Carmen Papalia is a non-visual social practice artist whose performances, public interventions and curatorial projects explain aspects of Disability culture such as interdependence, de-medicalization and creative accessibility. His practice is an effort to enliven his 2015 Open Access manifesto–a set of guidelines that undermines dominant institutional frameworks by approaching accessibility as a “temporary, collectively-held space”. Often emphasizing the possibilities of living on ones own terms, his work is a remedy for the complications of cultural ableism.
Papalia’s performances, videos, installations and curatorial projects have been shown in Canada, US, UK, EU, Australia, Korea and Japan. He is a recipient of the 2020 Sobey Art Award. Papalia’s current work includes Up in the Clouds, Down in the Valley–a full-length documentary about creative accessibility and Disability culture that he is co-writing with Vancouver filmmaker Carmen Pollard.