ÎlE BRÈSIL
return to altamira
walls|THE Amazon
audiovisual installatiONS
my body is political
copan
CREATING DESERTS
nnipas
COMISSIONS
EXHIBITONS|INTERVENTIONS
publications
ABOUT
These images are drawn from a body of work focused on São Paulo’s LGBTQIA+ community, and more specifically on its transgender community, which is highly active in Latin America’s largest city. Begun in 2019 at the start of Jair Bolsonaro’s term, and extended through the pandemic, the project continues today within a new political context. The photographer highlights the resistance and vitality of this community, despite the violence and rejection emanating from parts of society. He follows the daily lives of its members, moving between artistic performances, visibility-driven events, and more intimate moments drawn from everyday life.
Over time, this approach developed into a collaboration with Vicenta Perrotta, founder of the “Trans Moras” workshop, a place of support and guidance for transgender people experiencing homelessness, located on the outskirts of São Paulo. The trans artist and activist is photographed in spaces such as the National Congress (in Brasília), a bank, land owned by commercial groups, and the street. The aim is to confront regulated, transphobic sites of Brazilian public space with transgender corporeality. The project questions the origins of this transphobia and the means by which it can be challenged, seeking to suggest a form of awareness that allows for the articulation of radical alternatives for the future.
The resulting work operates through a constant back-and-forth between the intimate body and the social body, echoing the ambivalence of Brazilian society, torn between the violence of exclusion and a deep desire for change.