Peruvian Artist Captures Defiant Circle of Naked Swimmers

In March 2023, as Lima struggled with a devastating wave of femicides, Peruvian photographer Ana Elisa Sotelo coordinated an striking instance of shared defiance. She put out a public invitation inviting women to gather at Playa Agua Dulce, one of the Peruvian capital’s premier coastal spots, before dawn. There, dozens of women removed their swimsuits in the sea, establishing a powerful bare gathering whilst thrashing and crying out in support for the victims of gender violence. Filmed from the air from the shore, the visual created—titled Women’s Circle—became a powerful testament to sisterhood and rage, a candid visual proclamation opposing the prevalence of violence ending women’s lives across Peru and beyond.

A Response Stemming from Disaster

The placement of Sotelo’s project was remarkably intentional. In the weeks preceding the Women’s Circle performance, Lima had been gripped by a particularly brutal cluster of femicide cases. The city was suffused with anger and a deep feeling of powerlessness, yet beneath these darker emotions flowed undercurrents of solidarity and shared intent. Sotelo identified this moment as an platform to transform the community’s sorrow and anger into something concrete and meaningful—a physical manifestation of women’s resistance to suppression or diminished by violence.

The logistical organisation reflected the gravity of the undertaking. To ensure the event stayed a safe, women-only space, Sotelo kept the location and timing deliberately vague, revealing details only to participants through a private WhatsApp group the day before. This safety precaution was essential; the women required protected and unobserved by unwanted eyes. Collaborating artist Ana De Orbegoso created vests emblazoned with “Alive and Fearless,” establishing the day’s guiding philosophy. Three volunteers positioned themselves on paddleboards to collect swimsuits and offer safety support as the women ventured into the cold Peruvian waters.

• Public invitation posted on Instagram to swimming community members
• Location revealed only twenty-four hours before the event
• Paddleboard volunteers maintained safety during the performance
• Drone photography captured the circle from above the shore

The Display Develops

Careful Planning for Safety and Community Support

Before dawn emerged across Playa Agua Dulce, one of Lima’s most frequented public beaches, the participants assembled in hushed anticipation. Sotelo had meticulously orchestrated every detail to ensure the women felt secure and backed throughout the performance. The early timing was intentionally selected to reduce unnecessary attention, whilst the presence of trained volunteers on paddleboards offered both hands-on support and emotional reassurance as the women entered the cold Pacific waters.

The orchestration of the event unfolded with notable naturalness despite its meticulous preparation. Women waded into the sea and took off their swimsuits in the water, passing them to the paddleboard volunteers who guaranteed nothing was swept away by the currents. What happened next needed no direction or preparation. Once naked, the circle developed naturally, and the shouting and thrashing burst forth — a raw, unrehearsed expression of anger, sorrow, and rebellion that no amount of planning could have manufactured.

For about twenty minutes, the women remained in the water, moving about within their safe perimeter. The drone positioned over the shore recorded this extraordinary moment from above, converting individual acts of courage into a unified visual statement. When they finally returned to shore to reclaim their swimsuits, the atmosphere changed from intensity to jubilation. Smiles replaced screams as women prepared to return to their everyday lives, carrying with them the profound knowledge that they had stood together against harm and terror.

• Participants assembled in early morning to prevent public scrutiny and disruption
• Trained staff members stationed on paddleboards for safety and swimsuit collection
• Women took off swimsuits in water to preserve confidentiality and autonomy
• Circle formation and emotional release occurred naturally without choreography
• 20-minute performance concluded with journey back to shore and festivities

Chile to Caribbean destinations

What started as a spontaneous collaboration in the frozen waters of Patagonia has evolved into a sprawling artistic movement extending across multiple continents. Sotelo’s initial vision, conceived in 2022 when three women swimmers in Puerto Natales, Chile invited her to record their nude swimming, proved to be merely the opening chapter of a much larger narrative. The project’s triumph in Chile encouraged the photographer to launch open calls in her home city of Lima, where the response proved immediate and overwhelming. Women from varied backgrounds and circumstances recognised in Sotelo’s work a powerful vehicle for reclaiming their bodies and establishing their presence in spaces where they had been made to feel unsafe.

The geographical development of Women of the Water demonstrates both the widespread character of gender-based violence and the global solidarity that unites women in resistance. Following the Lima presentation, Sotelo extended her open calls to Argentina, the United States, and Barbados, every venue contributing its own cultural context and emotional resonance to the project. These versions preserve the core ethos of Sotelo’s artistic vision—vulnerable bodies reimagined as symbols of strength—whilst adapting to local circumstances and communities. The project has evolved into a powerful statement to how art can move beyond geographical limits, creating moments of collective support that resonate with women’s lived realities regardless of geography or language.

After Three Years: Has the Drive Diminished?

Since that defiant morning on Playa Agua Dulce in March 2023, the world has pressed forward steadily toward increased danger and instability for women everywhere. Sotelo’s observation, made three years after the Women’s Circle performance, carries a sobering weight: the world seems harsher now, not safer. The initial euphoria that rippled through the beach that day—the smiles, the excitement, the cautious optimism—has been undermined by the harsh reality that gender-based violence remains stubbornly endemic across the globe. Yet this acknowledgement does not diminish the significance of what was achieved in those twenty minutes of unified resistance. Rather, it underscores the urgency of ongoing creative defiance and solidarity.

The matter of whether momentum has faded is made complex by the nature of activist art itself. Sotelo’s project keeps expanding and develop, suggesting that the momentum generated in Patagonia has not extinguished. However, the spread of Women of the Water across continents, whilst testament to its power, also reflects a grim truth: there are perpetually new female communities demanding platforms for opposition, always emerging brutalities calling for artistic response. The project’s longevity speaks to both its impact and the persistent need for such work. In a landscape where rates of femicide have not meaningfully declined, where women remain silenced and violated, the circle of swimmers remains as necessary today as it was three years ago.

The Larger Context of Gender-based Violence

The Lima murders of women that precipitated Women’s Circle were not individual occurrences but evidence of a wider trend of violence against women endemic to Peru and Latin America across the region. Peru frequently appears among the nations experiencing the most femicide rates in the region, with numerous women murdered annually in gender-based killings. This situation reframes Sotelo’s artistic act from simple artistic performance into a pointed answer to systemic failure—a failure by institutions, law enforcement, and the broader community to keep women safe. The swimming circle thus transforms from being merely representational but vitally needed.

• Peru experiences ongoing elevated levels of gender-based violence and femicide
• Structural inadequacies leave women vulnerable to systematic harm and murder
• Artistic resistance becomes essential when legal systems prove inadequate