Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth: Artwork unveiled showing 726 trans and gender-diverse faces

The latest Fourth Plinth Commission has been unveiled in London – and it marks a poignant moment for the trans community.

Mil Veces un Instante (A Thousand Times in an Instant) by Teresa Margolles, which went on display in the capital yesterday (Wednesday 18 September 2024), features the plaster cast faces of 726 trans and gender-diverse people.

The piece is a tribute to trans people worldwide, including a friend of the artist: a transgender woman named Karla. In December 2015, Karla was murdered in Juárez, Mexico, devastating the local community and beyond. Her murder remains unsolved.

“Defend the power to freely choose to live with dignity”

Teresa Margolles said in a statement: “This collective sculpture, which brings together the faces of 726 people living in the United Kingdom and Mexico, stands not only as a display of resilience and humanity from the trans plus/non-binary community but also as a reminder of the murders and disappearances that still occur, especially in Latin America.

“Through this structure, Mil Veces un Instante (A Thousand Times in an Instant), there is a return to the human, the primal, the sacred.

“This year marks the ninth anniversary of the unpunished murder of Karla, a transgender woman who was a folk musician, a sex worker, an artistic collaborator, and a friend of mine. She was murdered on December 22, 2015 in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico.

“We pay this tribute to her and to all the other people who were killed for reasons of hate. But, above all, to those who live on, to the new generations who will defend the power to freely choose to live with dignity.”

“A testament to the resilience and grief of the trans+ community”

LGBTQI+ charity QUEERCIRCLE has been involved in the project from the outset. Director Ashley Joiner (they/them) told Attitude: “This piece is a testament to the resilience and grief of the trans+ community. A reminder that we are constantly having to hold these two states of being at a time of relentless media, political and social pressure. 

“It has been incredibly empowering to support Teresa and our trans+ community to produce such a timely and essential piece of art that builds solidarity with our international community, has nurtured those of us who participated, and confronts the public with the truth of our lived realities.”

This year marks 25 years since the Fourth Plinth’s first work, Ecce Homo by Mark Wallinger, was unveiled in 1999.

Previous Fourth Plinth commissions

1999 Ecce Homo by Mark Wallinger
2000 Regardless of History by Bill Woodrow
2001 Monument by Dame Rachel Whiteread
2005 Alison Lapper Pregnant by Marc Quinn
2007 Model for a Hotel by Thomas Schuette
2009 One & Other by Sir Antony Gormley OBE
2010 Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle by Yinka Shonibare CBE
2012 Powerless Structures, Fig 101 by Elmgreen & Dragset
2013 Hahn/Cock by Katharina Fritsch
2015 Gift Horse by Hans Haacke
2016 Really Good by David Shrigley OBE
2018 The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist by Michael Rakowitz
2020 THE END by Heather Phillipson
2022 Antelope by Samson Kambalu