Developed over the course of several years, Manauara Clandestina’s TRANSCLANDESTINA 3020 (2025) is the result of an accumulation of stories and processes that evoke multiple languages. Textiles, video, photography, and performance compose this multidisciplinary work, marked by prophetic desires originating from her neo- Pentecostal formation, yet refusing apocalyptic fatalism. Bringing together a diverse group of practitioners from fashion, music, and film, they created a new clothing line from transformed and repurposed worker’s uniforms, a fashion show, and a sculptural installation of the garments, culminating in a film that documents the entire creative process. For Manauara, germinating new paths is the only viable way out of a present permeated by violence. Her practice transcends this condition, creating space for possibilities that persist in existing. Although present throughout human history, transvestite ancestries rarely receive prominence in the usual technologies of memory, which are traditionally centred on cis-heteronormative trajectories. Recognizing herself as part of a forthcoming past, Manauara projects the future as a platform for enunciation where, even under constant persecution, escape routes and unexpected alliances continue to determine possibilities for existence. The desire for escape arises precisely from the imagination that allows us to visualize other possible realities. Like queen ants and fig wasps, who shed their wings to ensure the continuity of life, visitors, too, are urged to rethink the desire for flight, a persistent metaphor for progress. Flying is, after all, not imperative when feet are firmly planted on the ground.     

WORK IN THE EXHIBITION:

TRANSCLANDESTINA 3020 (2025), installation composed of textile pieces and video, 20′, dimensions variable. Courtesy of Mitre Galeria. Commissioned Fundação Bienal de São Paulo for the 36th Bienal, participation in Sao Paulo supported by ifa – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen