MeioFio Biographys

Cigarra

Born in São Paulo — the city where she grew up in the daily flows of immigration and developed tactics for street expression as a member of party collectives — Ágatha CIGARRA has been a DJ, performer, music producer and cultural agent for over 15 years. She has spent half of that time in the Lisbon scene, working in partnership with the city and dissident artists. She has held residencies in the city’s foremost venues and is one of the driving forces behind the rise of street carnival in Portugal. Carniçeira, BLOCU, MeioFio (Alkantara Festival), Ancestrofuturismo, SOMA, Hystereofônica and Roda de Sample are just some of the projects she has led over the years as part of her research into decolonial intersections. Cigarra has played at festivals in more than 10 countries across Europe, Latin American and Asia, has produced an album (as Tripas Corassão), two EPs and several tracks on different international compilations, and has written and performed original soundtracks for dance, performance and film. Her music is engaging and seductive, blending the diasporic margins with emotive pop and subversive experimentation.

Astronauta Mecanico

Veruscka Girio (1975), from the Amazon, was born in the 1970s. A designer, multi-platform artist, VJ and videomapper, she was one of the first women VJs in Brazil (2003). She has used wireless image control since 2012, merging digital and analogue using obsolete or discontinued equipment. Her artistic language exists at the intersection between art, mathematics and the spirit, exploring transcommunication and raising questions regarding use, flux, routine and real-time. Her projects are shown both in the street, clubs and raves, and in museums and art biennials.

Renato Rocha

Renato Rocha was born in Brasília and lives in Lisbon. Graduated in Visual Arts at Universidade de Brasília (UnB), explores multi-linguages in the duality between sound and image. DJ, composer, designer, cenographer and cultural producer. As a musician has released 6 EPs and various singles in both digital and vinyl formats and has performed in more than 20 countries. He produced events in Brasília, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Berlin.

Alex Simões

Alex Simões aka Xana Modas is a visual artist, originally from Lisbon, who works with film, clothing and set design, specialising in costumes and characters made from card and sequins. A graduate in Fine Arts from Goldsmiths, University of London, as Xana Modas she screams trends, with a healthy dose of conceptual aesthetic provocation. She also works as a DJ and cultural producer, beginning in 2014 in the dive bars of London, where she made the queers dance! RAD FESTA (a glam punk event featuring performance, music and cigarette butt-filled wigs) opened up new vistas regarding community and hedonism in the field of event production.

Junior Barros

Junior Barros aka BIXA PRETTA is a non-binary person born in the coastal region of São Vicente, near São Paulo. Trained in Human Resources Management, Junior has forged a path of resistance and reinvention, passing through sectors such as offshore hospitality and team management, yet always with a deep commitment to social change. Building on their experience coordinating social projects in the favelas of São Vicente, they see their shows, performances and parties as a powerful form of political and cultural expression. As a Drag Queen, their art is an instrument of resistance, challenging social norms and opening space for marginalised bodies and voices.

Era Jaja Rolim

Era Jaja Rolim is a brasilian travesti, whose anthropophagic dance practice is translated through film, theatre and choreographic installations. She conceives of performance as a form of living sculpture that allows they to become an object and a subject simultaneously. Infused by the symbolic creative work and reframing found in the collective imagination, they compose their work around ideas of the body – both individual and collective – as a medium that crosses borders.