What is the meaning of curating now?

Joel Rosario Tapia is a fellow in the Providence Biennial’s inaugural mentorship program for emerging curators, Providence Curates. The mentees will explore the theme of “commemoration” in concurrent exhibitions in 2023; PAL invited the curators to reflect on the growing and evolving field of curation as practice. 

My Name is Joel Rosario Tapia known to many as the artist Tapia and as Chief Tureygua Taíno  Cay Superior Chief of The Cibuco-Bayamon Taíno Tribe. I am a Professional multi-hyphenate artist and cultural practitioner and entrepreneur, owner of the art and design contracting company Caona Contractors and curator through my gallery Da Art Dealers. I am passionate about Indigenous cultures and how they relate to modern day popular cultures. I was born in Providence, Rhode Island to parents from “Boriken” or “Borinquen” or what is currently referred to as The Commonwealth Island nation of Puerto Rico. I consider Rhode Island my homebase.

I began curating because as a sought after artist, cultural practitioner and project and event manager, the opportunity to curate public art exhibitions was a natural next step in my practice towards providing opportunities in my community and expanding the reach and influence of my work. In this ever-changing environment of social upheaval, economic instability and unprecedented change, I think that the definition of words like Identity, Art and Curation are changing. Being active and influencing this movement is an opportunity to create lasting, meaningful change that is of the highest priority.

So the question beckons: How do I define curation?

I define curation as the work of assessing, compiling and presenting human expression to the collective consciousness of Human Beings in the context of the trends and developments happening civically, socially, culturally and in perception. Curation in art museums today is not expected to undergo massive change, but curation today in the “Real World” is growing and accelerating at a white-knuckle pace through social media feeds and content creation opportunities–where the line between promotion, branding and good ole American consumption is being blurred.

In my curation, artistic practice and writing, I am inspired to inform, educate and uplift voices, events, art and ideas that resonate with my values and being. There is a wealth of culture in my city and its communities. Primarily, I am inspired by the innate value of tradition and the ingenuity in commemorating ancestral symbols to reinvigorate modern urban identity.

I utilize Indigenous cultural themes, motifs and totems in my urban artwork, animating symbology that originates in my Arawak-speaking Taino1 ancestors’ cosmology/cosmogony, which seem to have all but been forgotten in the modern day.2 This same lens informs how I curate and what kind of work excites me.

Tapia, PVD Art Circuit, 2022.

In my daily practice, I produce media, social media postings which present alternative perspectives through my stewardship on and about modern identity, historical truth and spiritual practice. From my private gallery space Da Art Dealers, I have explored mobile curating to decentralize and deinstitutionalize access to culture. Through PVD ART Circuit I have been taking groups on private, curated voyages through the city.3

In the world of Indigenous culture and fashion I produce custom made ancestral themed clothing or Regalia. This clothing is called  “Sarobei” (Arawak, meaning cotton garment) which is traditionally worn ceremonially by Indigenous cultural practitioners in the Caribbean.  My variations are garments of which I have adapted to be worn in colder climates filling the need for cultural practitioners to wear representative regalia and ceremonial clothing in climates outside of their homelands. Living culture intelligently adapts. The exacerbating circumstance of Environmental Racism and Discrimination has caused the migration of over 440,000 people representing about 12% of my homeland, Puerto Rico, or Boriken’s population over the last ten years.4 Today More Puerto Ricans live abroad and in the United States than on the island. Introducing this to the public as well as practitioners curates change in the mind of the observers which causes a shift in the paradigm and dynamic of practices and allows new ideas and perception to grow.

 

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Tapia, Sarobei regalia line fashion show, PVD Fest, 2018.

I bring my lifelong study of numerous perspectives on curation and art production to my work with the Providence Biennial for Contemporary Art’s Curatorial Mentee Program’s upcoming exhibition theme of “Commemoration.” I am building cohesion to present my ideas, artists and artwork in an exhibition I propose as Remedy.

I will curate with the ideas of repair and remedy through profiling work and dialogue of practitioners, artists and photographers who represent the richness of my Providence community. I am particularly interested in those wrestling with the idea of their own identities in the context of the dominant culture and adverse paradigms.

I am approaching this in my own unique way.

Cohesion between the curatorial mentees is necessary, yet the identity of each and their ideas should be connected broadly, not narrowly defined. We aim for cohesion through aesthetic presentation, graphics and media, yet the impact of each part of the exhibition may be felt differently depending on the demographics of the audiences in attendance. As I work in multimedia as part of my ongoing artistic practice and my curating; I will create introductory video montages framing the artwork of individual artists, including their trajectories and perspectives in order to create a flowing presentation that contextualizes each work and artist in their human experience.

I will work with artists who exhibit the strength of their individual identities in their work: their daily walks, the events they produce and their larger visions. Artists and creatives who maintain the integrity of their views on lineage and community while presenting themselves to the General Public. I like to provide a  few examples so Readers can research Examples of artist that represent themselves to the world in this way. Expect to see Artists like:

Savonnara Alexander Sok 5

The Medicine Singers 6

Hawk, 2022

Lilly E. Manycolors 7

FEAST, 2020

These artists and movements are happening here in Providence.

Their Ideas and Vision are the molds reshaping the future.

I think an ideal expectation for these exhibitions and curating in the future would be that peace  and cohesion and forward movement and productivity happen in conjunction, through  communication, open mindedness and teamwork, all executed in community in order to realize a vision.

So what can Folks look forward to Next Year?

I think art enthusiasts, collectors and Folks can look forward to multimedia, visual art, and performances and the idea of healing the rifts existing in our communities, our country and our  society through Empathy and working in community.