The fourth plinth artwork by Teresa Margolles is a powerful celebration of trans life – and an act of defiance

The fourth plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square has long been used as a stage for provocative and thought-provoking artworks. Many commissions have been kitsch or whimsical by design – including a melting swirl of whipped cream, a giant thumbs up, and even a huge blue cockerel.

However, this year’s piece, Mil Veces un Instante (A Thousand Times in an Instant), by Mexican artist Teresa Margolles, addresses a pressing and tragic reality: the escalating violence and murders faced by the trans community worldwide.

Margolles’s work is a powerful tribute to her friend, Karla La Borrada, a 67-year-old trans singer and former sex worker who was murdered in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico nine years ago. To date, Mexico remains the second-most dangerous country in the world to be transgender, according to human rights groups. Sadly, these issues are not unique to Mexico.

Recent data from the Office for National Statistics and reports by Stonewall show reported instances of trans hate crime in the UK have increased by over 186% in the last five years. And that statistic is probably only the tip of the iceberg, given issues around police and state violence against these communities, meaning many instances often go unreported to officials.

The public installation features a series of masks cast from the faces of 726 trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming people from the UK and Mexico – 363 from each country. Arranged in an orderly pattern around a central box, these masks create a living memorial and a platform for trans visibility, advocacy and international solidarity.

For Margolles, it was important that the casting process was an affirming and empowering one. The artist spent an hour with each sitter, learning about their lives, experiences and the songs that shaped them, which were later compiled into a playlist that can be listened to when viewing the work.

To recruit participants in London, she worked in meaningful dialogue with Queercircle, a London-based LGBTQ+ led charity, and Micro Rainbow, an organisation supporting LGBTQ+ refugees in the UK. She also commissioned two trans assistants, Mo Marin Mendez, from Mexico, and Sega, a London-based tattoo artist, both of whom are included in the work as two halves of a single mask.

Rather than facing outwards, peering over bustling crowds of tourists, the masks are presented “backwards” with all the faces pointing into the plinth. Positioned in this way, there is a sense they are waiting for someone to gently place their face into one of the masks and feel what it is like to be in someone else’s skin – to see the world from a different perspective.

While most of the masks are stark white, others have faint traces of pink, beige and black tones from makeup residues. As the process of casting involves applying liquid plaster over the sitter’s face, it captures not only their features but the very traces of their identity – eyelashes, eyebrow hair and even skin cells become enmeshed with the material. These physical traces serve as a poignant reminder of the individual lives behind the statistics, establishing a tangible, lasting record of the sitter.

As a naturally degrading material, plaster is subject to erosion and decay. The masks will gradually take on new shapes, forms and patterns over time, which seems a fitting metaphor for both the impermanence of human life and the ongoing nature of transition which, for many, is always unfixed.

The project was partly inspired by the Mesoamerican tradition of “tzompantli” – racks that were used to display the skulls of sacrifice victims or prisoners of war. The work also references historic death masks, usually made by taking a cast or impression from a corpse, which Margolles is no stranger to, given her initial training in forensic pathology and her work in a morgue-cum-studio. However, the artist conceptualises these casts as “life masks” and they form a monument of the living, celebrating the resilience and vibrancy of the trans community.

Despite the fourth plinth being dedicated to annual temporary commissions since 1999, critics of Margolles’s work and right-wing press have falsely claimed that her piece, the 15th in the plinth’s history, was preventing the installation of a permanent sculpture of Queen Elizabeth II. This has been refuted by the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, who has reaffirmed the significance of this timely work.

In today’s politically hostile climate, putting trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming lives front-and-centre in one of London’s most iconic and busiest sites is an important act of defiance, confronting the public with the realities that these communities face daily. The work ultimately builds bridges beyond borders to highlight the interconnectedness of trans experiences across the world, and to simply remind us of what it means to be human.

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