In São Paulo, Manauara Clandestina (1992) emerges as an interpreter of the city’s nightlife. Her performance-based work expands dialogues by bringing new perspectives on travesti existence, questioning the conditions that surround them through border transitions and sensitive immersions, thereby building intimate records.

As the artistic director of Ateliê TRANSmoras, alongside fashion designer Vicenta Perrotta, Manauara Clandestina constructed imaginary frameworks within fashion, evoking dialogues that illuminate the subjectivities of dissident Brazilian bodies between 2015 and 2023.

In 2020, she developed her research through the Residency Programme at Delfina Foundation, in London, and in 2021 at Piramidón – Centro de Arte Contemporânea, in Barcelona, both supported by Instituto Inclusartiz. She has participated in group exhibitions at institutions such as Instituto de Arquitetos do Brasil, São Paulo, and Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro. In 2021, she held two solo shows: Pitiu de Cobra, Delirium, São Paulo; and Saltação, Casa70, Lisbon. In 2024, she took part in the 60th Bienal de Veneza, Foreigners Everywhere, and presented work in the video room of the Museu de Arte de São Paulo. In 2025, she participates in the Bienal de São Paulo with the performance and installation TRANSCLANDESTINA 2030, a project that brings together her practices—from visual arts to textile transmutation and performance.

Memórias do retorno (2021) is a collage composed of clothes worn during the artist’s return to Latin America. Created from an accumulation of transient memories, it offers an amalgam of narratives that highlight the violence that comes from border crossings. The installation stems from the territories she traversed and has parallels with Por enquanto 35 (2019–2021) and Vapor (2021), developed by the collective project Migranta, in Barcelona, in which garments act as remnants of passage and traces of escape from coloniality.

The work was featured in the exhibition Encruzilhadas da arte afro-brasileira, curated by Deri Andrade.