Analysis of Coco Fusco and Guillermo Gómez Peña’s ‘The Couple in the Cage: A Guatinaui Odyssey’

Abstract

The performance The Couple in the Cage: A Guatinaui Odyssey by Coco Fusco and Guillermo Gómez Peña presents a piece mainly featuring two people where presented as a couple, from a fictional island called Guatinaui. The piece performed throughout the world from 1992 to 1994 and in a film in 1993, is narrated from the perspectives of colonial experts who guide the audience through the supposed features of the island, its peoples and the roles the couple played in society. The performance was a response to the quincentennial of Columbus’ arrival in the Americas and sought to highlight parts of this history that are often ignored. In this way, one of the main objectives of the performance was to demonstrate the general idea of the Other, and how people from developed countries viewed indigenous communities.