Modesto “Flako” Jimenez's multimedia art installation, Mercedes, Part 1, logo.
“Mercedes, Part 1,” a compelling multimedia installation by the innovative artist Modesto “Flako” Jimenez, recently premiered at the prestigious Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). This deeply personal and community-focused production, running from December 3rd to 8th, encompasses a documentary, an immersive gallery, and a reflective healing room. “Mercedes, Part 1” is a heartfelt tribute to Flako’s grandmother, Mercedes Viñales, and the profound legacy she built within her Bushwick, Brooklyn community. Mercedes played a pivotal role in Flako’s life, raising him in Bushwick after his immigration from the Dominican Republic at the age of nine, and later, Flako became her caregiver as she navigated life with dementia. This exhibition, “Mercedes, Part 1,” offers a poignant exploration of memory, community, and the enduring impact of family.
This ambitious production is the culmination of three years of dedicated research, extensive community engagement, and creative experimentation. Jimenez’s “Mercedes” project has evolved through various storytelling mediums, including a thought-provoking stage play and an immersive VR experience, each demanding its own unique research and development. In a revealing interview, Flako emphasized the central theme of community that permeates the entire Mercedes project, a driving force behind its extensive outreach efforts. A significant partnership for the Mercedes team has been with Citymeals on Wheels, an organization Flako credits with providing invaluable insights into the lives of elderly individuals beyond the realm of art. Through this collaboration, Flako connected with elderly recipients of Citymeals, sharing his art and gaining a deeper understanding of their experiences.
Immersive Design and Multimedia Storytelling
The design team for the BAM premiere of “Modesto Mercedes” has been integral to the project’s vision for the past three years, with Flako expressing deep admiration for each designer’s artistic contributions. The gallery space is meticulously crafted to replicate Mercedes’s apartment, featuring intimate recreations of her bedroom, kitchen, and foyer, inviting audiences to walk through and experience her living space. Complementing this, the healing room provides a sanctuary for reflection and processing after engaging with the installation, offering art supplies and the support of a social worker and art therapist. Michael Minaham spearheaded the set design for both the gallery and healing room, Megan Lang created the evocative lighting design, Drew Weinstein crafted the immersive sound design, and Cricket Brown served as the installation’s curator.
Video designers Victor Morales and Juan “Wamoo” Álvarez each brought distinct elements to the multimedia experience. Wamoo, also interviewed about his contribution, designed three distinct television feeds within the gallery, one for each room, visually representing different stages of dementia as experienced by Mercedes. Adding a deeply personal touch, Wamoo also created a video composed of heartfelt letters written to Mercedes by her family members. Victor Morales’s artistry is showcased in the documentary component, where he designed AI-generated imagery, including poignant images of flowers and of Flako’s father reading a letter to Mercedes. The documentary film itself was skillfully directed by Brisa Areli Muñoz. Flako, speaking about the documentary, stated, “Let me not tell you about the story, let me show you the story that is my grandmother and me. And that taps into family and community, and not just art.”
Flako Jimenez on Art, Community, and Care
Modesto “Flako” Jimenez actively challenges conventional narratives often associated with stories of loss and remembrance. “If I’m sharing a moment of a celebration of a person who passed, some people might consider that trauma, and I’m constantly reminding an article or a person who wants to write about it, like, ‘Hey, hey, hey, hey, stop projecting.’ I’m here to celebrate my family and the legacy of Jimenezes who now are all over different states. … People die, yes—let’s celebrate their life. That lady brought a lot of us and gave us space to be able to gather our thoughts. Why wouldn’t I want to celebrate that?” His perspective underscores a powerful theme of celebrating life and legacy rather than dwelling solely on grief.
Reflecting the community-centered ethos of “Modesto Mercedes,” the BAM production incorporated resources specifically for elderly people, mirroring the ongoing engagement efforts of the Mercedes team, including ¡Oye! Group, BAM, Citymeals, and other partner organizations. Flako detailed, “on December 4th and 5th, we’re bussing six different senior groups to give private shows in the mornings, and then feed them in the healing room with Citymeals on Wheels, and then be able to give them a to-go plate. So this is what we’ve been doing in the boroughs with Citymeals on Wheels. We give them a pop-up of Mercedes: we show them the documentary you’ll be seeing, then we bring in a dance instructor, then we bring in the live band that composed the music,” and also provide healing rooms, staffed with a social worker and an art therapist. Their community outreach has also included senior center visits and home visits throughout New York City’s boroughs as part of a musical tour associated with Mercedes. Longer healing room programs, lasting two months each, have been conducted at various senior centers, where they collaborated with elderly participants to create a coloring book, a thoughtful gift distributed at the BAM production.
The installation premiere served as a reunion, reconnecting with these communities. Flako explained, “And now at BAM, we’re kind of bringing all those worlds together and then asking those people we had been visiting to come and see the final product of a moment of healing, and a migrant story that forgot themselves, and her son, or grandson, documenting that story so it’s not forgotten for the family.” He emphasizes the cyclical nature of their community work, bringing those they served back into the heart of the art experience.
Flako clarified the essence of Mercedes’s role in her community, noting she wasn’t “a community activist or a community caregiver. She was a home attendant, so she worked…she was herself a caregiver her whole life, and she also took care of a tribe in an apartment. You could be family or not, you still could stay in this apartment. So it wasn’t about her making community activities, no. She just took care of a whole community in a third floor apartment, railroad apartment, in New York City. There was always space for you to come and process, whether it was just for one day, whether it was for three years.” Mercedes’s legacy was one of quiet, consistent care and open-door hospitality within her own home.
The Personal Story Behind “Mercedes, Part 1”
Discussions with Flako highlighted the Mercedes team’s diverse approaches to community outreach and support, culminating in a unique blend of “research tools that have come by community, for community, that can be shared.” Flako emphasized that engaging with diverse communities allowed the Mercedes team to ensure relevance and responsiveness by asking, “Does this make sense for your community?” and gathering feedback directly “from the people actually going through it, and not just what books we’re reading about it,” prioritizing “the actual now—what is happening now, and what are the people needing now?” This focus on immediate, community-driven needs shapes Flako’s artistic and educational philosophy.
Flako’s commitment to community is further exemplified through ¡Oye! Group, which he founded in 2012 with his cousin Kevin Torres, the producing director of ¡Oye! Group and producer of the Mercedes documentary. Flako spoke of ¡Oye! Group’s mission as “creating those spaces of caring, of care, for your community or for the people that look like you, because that’s the one radical thing about ¡Oye! Group: that we know we’re doing it for our people.” He underscored ¡Oye! Group’s dedication to “make sure that other Latinos are being heard, that all people of color have the space to be able to process, because that’s our key in that company, the word ‘process.’”
¡Oye! Group provides a range of monthly and seasonal educational workshop programs, offered free of charge to people of all ages. These workshops, led by local artists, explore various art forms as tools for self-discovery and community building. One program particularly close to Flako’s heart is Fresh Start, an arts education initiative for incarcerated youth. Upon release, participants receive “sneakers and a bookbag full of supplies,” their “pay” for engaging with the program, ensuring they “can come home to at least something, as soon as they leave the jail.” The curriculum is flexible, adapting to the interests and needs of the students, always asking “what do the kids in here need?”
From Personal Story to Community Impact
Flako’s view of art as a shared resource emphasizes inter-community communication and human connection. He humbly stated, “My art is not going to change the world. At all. I hope my art is going to bring a little smile somewhere for a couple of minutes and make you forget we’re all fucked in this climate change, damaged-as-fuck world. That’s all. If I did that, I could die happy. I’m not here to change the world. I am here to provide some tools that I learned. If people need them, grab them. If you don’t, thank you for coming. Take care of yourself.” This perspective highlights art’s power to offer moments of respite and connection in a challenging world.
In their interview, Flako stressed the vital importance of community and the unifying potential of theatre. This belief is evident in “Modesto Mercedes,” his work with elderly communities, and his approach to teaching and art. When asked about his motivations as an artist and educator, he responded, “I don’t know. That’s the shit that’s always been in my head. … It’s in my heart, it’s in my brain, it’s in my life. It’s everything to me. I don’t know how to not operate as a person who likes learning and a person who likes teaching what he learned.” He also emphasized that his work is “not ego-driven” but rather a contribution to his community: “I believe in the gray, whatever the time and moment need. I will look into the toolbox that I created in my life and see if I have any tools I can share. And if I don’t find any, I’ll say I don’t. You want to talk about it and see if we can come up with a tool together?”
Reflecting on a pivotal moment of artistic recognition, Flako shared a story from high school when he played Benvolio in a Wooster Group production of Romeo and Juliet: “I remember a bunch of gang members that stole a van to come see me do a show. They risked their life to come and see a friend do a theatre show. … There’s that reminder of the essence of what a show can do to people that are not from that world of theatre. It’s beautiful. That was that moment for me. It’s, ‘Oh shit, look at my people engage with theatre … and we’re all gang members … but they came to support me in this.’ And now we have ¡Oye! Group.” This powerful anecdote illustrates the profound impact art can have, bridging divides and fostering community support, which is the very essence of Modesto “Flako” Jimenez’s “Mercedes, Part 1.”
A Celebration of Life and Legacy
“Mercedes, Part 1” by Modesto Mercedes, is more than just an art installation; it is a deeply moving exploration of memory, community, and the enduring power of human connection. Through immersive design, multimedia storytelling, and profound community engagement, Flako Jimenez invites audiences to reflect on the legacies that shape us and the importance of care and remembrance within our communities. This exhibition at BAM serves as a powerful testament to the life of Mercedes Viñales and the artistic vision of Modesto “Flako” Jimenez, solidifying his role as a vital voice in contemporary art and community engagement.
