Coco Fusco: Operation Atropos

Coco Fusco
Operation Atropos*

*the fate who cuts the thread of life

March 18 – May 13, 2006
Opening Reception:
Saturday, March 18, 6-8pm

MC GALLERY
6086 Comey Ave.
Los Angeles CA 90034
323 939 9777
mail@mckunst.com

MC is pleased to present Operation Atropos, a new video work by Coco Fusco and her first solo exhibition in Los Angeles.

Operation Atropos explores a particular shift in the role of women in the era of global warfare. The 59-minute video follow the artist and six women enrolled in a training workshop led by Team Delta, a group of retired US military interrogators, and designed for people in the private sector who want to learn from them various techniques for extracting information. In a one-day immersion in a simulated reality the women are introduced to interrogation from the point of view of the prisoner: the group is ambushed, captured and subjected to harsh treatment from ex-military personnel playing guards and hostile interrogators. The video shows how interrogators combine theatrical tricks with physical and mental stress to extract information from their prisoner. The digital photos document Fusco’s street performance in Sao Paolo in the fall of 2005. Inspired by her own experiences as a prisoner with Team Delta, she assumed the role of a military policewoman and staged a scene in front of the US consulate together with 50 drama students acting as her prisoners.

In conjunction with the exhibition, MC will publish a limited edition illustrated book by Fusco, a field guide for female interrogators that draws on materials from actual instruction manuals issued by the CIA and the US military.