Bright and graphic illustrations, installations on bathroom politics, and back-page comics for the fabulous Shameless mag? Artist Coco Riot does it all! Here’s how Coco (who uses they/their pronouns) describes their work:

A queer hispanic migrant artist, Coco Riot believes that art is not a tool for social change but social change itself. In their work Coco Riot loves exploring the multiple social possibilities of drawing and language through installation, animation film, print media, graphic novels, comics and in-site drawing exhibitions. The topics that fuel their inspiration range from queer politics, social and personal memories, living in different languages and the experience of migration, to Coco’s desire for bright colours and the love for poetry and repetitive patterns. In their work, Coco Riot uses personal experiences as metaphors to talk about social and political experiences experiences.

Coco began by making zines and comics that they wanted to read, but didn’t see out there. Their comic zine Il Pleut des Gouines, or It’s Raining Dykes, dealt with being queer, gender, and personal issues, and it has an awesome aesthetic. Sadly, Coco’s no longer making the zine, but you can read some pages from the archive at IlPleutdesGouines.blogspot.com.

Another one of Coco’s projects is Genderpoo, an installation piece that contains over eighty signs depicting identities and bodies that challenge the limiting “Male” and “Female” restroom signs. The piece is both humorous—the title alone makes me laugh—and thought provoking, since public restrooms remain a very politicized and dangerous place for people who aren’t seen as conforming to the limited gender binary (See: Last week in Tennessee).  An image of the Genderpoo installation

This short animated film shows some of the characters from Genderpoo, “visibilizing (some) of the identities and communities that western society oppresses because of their gender, colour, religion, ideology, ability, age, family situation, class, features, size, etc.”

Another project of theirs is Lleuven Queers, a book of comics, illustrations, and stories, that Coco toured with last year. The book is mostly in Spanish, with parts in English and French (Coco, who is from Southern Spain originally, is tri-lingual). In an interview with Revel & Riot, Coco said, “The idea of the book is how can we talk about queer politics in another language. For instance, neutral pronouns are not yet possible in Spanish. How can we translate terms? How do we create a culture that is respectful of our differences?” Coco has also explored language and activism in their comic, “This Is About Having an Accent,” about how other social justice organizers are patronizing and disrespectful to people with accents.

In a 2010 interview with Canadian radio station Radio CentreVille, Coco said “I don’t like to give messages with my art, I like asking questions. I think [telling] someone the truth doesn’t work as well as when you ask people to look for truths themselves.” According to their blog, Coco is working on a The Book of Hometowns, about “queerness, Hispanic culture in Canada, migration and belonging. The book is in English and Spanish, just like my brain,” and a drawing project called Los Fantasmas about the “recuperation of historical memory in contemporary Spain.” Coco is also a frequent collaborator with Elisha Lim, and the two artists are working together on a show called “Call Me They” in Ottawa, Ontario (with a website started already!) further exploring trans identity.

Check out more of Coco’s work here: http://cocoriot.com/

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Pikara Online Magazine, 27 de abril 2011

Queer para principiantes: la cotidianeidad de la Academia

Reseña del libro ilustrado Llueven Queers, de Coco Riot

Bárbara G. Vilariño

¿Pueden noventa páginas definir una teoría queer perpetrada, idolatrada y deshecha por infinidad de filósofos, activistas y años de poso? Debería dar respuestas, pero Llueven queers, de Coco Riot (Editorial Coco Riot, 2010), plantea preguntas sin interrogantes, con ilustraciones, estética de fanzine y un prólogo entrevistado que es toda una declaración de intenciones.

Para los principiantes -lxs principiantes, perdón-, este juego de pregunta -respuesta sobre la esencia de esta lluvia y su filosofía sería suficiente para saber de qué hablan modernos y postmodernos cuando se definen como queer, cuando hablan de la experiencia transgénero, las relaciones poliamorosas, la identidad sexual, el binarismo y la destrucción de jerarquías que tal vez ni percibían.

Para los avanzados -lxs, lxs-, el placer de encontrarse leyendo un libro como si compartiese esas charlas de media tarde en la sala de Coco Riot adereza la experiencia sensorial y permite ponerle praxis, vida y aliento a una teoría queer en ocasiones demasiado redundante en su concepción, demasiado académica: ¿cómo ama y crea relaciones una persona queer? ¿Cuál es su concepto de familia? ¿Cómo va al baño un/a transgénero? Era el arma necesaria, la cotidianeidad de la Academia. Tal vez no plantee ninguna cuestión nueva para quien podría recitar de carrerilla a Monique Wittig, Judith Butler y compañía, pero avanza nuevas formas de expresión y activismo como el cómic lesbiano, la música queer y el recuperado género del fanzine.

Nuevas formas de expresión y nuevas formas de expresarlas: ¿qué lugar tiene la comunidad hispana y latina en este pensamiento de profunda inspiración anglosajona? ¿Pueden compararse las experiencias bajo distintos prismas culturales a pesar de poder leernos y debatir de hemisferio a hemisferio? ¿En distintas lenguas? Las respuestas, Wittgenstein: “los límites de mi mundo son los límites de mi lenguaje”. Es necesaria este arma, desde el arte y desde un lenguaje próximo, con signos y expresiones reconocibles.

Otra respuesta, Coco Riot: “La acción puede tomar muchas formas, y cada cual necesita ver la que le conviene mejor según su personalidad, sus capacidades y su comunidad. Este libro es una acción en sí […] A veces somos extremadamente exigentes entre militantes y nos olvidamos del placer y de los límites. Este libro también habla mucho de eso”. Hay múltiples respuestas, y todas deben seguir preguntando.