A new monument featuring hundreds of plaster casts
of transgender and nonbinary people has been unveiled
on the Trafalgar Square Fourth Plinth in London.
Mil Veces Un Instante, or A Thousand Times In An Instant, is a sculpture created by Mexican artist Teresa Margolles, which features the “life masks” of 726 trans, non-binary and gender-nonconforming people from around the world. During which they will be exposed to London’s weather.
The monument was inspired by the Mesoamerican tradition of tzompantli, a skull rack used to display the remains of war captives or sacrificial victims. Margolles, who is a former
forensic pathologist and mortician, applied plaster directly onto the faces of the models, many of whom were seggs workers.
The piece has been described as a protest against the violence those in the trans and non-binary face around the world.
In a statement, Margolles said that the monument was a tribute to Karla La Borrada, a 67-year-old trans singer and former seggs worker who was m**dered in Ciudad Juárez nine years ago.
She said: “We pay this tribute to her and all the other people who were killed for reasons of hate. But, above all, to thosewho live on, to the new generations who will defend the power to freely choose to live with dignity.”
The masks will be displayed on the fourth plinth until 2026 when they will be replaced by New York-born artist Tschabalala Self’s Lady In Blue sculpture, inspired by a modern “everywoman”.
#trafalgarsquare #london #transgender #nonbinary #sculpture #lgbtq
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