No Rio há uma cidade que nos separa / In the City, There Is a River Between Us is an residency and performance project curated and co-directed by Gabriela Cordovez, Daniel Paiva de Miranda, and CuntsCollective (represented by Tone Lorenzen).
The residency took place in Rio de Janeiro in 2021, bringing together ten independent performers from Nordic countries and across Brazil. The project fostered decolonial artistic practices and explored territorial heterogeneity through dialogue on hegemonic norms, political brutality, and patriarchal structures.
Through sweating bodies, breath, and heartbeat as performative tools, the residency created a shared space for embodied reflection and resistance. Each artist developed a solo work rooted in their understanding of territorial belonging, engaging with geopolitical perspectives shaped by of colonial power. Developed in dialogue with the cultural and political context of Rio, these solos were later combined into a 12-hour durational performance installation at Solar Real as part of the Abra Alas Festival in February 2021, alongside contributions from local artists.
The residency unfolded as an intensive, process-based collaboration grounded in ritual, co-creation, and site-specific research. The first phase consisted of workshops led by participants and invited guests, followed by a research period culminating in the public performance. The structure emphasized co-authorship, shared responsibility, and collective leadership.
Overall, the project fostered cross-cultural exchange and demonstrated how collective artistic practices can challenge dominant narratives and imagine alternative social and artistic structures.
