A collective of few,
a movement of many.

The (se)cura humana collective is a multidisciplinary platform for art and socio-environmental activism based in São Paulo. Founded in 2015 by Flavio Barollo (video artist and performer) and Wellington Tibério (geographer and musician), it has expanded through collaborative partnerships with artists, environmentalists, and researchers such as Jeferson Rogerio (bio-builder) and Odacy Oliveira (performer), among many other collaborators.

The group first took water as the guiding thread of a body of work that challenges the city’s developmentalist logic and calls for forms of existence inspired by the concrete construction of utopias practiced in the cracks of the present. The research has since expanded to themes such as forest devastation, mining-related crimes, environmental racism, and human-driven climate change.

Their creations move across multiple languages and formats:

performances such as Mergulhos, Banhista de Rios Urbanos, Piscina do Fim do Mundo, and Corpo-Árvore; happening-actions such as Parque Aquático Móvel; musical works such as the show “(se)cura com água”; urban sculpture-installations such as Rio Paralelo Tamanduateí, Lago da Travessa, and Torneira do Água Preta; and documentary films, including Deserto SP and Conexão Água. In 2024, the collective carried out the residency “Utopian Cities for an Ancestral Future,” bringing together urban occupation, pedagogical practices, and AI-based fabulations, resulting in a film of the same title.

This artistic practice is accompanied by theoretical production that grounds and expands their actions, including: “Reinventing the City: Artistic Actions for an (Im)possible City,” published in Revista Redobra (UFBA); “Collective Exercises in Reinventing Ways of Living Public Space,” published on the platform La Escuela (Venezuela); and “Insurgent Waters: Post-capitalist Artivism,” in Poéticas de las (T)tierras – Rede Sur Brasil–Mexico (2025), articulating art, territories, and Latin American ecologies.

Recently, the collective participated in the SUNCINE Festival (Barcelona) and in the exhibition “Where There Is Smoke: Art and Climate Emergency” (Museu do Ipiranga). It also continues community mobilization at Ocupação Travessa, a territory in São Paulo’s West Zone that experiments with and embodies its prototypical research and action toward a new possible city.

In opposition to the “Devastation Bill” (PL da Devastação), and at the invitation of SOS Mata Atlântica, the collective staged the artistic intervention “The Weight of Devastation” in front of the Theatro Municipal in August 2025.
 

Brief history

• 2015: Foundation and first public action. Aquatic performances. Premiere of Mergulho no Rio Tietê (2015) and Parque Aquático Móvel (2015–23).

• 2017: (se)cura occupation at Travessa Roque Adóglio. Construction of a spring-water lake. Creation and circulation of Piscina do Fim do Mundo (2017–23).

• 2018: (se)cura occupation at Travessa Roque Adóglio. Construction of a public tap with spring water.

• 2019: Installation Rio Paralelo Tamanduateí (2019), combining art, environmental education, and the occupation of public space through collecting and treating river water and transforming it into a clear lake.

• 2020–2023: Audiovisual expansion. Production of the documentaries Deserto SP (2023), Conexão Água (2024), and Cidades Utópicas em um Futuro Ancestral (2025).

• 2023: Premiere of the performance-installation Corpo-Árvore (2023), with wide circulation.

• 2024: Research on world-regeneration through the Artistic Residency “Cidades Utópicas em um Futuro Ancestral.”

• 2024: Release of Conexão Água (award-winning short film at the International Environmental Film Festival SUNCINE, Barcelona). Participation in the exhibition “Where There Is Smoke: Art and Climate Emergency” at Museu do Ipiranga. Beginning of the residency “Utopian Cities for an Ancestral Future,” combining generative AI, pedagogical practices, and tactical urbanism.

• 2025: Recognition of the (se)cura occupation as a Ponto de Cultura certified by Brazil’s Ministry of Culture (MinC).

• 2023–2025: Artistic protest actions “Simulação de um Levante” (in response to Brumadinho) and “The Weight of Devastation” (with SOS Mata Atlântica), in front of the Theatro Municipal.

• 2023–2025: Publications: “Reinventing the City: Artistic Actions for an (Im)possible City,” Revista Redobra (UFBA); “Collective Exercises in Reinventing Ways of Living Public Space,” La Escuela (Venezuela); “Insurgent Waters: Post-capitalist Artivism,” in Poéticas de las (T)tierras – Rede Sur Brasil–Mexico (2025), articulating art, territories, and Latin American ecologies.

• 2023–2025: Collaboration with the Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB).

 

Over 10 years, the collective has carried out 70+ in-person actions, engaged 4,000 people through workshops and debates, produced 8 audiovisual works, and published essays on academic platforms (UFBA, USP, La Escuela). Their creations combine art, socio-environmental activism, and community-based knowledge, proposing practicable utopias that challenge the developmentalist model and highlight the climate emergency.