Gina Goico
2021 HEAR US Awardee
Gina Goico is a multidisciplinary artist, educator and necia. Through their work, Goico navigates their identity and the spaces where they exist in the Dominican Republic and the United States. Through their career, they have come to create a diverse body of work that ranges from embroidery to installations, ink drawings and performance. Goico also facilitates spaces for temporary communities and dialogues around healing in the current status quo. Their activist work usually falls under #ATABEY, a decolonial project.
Goico was a Van Lier Fellow and artist in residence with Smack Mellon. They also participated in the AIM fellowship at The Bronx Museum of the Arts among others. They have exhibited in the US and the Dominican Republic, and continue to support actively socio-political initiatives in the island and in diaspora. Goico holds an AAS in Fine Arts and Illustration from Altos de Chavon in the Dominican Republic and a BFA in Fine Arts from Parsons. They are expected to graduate with an MA in Arts Politics from NYU in 2021 and will start their PhD in Performing Arts and Media at Cornell this Fall.
Project
Portraits of Everyday: R*pe, silences and resistance in the Dominican Republic
The book project “Portraits of Everyday: R*pe, silences and resistance in the Dominican Republic” (PoE)* is a collaboration of qualitative research and arts as a way to understand at its core the performance of Dominican womanhood and sexuality in the Dominican Republic (DR). The narratives of 17 women from the DR shed light into the complexities of inhabiting the gendered expectations in sexual relationships with men; constant negotiation between safety and pleasure, silence and desire. These narratives become the center of continued conversations between Iman Muniz and Goico, co-founders of Hashtag ATABEY (#ATABEY). Goico produced the body of work “Imagined identities” throughout 2013-2018 as a way of visually framing the questions around womanhood, sexuality and survival in the DR. How do women self-preservate? How do they challenge the dangers, while ensuring our safety? The book showcases the research and reflections #ATABEY started in 2014 and frames it as an urgent call for legislative justice and cultural reflection back in the island; a strategic position to assist in the current conjecture the fights being led by the Feminist movement in the DR. Aware of the privilege of diaspora living, #ATABEY will launch PoE in English and Spanish - hosting events in NYC for the diaspora, and in the DR. The strategy of holding space for diaspora is understanding the pressure we can build from outside without worrying about our safety or persecution. A digital campaign will be launched before the events to put pressure around legislation in the DR and ignite conversation alongside performances and discussions around women's lived experiences. Finally, four book launch events will hold creative exercises for community building and dissemination of the research made through participatory performances. The book is expected to be launched in the month of November - the month designated to commemorate the fight against gender violence in the DR, joining other events by collaborators in the island.
Instagram: @HashtagAtabey
Twitter: @HashtagAtabey
