January 10–11, 2025
Curated by Yina Jiménez Suriel.
TBA21–Academy and Alligator Head Foundation present The Current IV Caribbean: Convening #2…telling of oceanic transformations, a two-day transdisciplinary festival in Port Antonio, Jamaica. Inspired by the continuous movement of the tides and the Earth’s crust and reflecting on improvisation~freestyle as a practice related to the experience of marronage, the festival invites us to challenge a land-based understanding of the Caribbean from an oceanic perspective.
The festival presents an extensive program of activities that are free and open to the public of all ages, including workshops, roundtable conversations, a hiking trip to the Blue Mountains, film screenings, and other activities that explore the links between art, gastronomy, geology, and biology. Establishing a dialogue between local, regional, and international practices, the program of Convening #2 in Port Antonio, Jamaica, will showcase the Jamaican cultural and artistic ecosystem, including Annie Paul, Oneika Russell, and Ina Vandebroek, together with a diverse lineup of international guests, such as Nohora Arrieta Fernández, Monique Johnson, Tessa Mars, and Yewande YoYo Odunubi.
The practice of convening—coming together—is one of the most essential methods of opening up the research of The Current to a broad audience. This Convening is the second public moment of gathering of TBA21–Academy’s curatorial fellowship program The Current IV Caribbean: otras montañas, las que andan sueltas bajo el agua [other mountains, adrift beneath the waves] led by Dominican curator Yina Jiménez Suriel and represents a return to Jamaica after ten years of TBA21's collaboration with the Alligator Head Foundation, as well as the tenth anniversary of The Current program itself.
2025, therefore, marks a celebratory year for TBA21, commemorating a decade of TBA21–Academy’s flagship program and its methodology of working through curator-led processes, applied fieldwork collaborative research, and long-term engagement. Working in proximity is of crucial importance for the program, which has been, since its inception in 2015, based on nurturing moments of togetherness between the invited fellows and the public.
Curated by Yina Jiménez Suriel, The Current IV, 2023–25, intends to contribute to the emancipatory processes in the Caribbean region that began in the high mountains above sea level and have sought to bring its inhabitants closer to the Ocean. The project focuses on identifying, studying, and spreading the knowledge of the aesthetic strategies and tools created or reactivated from the Maroon experience in the Caribbean in order to reconcile the human body with the constant movement—the Ocean.
In April 2025, The Current IV Caribbean: otras montañas, las que andan sueltas bajo el agua [other mountains, adrift beneath the waves] will culminate in an exhibition under the same name at TBA21–Academy’s Ocean Space, Venice, curated by Jiménez Suriel and featuring new commissions by the artists Nadia Huggins (b. Trinidad and Tobago, based in St. Vincent and the Grenadines) and Tessa Mars (Haiti).
About The Current
TBA21–Academy’s curatorial fellowship program The Current cultivates transdisciplinary practices and the exchange of ideas around the Ocean and its understanding. The program aims to form strong connections to local networks, map contemporary issues concerning watery worlds, and weave them into an interdisciplinary conversation, embracing the spheres of science, conservation, policy, and education.
About Alligator Head Foundation
Alligator Head Foundation is a Jamaican-based project focusing on the intersection of science, art, and community. It is dedicated to supporting cultural production and commissioning projects that raise ecological, economic, and social issues to the general public and the local community.
About TBA21
TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary is a leading international art and advocacy foundation. TBA21–Academy is the foundation’s research arm, fostering a deeper relationship with the Ocean and wider ecologies by working as an incubator for transdisciplinary inquiry, artistic production, and environmental advocacy.
