Marina Reyes Franco (Curator, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Puerto Rico) was joined by Ilaria Conti (Curator, American Federation of Arts) for a conversation in conjunction with Reyes Franco's exhibition Tropical Is Political: Caribbean Art Under the Visitor Economy Regime, which was on view at Americas Society, New York from September 7 through December 17, 2022.
The two curators delved into the connections between works in the show and their diverse reflections of what Reyes Franco terms the "visitor economy regime" – the unique amalgamation of tourism and finance that has profoundly impacted cultural production, identity, and policy across the Caribbean. The result of expansive research undertaken across the Dominican Republic, Panama, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Trinidad, and in diasporic communities, partially through ICI's 2017 Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (CPPC) Travel Award for Central America and the Caribbean, Tropical is Political highlighted ideas and experiences both specific to the Caribbean and translatable to global contexts in which natural and fiscal paradises coalesce. In this talk, Reyes Franco and Conti explored how these ideas and curatorial framework can expand beyond the Caribbean to encompass other countries and regions contending with similar dynamics.
