
andrei bessa
(Fortaleza, Brazil, 1987)
Dramaturgist, performer, researcher, and theater professor. Holds a Master’s degree in Arts from the Federal University of Ceará (BR). Associate at Vagar and member of Piscina, an independent collective studio in Lisbon. Artist at Inquieta Cia., a dance and performance collective based in Fortaleza (CE).
Living in Lisbon since 2021, he studied at Forum Dança (PACAP 5, curated by João Fiadeiro). He collaborates regularly with João Fiadeiro and Márcia Lança, with highlights including the exhibition INTROSPECTIVA (CCB, 2024) and the restaging of the solo Self(ish)-Portrait (CCB and 24Volts, 2024).
Focusing on performance, his work moves between dance, audiovisual arts, photography, and literature. He explores his fat body as an artistic force, challenging cisnormativity and expanding non-normative bodies through a dialogue between softness and violence. His latest obsession: the fabulation of the bear-unicorn being, explored in residencies at O Rumo do Fumo, Queer Art Lab, Casa da Dança, Central Elétrica, and Masmorra.
Within the scope of performative autobiographical practices, between 2020 and 2021, he was part of the research and theater/post-pornography practice group Estudos sobre o Olho, coordinated by Janaína Leite Albuquerque and André Medeiros Martins, within the Research Center of Grupo XIX de Teatro (São Paulo).
Dramaturgy is a central area of his artistic practice and research, developed in his dissertation Incomplete Dramaturgies: Towards a Composition in Atlas (2015). He collaborated in the study group Dramaturgy: What Does the Body Want and What Can It Do?, coordinated by Thereza Rocha. He also led the project Dramaturgir – Studies and Practices in Dramaturgy (2016), an educational initiative by Inquieta Cia. that included workshops, dramatic readings, and public discussions over four months.
In his pedagogical experience, he was the coordinator of the Theater Laboratory at Porto Iracema das Artes School (Instituto Dragão do Mar) from 2017 to 2020 and served as a substitute professor in the Theater Licentiate Program at IFCE from 2015 to 2017.
