europe. To do so, it features a broad selection of the artist’s videos, photography, texts, installations, and live performances from the 1990s to the present day.

With her multidisciplinary practice, Fusco explores the ways that intercultural dynamics affect the construction of the self and ideas about cultural otherness. Her work is informed by multicultural and postcolonial discourses as well as feminist and psychoanalytic theories. Her investigation of intercultural dynamics has led her to develop art projects about ethnographic displays, animal psychology, sex tourism in the Caribbean, labor conditions in free trade zones, suppressed colonial records of Indigenous struggles, and the military interrogation techniques used in the war on terror. Her more recent work focuses on the relationship between poetry and revolutionary politics in Cuba.
The exhibition is loosely structured along these various interconnected themes. As such, Tomorrow, I Will Become an Island shows the breadth of Fusco’s artistic practice that is highly relevant considering current political and cultural debates in Germany and beyond.

Tomorrow, I Will Become an Island is on view through January 24th, 2024, at the KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin at Auguststraße 69, 10117 Berlin, Germany

KW Institute For Contemporary Art Celebrates It's 30th Anniversary With Year-long Program Of Exhibitions

Founded on July 1, 1991 by Klaus Biesenbach, Alexandra Binswanger, Philipp von Doering, Clemens Homburger, and Alfonso Rutigliano, KUNST-WERKE BERLIN e. V. put down roots in a derelict former margarine factory located on Auguststraße 69 in the Berlin-Mitte district. After organizing the pivotal innovative exhibition project 37 Räume in 1992, artistic director Klaus Biesenbach continued to present ground-breaking exhibitions that won the institution critical acclaim, both nationally and internationally, and in 1996 he initiated the now widely renowned Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art.

In its thirty years, KW has considerably shaped the development of contemporary art by critically examining current tendencies and discourses within society. To mark its 30th anniversary, KUNST-WERKE BERLIN e. V. is is hosting a year-long program of exhibitions featuring artists Renée Green, Leonilson, Michael Stevenson, and Amelie von Wulffen; group exhibitions co-curated by artists Iman Issa and Ghislaine Leung; and a new performance piece by Michele Rizzo.

This series of new commissions, featuring Susan Philipsz’s acoustic work in KW’s courtyard in homage of political activist Rosa Luxemburg on the anniversary of her execution, was created during Philipsz’s residency at KW in 2002; the re-installation of Katharina Sieverding’s monumental print Deutschland wird deutscher (1993) is to be displayed in the entranceway of KW as well as on billboards across Berlin in April-May; and artist Sissel Tolaas will create a limited edition of soap carefully composed from particles she collected at the KW building, a former margarine factory.

Complementing this program, a major two-part art auction, organized in collaboration with renowned Berlin-based fine art auction house Grisebach, will take place in June and December 2021, featuring works by over 60 artists who have significantly contributed to KW’s legacy. The annual program’s key event will be a weekend-long celebration on July 2 – 4, 2021, featuring an extensive program of events, performances, and the launch of the first publication retracing KW’s history.

KW Institute for Contemporary Art’s full 30-year anniversary program can be found here.