Home
InformationCV
 Index
Natalia (Nika) Sorzano

The Alligator Man
Painting, Sound and Sculpture Installation
2026 El Hombre Caimán (The Alligator Man) is an immersive installation that adapts and distorts the Colombian folk myth of the same name as a conduit for Latinx (trans)masculinity. Combining hand-painted textile scenography, sculpture and sound design, the work stages the life-story of Patri Roa Johansen — Latinx transman, drag king, and activist — as a healing myth. Painted river landscapes, swamp ecologies, alligators, saunas, and toilets hang from scaffolding structures alongside found materials (metal, rope, net) to build an immersive body-territory: part illustration, part scenography, part living archive.

The project departs from Patri’s auto-ethnographic anecdotes as a Latinx transman, re-signifying the folk myth of El Hombre Caimán alongside archival research on Colombian river ecologies and myth. Our collaboration unfolds as a sucession of creative translations: Mikayla coached Patri in writing his experiences and shaped them into a short story; Natalia turned the story into a script and is creating the stage and fictional world where the story unfolds; Patri, the initiator, is the sound designer and main voice. Though based in different cities, we connected digitally and then gathered in person for three weeks during the HAUT IN-SEED residency.

The project reframes toxic masculinity and ecologies, offering restorative alternatives for the body-territory. It is grounded in trans bodies, diasporic and migrating bodies, and bodies of water. By reimagining the mythological creature of El Hombre Caimán, the work addresses the violence of gender difference and instead cultivates care, transformation, and connection between people, environment and place.  This work is done in collaboration with Patri Roa Johansen and Mikayla Vieira Ribeiro

Voice, narration, sound piece and sound scape: Patri Johansen Roa
Witten story and myth adaptation: Mikayla Vieira Ribeiro
Myth distortion and appropriation:Patri Roa Johansen, Natalia (Nika) Sorzano and Mikayla Vieira Ribeiro
Painting and Sculpture installation: Natalia (Nika) Sorzano

Supported by: 
HAUT, residency programme 2025

Commissioned by:
CBK Rotterdam

Exhibited: 
Brutus, Wild Summer of Art 2026

Winner of the Brutus Prize 2026





















©MMXXILorem ipsum dolor sit ametConsectetur 02026