Leon Lapa Pereira

Leon Lapa Pereira (he/him) is a cross-disciplinary performance researcher working at the intersection of art, ecology, and technology. He trained first as an engineer, beginning his career on autonomous vehicles before developing mobile charging stations during the early years of electromobility. Drawn away from product development and deeper into his longstanding yoga practice, he moved toward embodied, performative work—performing for and with other artists, and carrying his technical thinking with him.

His research centers on the Rights of Nature, with a particular focus on the rights of water and a critical, de-romanticized view of “nature.” With the Embassy of the North Sea, he co-developed the Confluence of European Water Bodies, a network of activists, lawyers, and ecologists examining how different cultures relate to water. Across this work he treats performance as both a method and a subject of inquiry, favoring site-specific, participatory approaches, stewardship, and shared leadership.

He is also a curator, agent, and coach at the Instrument Inventors Initiative and co-founder of Resonant Bodies Collective—an action-based research group—and the WASTELAND festival, where he examines waste ecologies. Through self-organized residencies and retreats, he builds spaces for collective, ecological, and experimental practices.