Coco Fusco: The Empty Plaza/La Plaza Vacía

Streetscape with a baby blue old car in foreground with street in foreground, then an empty plaza and then buildings in background, two that have silhouettes of men on them

The Empty Plaza / La Plaza Vacia

2012

Coco Fusco

(born 1960) | Single channel video

Purchased with funds from the Contemporary Associates, Smith College Museum of Art

August 31, 2026–February 26, 2027

Overview

Coco Fusco’s The Empty Plaza/La Plaza Vacía (2012) layers sound and image as a way to reflect on Havana’s Plaza de la Revolución and its shifting meaning in Cuban public life. Combining contemporary footage with archival recordings, still photography, and poetic narration by Cuban journalist Yoani Sánchez, Fusco traces the plaza’s transformation from a symbol of revolutionary optimism to a site associated with surveillance, repression, and unfulfilled promises.

On view in the New Media Gallery on the Lower Level.