Cautiverio, 2023

Cautiverio is an installation composed of pool floaties placed throughout a series of rooms. Each floatie stands in for a living being. Viewers are encouraged to interact with them freely, but at the end of the experience, they’re offered the chance to “adopt” one. If they agree, they must sign a document outlining the responsibilities they’re committing to. What begins as a lighthearted gesture often shifts tone, revealing the different ways people interpret responsibility, care, and symbolic weight. Some sign without reading, others hesitate, negotiate, or take it as seriously as if it were a real adoption. The installation plays with our thresholds for empathy, the boundaries between object and subject, and how easily we overlook what we’ve agreed to take care of.