Tarona

Tarona (b. 1985, Curaçao) is an artist and director whose work spans film and photography, seamlessly moving between autonomous and commercial realms. Central to her practice is a deep engagement with identity, human experience, and new perspectives on seeing and being. She is especially committed to creating space for the Black Diaspora, exploring the complexities of belonging to multiple racial and cultural backgrounds while simultaneously uncovering the magic often hidden in the intersections of identity and culture. Her approach to film often emphasises the intangible — the emotions, rhythms and atmospheres that elude words while exposing and connecting frameworks through the use of sonics, text and movement. In contrast, she works with photography as an explorative tool, focusing on details, textures and its stillness; highlighting often-overlooked subtleties. These ways of working and operating are the baseline of Tarona’s natural movement throughout the world; creating a self-coded ‘lingua franca’ — a language used for communication between people who do not share a native language — in which she utilizes visual language as the equalizer. Through her work, she aims to create dialogues around identity and self-expression, seeking to inspire others to embrace their full selves — a commitment she hopes will resonate across time, space and generations.