Brandon Gercara: Magma in the Océan

At the origin of terrestrial life, the clash between magma and water created the first habitable spaces. Echoing the formation of hyaloclastites—glassy fragments born from this abrupt encounter—Brandon Gercara’s work shapes sustainable spaces of existence for marginalised communities.

In “Playback de la pensée Kwir”, the artist engages with Piton de la Fournaise, a telluric symbol of La Réunion, and reclaims this volcanic site, marked by colonial history, as a stage for the political affirmation of Kwir* identities.

In the emptiness of this landscape, Gercara’s drag presence reimagines identity through a playback of a fictional text, first performed during the 2021 March of Visibilities. Art becomes a stabilising force, like water meeting magma—balancing tensions, resisting erasure.

This gesture continues through “Conversations and Lip sync de la pensée”, where Gercara constructs extraterrestrial portraits beyond Earth’s normative codes. Through drag, the artist transfigures the testimonies of oppressed bodies into spectral figures—living archives of intersectional struggle, marking social transformation in progress.

Through a geological lens, Gercara’s work emerges as a seismic force reshaping La Réunion’s social terrain. Their practice erupts against inherited structures of domination—race, gender, class—using creation as resistance.

Like magma forging land, Gercara transforms colonial trauma into material for liberation. Each gesture leaves a trace: a lasting site of resistance and renewal.