¡Cuidado! X Arriaga Cuellar + Adán Vallecillo

Contemporary society is filled with taboos surrounding death, but one in particular generates a profound sense of discomfort and unease: aging. While the fear of aging is often exploited for profit, society frequently avoids confronting the moral obligations of providing dignified care for elderly people—an issue growing more urgent in industrialized countries.

Across the United States and Europe, millions of immigrants from Latin America—many of them women—work as caregivers for the elderly. Despite the personal sacrifices, emotional toll, and challenges of a profession that is chronically undervalued, these caregivers embody a foundational element of empathy, compassion, joy, and commitment to care.

¡Cuidado! emerges as a video installation composed of performance works that center migrant caregivers from Honduras. The video installation is accompanied by audio and sculptural works that represent different modalities of care and will be activated through live performance. The project offers a critique of the labor exploitation present in the service industry—manifesting in long hours, excessive responsibilities, unpaid labor, and low wages. At the same time, ¡Cuidado! serves as a tribute to the countless Honduran immigrants—among them Mabel Vallecillo, sister of artist Adán Vallecillo—who have dedicated their lives to this dignified and essential work.

¡Cuidado!’s Houston debut, reimagined as a site-responsive work in conversation with the local context, will be the second iteration of the exhibition originally presented at Performance Space New York curated by X Arriaga Cuellar.

About the Artists

X Arriaga Cuellar is a multi-disciplinary artist, archivist, and curator based in New York City. Their curatorial work focuses on Central American performance and visual art, grounded in a research-based practice that prioritizes cultivating relationships with artists and experimenting with curatorial methodologies that challenge traditional institutional norms. X is the co-curator and founder of “Cinco Estrellas,” an archive dedicated to the collection and preservation of Honduran cultural memory. They have presented curatorial projects at Performance Space New York, Centro Cultural de España Tegucigalpa, and Museo para la Identidad Nacional in Honduras.

Adán Vallecillo (b. 1977, Honduras) has worked at the forefront of Central American creative and political praxis for more than two decades. Grounded in on-site research, Vallecillo’s work bridges sculpture, installation, drawing, performance, and video. By repurposing found industrial materials and labor, Vallecillo’s work transforms everyday situations and objects into subjects of reflection. Vallecillo’s work is collected by major international public and private collections, including: CIFO Foundation, Miami, FL; Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY; Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ; Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, New York, NY; Sayago & Pardón, Los Angeles, CA; Museo de Arte y Diseño Contemporáneo, San José, Costa Rica; Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA), Long Beach, CA; and Daros-Latinamerica, Zürich, Switzerland, among others. He has participated in biennials in Montevideo, Guatemala City, Curitiba, Venice, Havana, and Cuenca.