Peter Cramer performs as guest artist in Cuidado by Adán Vallecillo

Friday, November 8th at 7pm

at Performance Space New York
150 First Avenue, 4th Floor, New York, NY

Adán Vallecillo has been at the forefront of Central American creative and political praxis for decades working in sculpture, installation, and video, with roots in performance and sociology. Vallecillo’s installation and performance, ¡Cuidado!, marks his debut performance in New York. This title holds dual meaning in Spanish: both caution and care. Vallecillo explores this duality through performance and video installation, showcasing the honest experiences of Honduran migrants working as home care aides in New York City. Inspired by and dedicated to Vallecillo’s sister, Mabel Vallecillo, an immigrant who has worked for over two decades caring for the elderly in the United States, this project illuminates the essential but undervalued nature of care work. Vallecillo emphasizes the beauty of caregiving in the midst of a culture that considers mortality to be taboo and generates panic and shame around aging. This framework highlights the political and social relationships between the United States and Honduras. Care also frames Vallecillo’s interpersonal relationships with his community and forms the foundation of his methodologies of working with home care aids who often face issues such as racism, xenophobia, and labor exploitation.

Central to Vallecillo’s approach is extensive on-the-ground research, engaging intimately with communities to create site-specific and locally relevant exhibitions. ¡Cuidado! is informed by a series of interviews with home care aides of different backgrounds, ages, and experiences in Central American neighborhoods such as the South Bronx and Bushwick, as well as conversations with unions that center health care workers’ rights. This research forms the foundation of ¡Cuidado!, conveying the nuances and poetics of care work and giving the audience an intimate yet abstracted view of migrants’ daily lives. The installation will include video work that documents private performances that have taken place in various locations throughout the city. These video works will be displayed in the installation alongside other sculptural, visual, and audio works exploring different modalities of care work. The opening of the exhibition will feature live performances.

¡Cuidado! is the culmination of the inaugural Keith Haring Curatorial Fellowship, curated and co-produced by X Arriaga Cuellar.