Choreographies of silence

Choreographies of Silence is an ongoing collaborative photography project with Uruguayan women that addresses gender violence and resilience through symbolic and participatory language.

Each portrait emerges from a shared encounter with women who have experienced different forms of abuse. They choose a landscape connected to their story and wear monochromatic clothing (red, black, or white/beige), shaping images that reflect their own narratives and emotional territories.

Red helium balloons function as a temporal and symbolic device: each one represents a year since the act of violence. Their lightness contrasts with the weight they carry, embodying a fragile yet persistent memory. The colour red—associated with blood, life force, and resistance—recurs as a visual and political thread throughout the series.

So far, sixteen sessions have been developed across Montevideo, Maldonado, and Canelones. In 2026, the project will expand to the remaining sixteen departments of Uruguay, incorporating new participants and landscapes to construct a collective visual archive of over thirty women. This territorial expansion seeks to decentralise cultural production and foster dialogue with local feminist organisations in both urban and rural contexts.

The work resonates with artistic practices that transform violence into testimony and resistance, from the symbolic portraiture of Newsha Tavakolian to Donna Ferrato’s urgent documentation of domestic abuse, and Jana Leo’s critical engagement with sexual violence and urban space. In Latin America, it connects with genealogies that use the body and public space as sites of denunciation, such as Regina José Galindo, Mujeres de Negro Uruguay, and the collective Diez de cada Diez.

Rooted in Uruguay yet addressing a global issue, Choreographies of Silence proposes a feminist and poetic visual language that confronts violence while making space for resilience, memory, and collective visibility.