Coco Fusco And Guillermo Case Study

Coco Fusco and Guillermo are artists. Artists make statements and waves, some like to fly under the radar while delivering their message so as not to bring to much attention. Some artists like to make bold statements while transforming the public into the display as well. This is one of those cases. Coco and Guillermo decided to fabricate two indigenous people from a supposedly lost tribe that was apparently “overlooked” for several centuries.They dressed up in “traditional” clothing concealed their faces and locked themselves in a cage. Outside the box were tour guides who gave fake backstories and shut down any type of questions that would potentially break the art piece/experiment. Going so far as to have a donation box that would cause …show more content…
What I observed when watching this film was history repeating itself. It has long been an “attraction” to have “primitive people” on display for the amusement of the public, Upon watching this film two individuals came to mind. Sarah Bartman and Clicko the “Dancing Bushman” both from the continent.Both of these individuals were on display against their will for the public and both were looked at as “Primitive”. They were put on display to be laughed at and used to compare seemingly how far “our” society has advanced in relation to them. Both were humans but weren't treated according to this - in fact they were both called “freaks” and sideshow entertainment acts. Relating back to the “Couple In the Cage” it can be said that this is a satirical but powerful look at what was the mindstate of a western society during that time. Many of these racist views are still prominent to this day especially when it comes to the indigenous body on display for all to see. I believe that western “civilized” nations want to be able to view the other through a observational lens (like in Anthropology) and at the same time treat a culture or a society like an experiment or a sickness that needs to be cured. The basis behind colonization proves this completely. By encroaching on indigenous peoples habitats they then attempted to “civilize” especially through capture and holding …show more content…
They were chained on their way into the cage and on their way to the washroom and no one thought to question this. Instead the donations continued to roll in and pictures of people engaging with them for entertainment instead. If certain art was judged on “succession” this is a perfect example of creating something that managed to captivate and touch people's lives. The fact that they were never found out until after the fact and were able to travel as many places as they did is a testament to how believable this became. Art is meant to touch us and make us think. This did just that, it made people reflect on themselves as well as society, it brought some people to tears, to laughter and even solidified some racist values. All these emotions are probably not what Coco and Gomez were not expecting. Great art is also timeless, there will never be another social experiment or art piece like this again, society is much to tech savvy so for individuals to trick us again it would have to be something completely technologically advanced. In closing however, I believe we do indeed need more art such as this, experimental art pieces such as this would definitely be able to bring new conversations to the table and let us really begin to question our so called