PUBLIC PROGRAM 2025

TBA21–Academy’s public program at Ocean Space aims to look for creative solutions to the most pressing issues facing the Ocean today in the hope of creating new transformative and participatory visions for the future. The public program applies TBA21–Academy’s practice of collaboration and of disseminating local ecological knowledge through cultural programming to raise awareness around environmental issues and support regenerative ways of living.

The 2025 program draws inspiration from the aesthetic strategies developed by curator Yina Jimenez Suriel for TBA21–Academy’s three-year curatorial fellowship program “The Current IV: Caribbean" and the exhibition "otras montañas, las que andan sueltas bajo el agua” [other mountains, adrift beneath the waves]. The exhibition explores the potential of improvisation~freestyle as an aesthetic tool and strategy for transcending terrestrial and extractivist perspectives, reimagining life-support systems and grappling with entrenched notions of power. Its manifestation is reminiscent, in both aesthetic and transformative terms, of the constant movement of the Earth's skin, which we refer to as the Caribbean tectonic plate, and it is through the public program that these analogies are brought to the surface.

Improvisation~freestyle, transmutation, dreamlike processes, and floating become the guiding tools of the public and educational program at Ocean Space, through events unfolding from April to November 2025. These events will weave together reflections and themes cherished in Caribbean-based research, creating connections with Venice, engaging the local community and its lagoon. The program will be guided by streams, to learn how to formulate the conscious actions that shape our daily life.

DJ sets, listening sessions, concerts, and sound performances aimed to open our ears and give space to different understandings and research into improvisation and freestyle with voices and sounds from the Caribbean, offering insights from the diasporic perspective of the region and beyond.

A series of performances along with dance and body movement workshops to amplify, challenge, and expand the traditional perception of the body. This stream delves into the act of moving as an exploration of transmutation, freedom and fluidity. This year, the stream will be enriched by a collaboration with Iuav University (Theatre and Performing Arts) and by the strengthened collaboration with Spazio Levante Association.

A stream for exchanging ideas around the themes of conviviality, complexity, non-binary, and environmental justice, along with the research themes of "The Current IV," through a series of talks and participatory workshops.

For its upcoming fourth cycle titled “shifting landscapes”, TBA21–Academy’s research program Convivial Tables, dedicated to the ties between food and ecology, will reflect on how we inhabit and cultivate aquatic environments, and how we weave together tradition and innovation within an ecosystem that is constantly changing. This cycle will be curated by Chiara Famengo, Tocia! Cucina e Comunità and Barena Bianca.