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CV

Flavio Barollo
Socio-environmental artist and activist
 

Mini bio


Socio-environmental artivist, video artist, and performer. He crosses performing arts, audiovisual practices, emerging technologies, and activism. Cofounder of the collective (se)cura humana, he develops his work from climate urgencies—especially in collapsing urban centers—creating actions of insurgency and poetic hacking. His creations articulate body, nature, and urban ruins as tools of critical fabulation to imagine regenerative futures and to challenge, in the present, extractivist and colonial logics. Researcher of post-capitalist alternatives.
 

Selected territorial actions

  • Travessa Occupation, West Zone of São Paulo, a living laboratory of art, care, and survival

  • Travessa Lake, an urban sculpture with spring water

  • Public spring-water tap, practical de-privatization of water in everyday life

  • Parallel Tamanduateí River, performance-collection and treatment prototype using nature-based solutions

  • Mobile Aquatic Park, a river-bathing happening on asphalt


Recent highlights, works, and circulation

  • Documentaries: Water Connection, Desert SP, Utopian Cities in an Ancestral Future

  • Performances: Diving into the Tietê River, Pool at the End of the World, Body–Tree, Legacy of Devastation

  • Video art, video mapping, and AI: Deeper, Pruning, Abyssal, Gold Epidemic Scene, Falling Poem – Live

  • Publications and essays: Reimagining 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 (Poéticas de las (T)tierras, Rede Sur Brazil–Mexico)


Recent distinction

  • Invitation as a UNFCCC delegate to join the Blue Zone of COP30 in Belém



Mini bio 2


Flavio Barollo is a multidisciplinary artist, video artist, performer, researcher, and socio-environmental artivist. He works at the intersection of performing arts, cinema, video art, video mapping, and emerging technologies, developing narratives and devices that turn climate urgencies into concrete actions, especially in collapsing urban centers. Cofounder of the collective (se)cura humana, he works with the idea of “insurgent waters”—buried rivers that remain alive beneath asphalt, re-emerging through cracks, springs, and bodies, repositioning the city as a territory of dispute.
 

His research combines territorial engagement, theoretical investigation, and aesthetic experimentation, materializing “urban sculptures” and performative actions that challenge the normalization of scarcity and the privatization of water. At the (se)cura Occupation in São Paulo’s West Zone, he articulates interventions such as Travessa Lake and the public spring-water tap, where art, care, and survival intertwine. In parallel, he creates performative works that traverse body, nature, and urban ruins, including Diving into the Tietê River, Mobile Aquatic Park, Pool at the End of the World, Legacy of Devastation, and Body–Tree.
 

In audiovisual practice, he produces documentaries and hybrid works that connect territory, imagination, and a critique of progress, notably Water Connection, screened at the SUNCINE Festival (Barcelona) and in exhibition contexts, and the project Utopian Cities in an Ancestral Future. In his practice, Artificial Intelligence enters as a tool for critical fabulation, with awareness of its environmental cost and extractivist and colonial layers, seeking to subvert these patterns and produce images that inspire action in the present. He develops studies and collaborations on climate urgency, the rights of vulnerable populations, and water as a common good, in dialogue with the Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB). He was invited as a UNFCCC delegate to join the Blue Zone of COP30 in Belém.

Extended CV:
 

Flavio Barollo is a socio-environmental artivist, performer, and video artist, cofounder of the collective (se)cura humana, an art and activism platform based in São Paulo and founded in 2015. His research connects urban rivers, the right to water, and post-capitalist imagination through performances, public-space installations, documentary cinema, video art, video mapping, and experimentation with Artificial Intelligence, understood as a field of dispute and counter-use. Between 2024 and 2025, he presented the film Water Connection at the International Environmental Film Festival SUNCINE (Barcelona) and at the 14th São Paulo International Architecture Biennial, and took part in the exhibition Where There Is Smoke: Art and Climate Emergency at the Museu do Ipiranga. In 2024, he carried out the intervention Urban River Bather at the Venice Biennale (Foreigners Everywhere / Stranieri Ovunque). He was invited as a UNFCCC delegate to join the Blue Zone at COP30 in Belém.

Trained as an actor at Indac (2003–2006), he holds a postgraduate degree in Theatre Directing from ESA Célia Helena under the supervision of Antônio Araújo (2012–2013), and pursued performance studies at PUC and USP with Lúcio Agra and Beth Lopes. He participated in MOLA, a study group in Art, Science, and Technology (2017), and completed the extension course Climate Change, Disasters, and the Guarantee of Rights for Affected Populations at UFRRJ (2024). He has published texts in Revista Redobra (UFBA), on the platform La Escuela (Venezuela), and in Poéticas de las (T)tierras, Rede Sur Brazil–Mexico (2025), and develops research in partnership with the Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB).
 

Recent highlights:

  • Invitation as a UNFCCC delegate to join the Blue Zone of COP30, Belém (2025).

  • Performative intervention Urban River Bather, Venice Biennale, Stranieri Ovunque (2024).

  • Water Connection (2024), selected for SUNCINE (Barcelona) and screened at the 14th São Paulo International Architecture Biennial.

  • Where There Is Smoke: Art and Climate Emergency (Museu do Ipiranga), participation with the video installation Dives (2024–2025).

  • Act-performance Legacy of Devastation, by invitation of SOS Mata Atlântica, in front of Theatro Municipal of São Paulo (2025).

  • (se)cura Occupation, at Travessa Roque Adóglio, certified as a Cultural Point by Brazil’s Ministry of Culture (2025).

  • Publications in Revista Redobra (UFBA), La Escuela (Venezuela), and Poéticas de las (T)tierras (Rede Sur Brazil–Mexico), as well as leading the artistic residency Utopian and (Im)possible Cities (2024).
     

Recent performance works:

  • Body–Tree, artistic direction by Flavio Barollo, with Flavio Barollo, Jeferson Rogério, Malu Avelar, and Wellington Tibério. Premiered at Sesc Pompeia (2023) and presented at Galeria 9 de Julho in the exhibition REFUNDAÇÃO, curated by Lucas Bambozzi (2024–2025).

  • Simulation of an Uprising, an act-performance in memory of the victims of Brumadinho (2024).

  • White Gold: Lithium (2024), developed during the ÉClima artistic residency at Condô Cultural (2024).

  • Pool at the End of the World, artistic direction by Flavio Barollo, with Flavio Barollo, Wellington Tibério, and Loop B, restaged at Sesc Pompeia (2023), with circulation between 2017 and 2023.

  • Mobile Aquatic Park, performance/happening by the collective (se)cura humana (2015–2023).

  • Diving into the Tietê River, with coverage by GloboNews and a report in the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo (2015).

  • Urban River Bather, a performative intervention carried out in different urban contexts, presented in the exhibition Where There Is Smoke: Art and Climate Emergency at the Museu do Ipiranga (2024–2025), and at the Venice Biennale, edition Foreigners Everywhere (Stranieri Ovunque) (2024).
     

Installations and urban sculptures:

  • Travessa Lake, an installation with spring water at the Travessa Occupation, Travessa Roque Adóglio (since 2017).

  • Água Preta Public Tap, a public tap with spring water at the Travessa Occupation (since 2018).

  • Água Preta Well, a territorial installation at the Água Preta stream, São Paulo.

  • Parallel Tamanduateí River (2019), an installation involving the collection, treatment, and display of river water as a clear pond.
     

As filmmaker:

  • Feature-length documentary Utopian Cities in an Ancestral Future (2025), direction and editing.

  • Short film Water Connection (2024), directed, selected for SUNCINE (Barcelona) and screened at the 14th São Paulo International Architecture Biennial.

  • Short film Desert SP (2023), written, directed, shot, and edited.

  • Documentary Parelha: A Look at Reality, by the collective P.A.R.E.L.H.A (2024), audiovisual direction.

  • Documentary I’m Going to Tell a Story I Don’t Even Know How to Begin, by Cia do Tijolo (2021).

  • It’s All a Mess and Poetry Rules, by Cia do Tijolo, co-directed with Dinho Lima Flor, Karen Menatti, and Rodrigo Mercadante, experimental documentary (2020).

  • Documentary Brick Brazil (2015).

  • Short film Old Man: A Story of Alberto Barollo (2008), winner of the Cascavel Film Festival, Best Film (Audience Award).
     

As video artist, audiovisual creation, and video mapping:

  • Deeper, by Janaina Leite (2024), audiovisual creation and video art.

  • Pruning (music video) and Abyssal, with Sandra-X (2024, 2022).

  • Gold Epidemic Scene, by Cia Mungunzá (2023), video mapping and Artificial Intelligence.

  • Urban Opera: Cynical Politics, by Coletivo Ópera Urbe (2021), video manifesto and video art.

  • Ex-Reality, by Ex-Companhia de Teatro (2020), video art and live platform.

  • Falling Poem – Live, by Cia Mungunzá de Teatro (2020), video art and live platform.

  • Projections and video mapping in The Inside of the Cloister, by Cia do Tijolo (2016–2023), Jaz (2018), Letter 1 (2017).

  • Music videos (selection): Any Nail (Zeca Baleiro and Zimbher), Baião at the Window (Ceumar and Jonathan Silva).
     

As screen actor:

  • Series Irmandade (Netflix/O2 Filmes), as the character Luis (Municipal Inspector), in scenes with Naruna Costa, Lee Taylor, and the cast. Directed and written by Pedro Morelli;

  • Series Assédio (Globo), as lawyer Gregório Viana, friend of Ronaldo (Felipe Camargo) and Eugênia (Paula Possani). Created by Maria Camargo, directed by Amora Mautner;

  • Series Supermax (Globo), as Almir (Health Secretary and infectious disease doctor). In scenes with Giulio Lopes, Paulo Gabriel, Mariana Ximenes, and Cleo. Directed by José Alvarenga;

  • Series O Negócio (HBO), by Luca Paiva Mello and Rodrigo Castilho;

  • Feature film The Film of the Spirits, by André Marouço, as the character Dante.
     

As theatre actor:

  • Urban Opera: Contemporary Plague, by Coletivo Ópera Urbe, a musical with dramaturgy and songs by Carlos Zimbher, directed by Rogério Tarifa. Character Boi (2017–2023);

  • The Inside of the Cloister, by Cia do Tijolo, directed by Rodrigo Mercadante and Dinho Lima Flor (2016–2023);

  • New Era Condominium, by Digna Companhia, written by Victor Nóvoa and directed by Rogério Tarifa. Character Man from Outside (2014–2015);

  • Creditors, by Cia Mamba de Artes, by August Strindberg, with Bruno Perillo, Carolina Mânica, Flavio Barollo, and Bela Alzira (2013);

  • Playing with Fire, by Cia Mamba de Artes, by August Strindberg, character Axel (2012–2013);

  • Novelo, by Nanna de Castro, directed by Zé Henrique de Paula, with Alexandre Freitas, Fábio Cador, Flavio Barollo, Flavio Baiocchi, and Elvis Shelton (2012);

  • Ghosts, by Cia Mamba de Artes, by Henrik Ibsen, adaptation by Ingmar Bergman, directed by Francisco Medeiros, character Oswald (2010–2011);

  • The Pelican, by Cia Mamba de Artes, by August Strindberg, directed by Denise Weinberg (2008–2010).
     

In music:

  • EP Water Heals, by (se)cura humana, with five tracks, released in 2023;

  • Tribororo band, with Zimbher, Karen Menatti, Flavio Barollo, Felipe Chacon, and Well Tibério (2015–2017).

Media / interviews:

  • Interview for the program Arte1;

  • Interview for the program Metrópoles (TV Cultura);

  • Interview for GloboNews and a full episode of Repórter Eco (TV Cultura).

Publications:

  • “Reimagining the City” for Revista Redobra (UFBA), with Wellington Tibério;

  • “Collective Exercises in Reinventing Ways of Living Public Space” for the platform La Escuela (Venezuela);

  • “Insurgent Waters: Post-capitalist Artivism” for Poéticas de las (T)tierras, Rede Sur Brazil–Mexico (2025).

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