A collective of few,
a movement of many.
Mini bio
(se)cura humana is a collective of artistic and environmental activist creations, founded in São Paulo in 2015 by Flavio Barollo (video artist and performer) and Wellington Tibério (musician and geographer). The collective focuses on art that addresses environmental issues, with an emphasis on water in the urban landscape. More recently, their work has expanded to engage with themes such as deforestation, mining crimes, environmental racism, and climate change caused by human actions.
(se)cura humana operates through performative actions, urban installations (sculptural interventions), and audiovisual productions. In film, the collective released Deserto SP and Conexão Água in 2024.
Also in 2024, they conducted the artistic residency "Utopian and (Im)possible Cities" under the theme Ancestral Futures, exploring urban territories, occupying public spaces, fostering artistic creations, and reimagining worlds through AI.
Recent works include the performances "Simulação de um Levante" (Simulated Uprising), "Corpo-Árvore," and "Piscina do Fim do Mundo" (End of the World Pool), the happening "Parque Aquático Móvel" (Mobile Aquatic Park), and the installations "Rio Paralelo Tamanduateí" (a small water treatment station for the polluted river), "Lago da Travessa" (a lake fed by natural springs), and "Poço do Água Preta."
The collective emerged during the 2015 water crisis with the project "Vidas Secas SP," evolving from there to promote actions involving local community participation, urban mobilizations, and the materialization of utopias. During this period, they performed the iconic "Mergulho no Rio Tietê" (Diving into the Tietê River), which received extensive media coverage from Globonews, Estadão, and TV Cultura's Repórter ECO.
In recent media coverage, their act in memory of the Brumadinho disaster victims was featured by TV Cultura on Avenida Paulista, along with two further programs on Repórter ECO and Globonews.
The collective also published a critical essay, "Reinventing the City: Artistic Actions for an (Im)possible City," in Revista Redobra (Federal University of Bahia), alongside contributions by Viveiros de Castro and Sueli Rolnik, and participated in a feature for Greenpeace Germany.
(se)cura humana is a collective focused on environmental, urban, and aquatic artivist creations, founded and led by Flavio Barollo (video artist and performer) and Wellington Tibério (geographer and PhD candidate at USP).
We collaborate with various partners in our multidisciplinary projects, such as Jeferson Rogério (bioconstruction), Odacy Oliveira (indigenous artist from the Amazon), Malu Avelar (dance/performance), Gabriela Leirias (theatrical provocation, curation, and research), Leo Tannous (environmental engineering), Karen Menatti (theater and poetry), Zimbher (music), Felipe Chacon (music), Edu Marin (visual arts), Felipe Julian (music), Caio Silva Ferraz (audiovisual), Loop B (music), Carolina Delleva (production), Luiz Eduardo Moreira (bioconstruction), and partner groups such as Bloco do Água Preta (music) and Cia do Tijolo (theater and music).
Rooted in environmental activism, (se)cura humana materializes its work through direct actions in urban spaces, with water as its central theme. Our projects integrate multiple artistic languages, including urban installations/sculptures, audiovisual work (documentaries and video performances), performance/happenings, and music.
Reflecting the "dryness" of humanity on various levels, we activate new (or ancient) ways of engaging with the environment, challenging societal norms and provoking a critical perspective on the urban lifestyle we have developed over recent decades. (se)cura humana seeks to bring dreams and utopias to life, particularly those related to how we interact with water within the urban landscape.
From building lakes amidst concrete, installing aquatic parks with pools on sidewalks, to reactivating public water fountains fed by natural springs lost within the city, the collective’s actions disrupt the positivist-developmentalist notion of the city. We question what is considered "legal" and "illegal," evoke the memories of a city that once existed, and point towards a new city yet to come.