South South Veza

South South Veza
Online March 31–April 10, 2022
south-south.art

For the second edition of South South Veza, a virtual platform highlighting artists from the Global South which was also be showcased in the April 2022 edition of SP–Arte art fair in São Paulo, Alexander Gray Associates presented Coco Fusco's The Empty Plaza / La Plaza Vacía (2012), a video work accompanied by a series of still photographs.

Throughout Latin American and Caribbean cities, as across much of the world, centrally located public plazas are a key feature of communal and public life. Inspired by Arab Spring protests of 2011, Coco Fusco took note of discussions among Cubans about why it was that their plazas were left vacant. In her video work The Empty Plaza / La Plaza Vacía, Havana’s Plaza de la Revolución (Revolution Square) becomes the protagonist in the artist’s meditation on public space, revolutionary promise, and memory. Intermittent close-up views bring the expansive plaza’s architecture into sharp focus while long shots documenting Fusco’s passage through the vacant square are punctuated by archival footage of post-revolutionary Cuba. “The absence of the public in some plazas seemed just as resonant and provocative as the presence in others,” Fusco recalls. “Cuba’s Plaza of the Revolution is one such place―a stark, inhospitable arena where all the major political events of the past half-century have been marked by mass choreography, militarized displays, and rhetorical flourish. I decided to create a piece about that legendary site―an empty stage filled with memories, through which every foreign visitor passes, while nowadays many, if not most, Cubans flee.”

To view the Gallery's online presentation, please click here.