social function of art. Among them, Kcho (Alexis Leyva Machado) has returned to the social agenda inaugurated by the historic avant-garde to address issues pertinent to the last quarter of the twentieth century, including problems of forced migration and cultural dislocation. In a series of two- and three-dimensional works, Kcho has taken Brancusi's Endless Column as the motif of his Infinite Columns. These sculptural works are made of superimposed bentwood floatable frames: canoes, surfboards, kayaks, and rowboats fully equipped with oars. Drawing on the imagery and construction methods of the balsas, the homemade rafts that Cubans use to flee the island illegally, Kcho makes a case for Brancusi's column as an image of transcendence. In island life, he says, one always thinks to evade the limit of the enclave, and the boat is precisely a trope for escape, freedom, and the mentality of migration.Brancusi often spoke of his hope to construct the Endless Column in different cities all around the world. At times, he fantasized about various skyscraper versions, whether a residential building in New York's Central Park, or a Chicago sculpture rising to a projected height of some 329 feet. This was part of his nomadic methodology: to produce work that would have specific transferability, work that included acknowledgments of its movement to different sites and its changes in typology. The concept of the mobile group, quintessential to Brancusi in both the development of his memorial in Tirgu Jiu and in the setup of his Parisian studio, has played a role in installations by other contemporary artists such as Jason Rhoades and Tom Sachs. For the 1995 Whitney Biennial Rhoades concocted a tongue-in-cheek installation titled My Brother/Broncuzi. Apparently, the idea for this piece occurred while visiting his younger brother's room in suburban California. The room is a prosaic, converted garage whose only mark of distinction is the exces...
