University of California-Irvine
As "Take One" of The Year of the White Bear, held at the Fine Arts Gallery of UC-Irvine from February 24 - March 4, 1992, with performances held all day March 1, 2, 3 with "ritual events" at 7:30 on the 3rd and 4th[5] Before the performance the artists were contacted by the Health Department of UC-Irvine due to the misunderstanding that they were anthropologists bringing in "real aborigines" whose excrement could be hazardous.[3] One woman went so far as to ask for a rubber glove in order to fondle Gómez-Peña in a sexual manner.[7] Approximately 1,000 individuals saw these performances.[3]
Columbus Plaza, Madrid
Selected for the Edge Biennial, the artists took their performance to a much more public context in Columbus Plaza of May 1992.[3] Edge '92, taking place in both London and Madrid, was planned as a quincentennial celebration of Madrid as a hub of European culture.[3] Spanish businessmen reverted to childhood, mocking the performers with ape noises,[7] while school children compared the performers to the wax Arawak figures housed in the museum across the street.[3] Teenagers also attempted to burn Gómez-Peña while handing him a beer bottle filled with urine.[7] Men donated to see Fusco dance, explaining that they wanted to see her breasts.[7] More than half of the people believed the performance to be a real display of Amerindians.[7]
Covent Garden, London
Three days after Madrid, the pair performed in Covent Gardens.[3] Covent Gardens as a venue has a history as a location where people of color have been exhibited, starting from the 17th century through to the 18th century.[7] It was even the venue for the play Omai, inspired by the Omai, a Tahitian native who embodied the idea of the noble savage.[9] During the performance a group of neo-nazis attempted to rattle the cage.[7]
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
Exhibited as part of their show The Year of the White Bear, the performance took place outside in the Sculpture Garden of the Walker Art Center in September 1992.[2] 15,000 visitors saw the performance and exhibition.[3] This is the first of two instances in which the work was clearly presented in an art context.[2]
Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, Washington D.C.
On view from October 17-18th, 1992,[6] the performance reached approximately 120,000 visitors over a two-day period.[3] The performance confused many museum goers who questioned the authenticity, and who were even more perplexed when docents continued to keep up the performance.[6] One alarmed attendee even called the Humane Society to seek assistance in freeing the caged couple.[7]
Australian Museum of Natural History, Sydney
In December 1992 the artists performed at the Australian Museum of Natural History, with approximately 5,000 visitors; staff members here became uneasy after Japanese tourists left the museum deeply disturbed, fearing this would result in negative press for the museum.[3] One woman sat down with her young child to loudly apologize to the performers for having "taken [their] land away".[3]
Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago
From January 16–17, 1993 Gómez-Peña and Fusco performed at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, aided by Field Museum "docents" played by Paula Killen, Claire DeCoster and Pablo Helguera.[4] Following a script written by the artists, DeCoster and Helguera encouraged the audience's questions and analysis while members of the museum's education department surveyed visitors.[4] This was a devastating experience for the docents, as they witnessed the large majority of the audience persistently ignore the plaques on either side of the cage and believe the Amerindians to be real.[4] Approximately 5,000 people attended, with the Field Museum receiving 48 phone calls regarding the misinformation the public believed was due to the Field Museum.[3]
Whitney Biennial, New York
The Couple in the Cage: Two Undiscovered Amerindians Visit the West ended its tour as a selection of the 1993 Whitney Biennial, an exhibition noted to be one of the most consciousness-raising in the history of the Biennial.[10] In addition to the traditional Guatinaui tasks Gómez-Peña and Fusco consistently performed, the artists offered views of Gómez-Peña's genitals for donations of five dollars a view, and a native dance to hip hop music for fifty cents.[11] This was the one of the two instances in which the work was clearly presented and contextualized as artwork during the entirety of its tour.[3] Despite this, some attendees assumed the artists were actors performing in a work by an artist.[3]
