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Ephemeral the works placed on it might be, but the Fourth Plinth is now a solid fixture of Trafalgar Square: this is its 25th year.
Today (18 September) the 15th artwork to grace the plinth was unveiled. Mil Veces un Instante (A Thousand Times in an Instant) was revealed to the applause and whoops of Londoners, a number from the trans and non-binary community. The striking piece, created by Teresa Margolles, is a cuboid constructed from the face casts of 726 trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming people from the UK and Mexico, where Margolles hails from.
As with many Fourth Plinth installations, this artwork is also an invitation for discourse in what is the city's most famous public square. The arrangement of the casts references the form of a Tzompantli — a 'skull rack' from Mesoamerican civilisations used to display the remains of war captives or sacrifice victims. It makes for an unsettling artwork, one which calls into question Mexico's record on trans rights. Said Margolles — who once worked in a Mexico City morgue — "This year marks the ninth anniversary of the unpunished murder of Larka, a transgender woman who was a folk musician, a sex worker, an artistic collaborator, and a friend of mine... We pay this tribute to her and to all other people who were killed for reasons of hate."
At the unveiling, one of the people whose face features in the sculpture said that not all of those represented by Mil Veces un Instante are still with us now. It's a design feature of the artwork that over time, the plasterwork of the faces will be eroded away by the London weather.
Mil Veces un Instante will remain in Trafalgar Square until 2026, when it's replaced by Tschabalala Self's Lady in Blue.
