title. Cleaning Service
date. 2020
medium. Performance series, video documentation.
materials. Flat squeeze mop, bucket, soap, water, adhesive tape.
I mopped the floor at ten locations in Zurich, where I lived during the Covid pandemic. Before starting, I marked a square on the floor and did not leave its interior while performing.
These performances address gender and class issues such as Who cleans? and Who does not clean? and speak from my unprivileged position as a Latino woman, an artist and a migrant living in a European city. Water is often present in my work as a metaphor for how growing up in Cuba surrounded only by the sea without access to other countries, cultures, and ways of understanding life has made me feel trapped and isolated and shaped my identity.
Many people have felt isolated as a result of the Covid pandemic and can relate to my experience in the year 2020 more than ever before.