Silhouette and Politics: Claudia Coca

Marisabel Villagómez

2025

In the neighborhood of Palermo, on Avenida Sarmiento, in the heart of Buenos Ai- res, there once stood a zoo that, with thepassing of the years, fell into disrepair and was eventually forgotten. In 2019, this space—once full of animal life and crowds who came to visit its cages and displays—experienced a radical transformation, converted into a laboratory for research and creativity that welcomed scientists, artists, and thinkers, who gathered to reflect, explore, and experiment with con- temporary questions in what would later become known as the MUNTREF Centro de Arte y Naturaleza. At that time, theconcept of the Anthropocene, the philosophical current concerned with humanity’s impact on the planet and its ecosystems, was at the height of its popularity. In the same space, that place where the old met the contemporary, various curators and artists gathered for the BIENALSUR, before COVID-19 stormed into our lives and annihilated our hopes for a more promising future. What had once seemed a slim possibility, that optimistic belief in human change, quickly devolved into uncertainty, chaos, and bewilderment. Before the COVID pandemic, however, what was offered to us by this strange space full of stories was not just an art exhibition in the conventional sense. Rather, it looked like a set from a dystopianscience fiction movie, with its empty spaces and its air of environmental apocalypse. This was not a work of fiction, however,but a true, tangible, profoundly moving story. Housed in the old refreshment stand of the once-popular zoo, surrounded by wallsthat had witnessed the presence of captive animals, was Claudia Coca’s piece “No digas que no sé atrapar el viento” [“Don’tTell Me I Don’t Know How to Catch the Wind”] (2018). This work, laden with meaning, invited viewers to reflect deeply on hownature has been represented in Latin America’s historical texts, especially those authored by nineteenth-century colonizers and travelers. In its earliest stages, the work was a conglomeration of texts, excerpts taken from colonial tales thatcrisscrossed the region’s history, revisiting the historical process of colonization and its relationship with its naturalsurroundings. But what made this project truly revolutionary was the way in which Claudia Coca transformed those texts byincorporating a personal, visual language. She began to embroider and draw on those narratives, adding her visualinterpretation to the written text, creating a space that not only discussed history, but also acted as a place of dialogue, a meeting point between past and present. Through Coca’s work, the space became a reflection on nature’s struggle in theface of the urgent questions being asked of us today. And these questions, which grow more pressing by the day, have yet toreceive any clear answer. Outside, in the empty zoo, a number of animals roamed freely, as a metaphor for the abandonmentand disconnection we feel with our surroundings, a space where man no longer plays a dominant role.

It was in this highly unusual setting that I first met Claudia Coca. Initially, I admit, I imagined her as an introvert, perhaps a bitshy, someone who doesn’t like to be the center of attention, instead preferring, like many artists, to remain in the shadow of her own work. However, that first meeting was the start of a deep and meaningful relationship. We began a series of conversations, investigations, and collaborative efforts that led us to question humanity’s historical impact on nature, a topic of fundamental concern to both of us. I can vividly recall one of our “expeditions,” in 2024, that left us so exhausted that even today we have been unable to revisit many of the ideas and thoughts that emerged during post-COVID times, at the height of climate change denial. Among my mental snapshots of our expeditions, there is one conversation that remains etched into my memory, a conversation about Humboldt, the famous nineteenth century explorer and thinker. We were discussing Humboldt’s view of nature, his perception of human beings and the environment as interconnected. AlthoughClaudia Coca’s INSitu project, Una geografía de los saberes [A Geography of Knowledges], has its own unique identity, I think it brings together some of Humboldt’s political ideas in a way, especially in terms of understanding nature as a complex,connected network. I also think Humboldt’s drawings, while powerful, are more fragmented than Coca’s, full of scatteredinformation that can be interpreted in different ways. In those days, between coffees shared as the world was coming to an end and our continuous territorial wandering, Claudia and I began to forge what would become a strong friendship shapednot only by our research and projects, but also by the effects of COVID, lockdown, and, above all, by a question that continues to resonate: what is the role of “nature’s empire” in such an uncertain world? In the midst of all these questions, one thing remained clear: nature is much bigger than us and always expresses itself in one way or another, even if we sometimes find it difficult to listen to or interpret it,

This profound process of questioning humanity’s role in the world and our relationship with nature led us to explore newer philosophical currents as well. Thinker J. W. Moore’s theory of modernity’s “epistemic rift” describes the violent separationwe have created between “Nature” and “Society,” two spheres that have long been considered independent or evenopposites.[1]According to philosopher Bruno Latour, however, our mind is not separate from the physical world; rather, both form part of the same tissue, a network that connects them intrinsically. For Latour, knowledge is not something separatefrom the physical world, but an expression of reality itself. In other words, knowledge and the physical world are not separate entities; both of them blur together in a single network that connects everyone, human beings and nature. This perspective aligns with the ideas of Humboldt, who was one of the first to think of nature not as something static or separate, but as a“connected web of life” that joins together all the elements of the universe.[2] This view is also an integral part of the art ofClaudia Coca, whose work challenges the notion that nature and human beings are separate entities.

For Claudia Coca, drawing is much more than a visual technique; it is a powerful tool for synthesizing and communicating profound and complex ideas. The silhouette, in particular, is an abstract form capable of reducing everything we see to an essential representation, flat but laden with meaning. Throughout Western history, drawing has been considered an auxiliary discipline that accompanied other forms of artistic expression, such as painting, sculpture, or architecture. Today, however, drawing has achieved full autonomy, shedding its subordinate role to become an independent discipline that can adoptdifferent forms. For Coca, For Coca, drawing is not just a technique, but a process of visual thought, a mental creation thathas no tangible equivalent in nature. It is precisely for this reason that she has no need to resort to elaborate or overwroughtgraphics to transmit complicated or striking ideas. With the use of the silhouette, Coca succeeds in condensing and profoundly, effectively transmitting ideas that invite the viewer to question reality.

In this way, contemporary drawing, especially in its expanded form, has managed to free itself from the traditional confines ofpaper and find new ways of interacting with the viewer. Drawing has ceased to be simply a form of reproducing reality andhas become a critical tool that invites us to challenge our perception of that reality. In a world saturated with manipulated and distorted images, drawing has been transformed into a refuge of philosophical thought, a laboratory for re- flection in which the spectator not only doubts but also learns and grows. This type of drawing, as practiced by Claudia Coca, has become nomadic, always in the service of critical reflection, generating spaces for questioning that invite us to reconsider our ideas about the world and its representation.

Claudia Coca uses silhouettes as a tool for revising history, especially in relation to indigeneity in Latin America, but also toaddress contemporary issues of social justice, human rights, and exploitation. Her silhouettes, especially those created du- ring the same period as Una geografía de los saberes, titled “Joyas para el imperio” [“Jewels for the Empire”], represent a kind of anti-perspective, in the sense that they do not seek to create the illusion of depth or three-dimensionality. Instead of representing figures optically, Coca chooses to create flat figures that evoke the style of dustjacket flaps found on old books,stylized depictions that are not intended to be exact imitations of reality, but to capture the essence of what is depicted there:nature in its texture. These silhouettes are created on a large scale, giving them a powerful presence, as if they were shadowsprojected on history and memory. In their simplicity, they are not only a reminder of something past, but the very essence of what is represented, giving them a profound and direct narrative power.

In her Works, Claudia Coca invites us to reflect not only on how we see the past, but how we face the challenges of class,race, immigration, and democracy today. Through her artistic practice, Coca addresses fundamental questions of social justice and historical memory, defying the narratives that have been constructed about indigenous peoples and colonization. Her work is a critical reflection on the permanence of colonization in our social and cultural structures, and how the traces of that past continue to shape the present, especially the way in which indigenous cultures have been historically represented and stripped of their dignity.

In her visual intervention, Coca uses silhouettes as a powerful tool for revising the history written by colonizers and explorers, especially relationships between indigenous peoples and European colonizers. These giant silhouettes, affixed to the walls ofthe room, depict not only indigenous figures, but also stereotypes that have been imposed on them for centuries. The invisibleindigenous figures, reduced to the abstraction of their knowledge of plants (in this case, the chinchona tree), are stripped oftheir power and presented as a dustjacket flap on a science book, underscoring their representation as an object of subjugation and dehumanization. In her works, Claudia Coca turns these representations on their head, creating flat figures that do not seek to capture three-dimensionality, but rather an essential view of oppression, resistance, and the struggle to preserve an identity that has been erased from official history.

Coca also uses the recourse of the shadow in a different way: not as a coincidence, but a deliberate choice to create a visualtension that causes the spectator to recognize the profound implications of colonial history in the construction of our currentviews. These shadows not only allude to the invisibility that indigenous peoples have often suffered in official narratives but also symbolize the enduring echoes of colonial violence that continue to reverberate in contemporary power relations. By creating silhouettes that fill the entire space of a National Geographic cover, or on the contrary, just a corner of a page, Coca not only invokes the past but also establishes a conversation with the present, sparking a reflection on the continuity of colonial structures and how they still reproduce themselves today through stereotypes and prejudices.

The presence and absence of indigenous silhouettes invites us to take a profound pause, to question not only the treatment ofindigenous peoples in Latin American and world history, but also the way colonial narratives continue to influence how wesee ourselves today. Each figure is a presence that demands recognition and visibility. The silhouettes of indigenous women, who have traditionally been viewed through the lens of exoticism or as objects of conquest, are depicted by Coca as symbols of resistance and resilience, figures that defy representations of subjugation to become testimonies of survival andstrength. Through this approach, Coca reminds us that history is not static; it is not a closed book. In her oeuvre, the past confronts the present, and the spectator is invited to form part of that process of recognition and transformation.

Ever since European colonizers arrived in the Americas, a symbolic relationship between the indigenous and the “savage” hasbeen perpetuated, equating indigenous peoples with primitive, uncultivated nature. Within this framework, indigenouspeoples were depicted as “uncivilized” beings whose connection to the earth and the natural environment was seen as both a virtue and a threat. They were associated with virgin soil, unexplored jungle, the “savage world” that had to be subdued andcivilized, a space of barbary that stood in contrast to the colonizers’ “civilized” culture. This imaginary, so deeply rooted in colonization, still persists. Depictions of indigenous peoples as part of nature, more than historical or social subjects withagency, situates them in a subaltern position. In the works of Claudia Coca, this relationship is revisited; the silhouettes not only represent individuals but also reflect a profound critique of the reductionist view that is still used to justify the exploitation of both indigenous cultures and nature itself.

Through her work, Coca reconfigures the historical relationship between indigenous peoples and nature, making visible the intrinsic connection that these cultures have had with their surroundings since ancestral times, while challenging the colonial perspective that views them as part of a “natural” world to be conquered. The figures presented by Coca are not mere symbols of the wild and savage, but full subjects, imbued with resistance and a deepknowledge of the land. By presenting these silhouettes in such monumental sizes, Coca vindicates the indigenous figure notonly as an echo of the past, but as an active subject who has been, and continues to be, at the center of environmental and social struggles, challenging colonial narratives and proposing new ways of understanding the relationship between humanity and nature.

Ultimately, Claudia Coca’s work not only addresses the indigenous question from a historical perspective, but also posesurgent questions about the social, political, and cultural challenges that still remain. By invoking the echoes of colonialism and questioning the stereotypes that have endured in the visible and invisible representations of indigenous peoples, Coca invites us to reconsider how we are constructing our society, how we see cultural diversity, and how we face the legacies of a past that inevitably continues to define our relationship with the other. Her silhouettes simultaneously evoke historical memory while challenging us to look to the future with a critical, transformative gaze, to reconfigure our relationships and build a world in which equity, justice, and dignity are the dominant forces.

[1] Moore, Jason W. Capitalism in the Web of Life: Ecology and the Accumulation of Capital (London: Verso, 2015), 85.

[2] Von Humboldt, A. Cosmos: A Sketch of a Physical Description of the World (New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1856 [1845]).