Participatory research installation that gathers surveys, testimonies, and speculative interventions around the time, resources, and physical, mental, and emotional toll involved in care work in Mexico City. Inspired by the tamal tricycle, the project draws a parallel between tamales and care: both sustain urban life, yet both are often marked by precarity, invisibility, and a lack of social, economic, and political recognition.

Through a living archive built in public space, Tamal-Lab invites people to reflect on who sustains life, under what conditions of inequality, and who cares for those who care. The information gathered will be used by Diseña Colectiva to develop pedagogies, workshops, and a printed publication as part of the public program Subversive Care.

Methods: participatory research, surveys, testimonies, speculative interventions, living archive

Pedagogies: participatory design, care pedagogies, community-based research, political imagination

Medium: urban installation, tamal tricycle, participatory archive, public space intervention

Changes: visibility of care work, gender justice, labor rights, possible futures

Credits: Mi Calle, Nuestra Calle (MCNC) in collaboration with Diseña Colectiva.