In Chelsea, NYC: Pablo Helguera Trades Art for Latin Vinyl at CUE's FONOTECA

On Wednesday, October 21, from 6 to 8 pm, CUE Art Foundation at 137 West 25th Street in Chelsea hosts FONOTECA: Bring Records, Take Art, an evening led by artist Pablo Helguera. The aim is to build a new public vinyl library devoted to Latin American and Latinx music.

Visitors are invited to donate or lend records in any genre: salsa, bolero, cumbia, merengue, tango, Latin jazz, spoken word and experimental music among them. In return, Helguera will trade limited-edition works and original drawings made specially for the occasion. The gallery will also have music and drinks.

The project was commissioned by The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center as part of its Historias initiative. The Clemente is a Puerto Rican and Latinx cultural space on the Lower East Side, and the finished collection will be permanently housed there as a public resource. The idea is to create a record of Latinx New York through music and the listening histories of the people who contribute.

Helguera was born in Mexico City in 1971 and lives and works in New York, with a practice spanning installation, sculpture, photography, drawing, socially engaged art and performance. The event is free and open to all, with RSVP through Eventbrite. If you have a crate of Latin records at home, this is a chance to give them a public afterlife and walk away with an original drawing.