This article is part of Hyperallergic‘s Pride Month Seriesfeaturing an interview with a different emerging or mid-career transgender or non-binary artist each weekday throughout June.
The Brazilian performer and transdisciplinary artist Pêdra Costa also describes herself as a tarologist and a “visual and urban anthropologist”. Based in Berlin, Costa creates complex, layered works that reflect these multi-faceted interests as well as their own non-binary identity. Their concert series Solange, your aberta! (“Solange, I’m open“), for example, which was created in 2006, combines elements of Rio de Janeiro Baile Funk with the Technobrega genre from northern Brazil as well as queer, punk and other underground music and dance traditions. It is one of many pieces in which Costa makes a gesture of resistance by embracing and emphasizing art forms that have been systematically suppressed.
Hyperallergic: What is the current orientation of your artistic practice?
Pedra Coast: I am currently dedicated to improving my artistic performance, as evidenced by my ongoing series decolonization. I venture into art installation, incorporating performative activations, exemplified by my latest piece “Le placard des divinités” which will be featured in the exhibition Close[t] Demonstrations at the Semmelweisklinik Arts and Culture Center in Vienna. Moreover, for the Erste Bank Art Prize 2023my first distinction in visual art, I create an artistic installation inspired by the 22 major arcana of the Tarot.
H: In what ways, if any, does your gender identity play a role in your experience as an artist?
pc: Homosexuality, art and spirituality are an integral part of my identity, but they do not limit me. I believe my works inspired the generation of radical queer artists in Brazil, where I incorporated the term (and action!) “queer” into the arts. My music and performance piece Solange, your aberta! (2006) serves as a significant artistic reference. Moreover, my work “decolonization(2016) critically examines the historical persecution of gender dissidents in colonial Brazil, perpetrated by the Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition (1536-1821).
H: Which artists inspire your work today? What are your other sources of inspiration?
pc: I draw my inspiration from a diversity of artists and communities: queer artists, artists with disabilities, witches, QTBIPoC and neurodivergent artists, as well as collectives in which I actively participate. My friends, artists and/or curators, play an important role in fueling my creative impulse. In addition, I seek southern country wisdom and embodied artistic knowledge.
H: What are your hopes for the LGBTQIA+ community right now?
pc: I hope we possess a remarkable sense of community, political strength and resilience, and valuable wisdom and survival strategies to deal with the re-emergence of a sustainable social model that seeks to undermine us. .
