This thesis investigates how a body from the Global South can challenge coloniality by inhabiting European sites of colonial heritage through site-specific performance. Acknowledging that both body and space perform coloniality, through power structures, epistemologies, and normative behaviours, I employed embodied practices to activate radical sensing, account for spatial effects, create alternative meanings, and engage audiences in questioning the univocal historical narratives shaped by colonial bias. Methods such as psychogeography, inhabiting, mapping, scoring, performing, documenting, and archiving were interwoven to develop performances that confronted colonial legacies at the Maritime Museums of Amsterdam and Barcelona, the Columbus Monument, the West India Company building, and the ArtEZ building, in Arnhem.

Aiming to expose concealed historical memories and underlying power dynamics, while critically recognising the continuities of the past within present structures, the research encountered the disruption of spatially-organised normative behaviours through performative action, and the possibilities of confronting coloniality. These actions engaged with identity-related discussions that valued heritage and acknowledged the ongoing processes of hybridisation the body experiences in relation to space and context. Both pathways converged in the claim for the creation of a “third space”, in which encounters with the public could generate alternative perspectives for understanding apparent realities.

Ultimately, this research asserts the political potential of embodied performance to disrupt the spatial legacy of colonialism and activate counter-narratives grounded in lived experience, memory, and interaction. It denounces the violence of historical silencing and challenges the continuity of colonial structures in the present. As I was called into action, I also recognised the need for collective engagement and co-presence in shaping a more equitable shared society.