research and learning
Roots and Routes
In collaboration with Frame Colectivo, a studio that combines architecture, research, and art, we developed Raízes e Rotas (Roots and Routes), a project in which we set out to reflect on coloniality and its forms of devastation and oppression based on trees located in an urban context: interacting with trees opened up the possibility of reading the city as a space of interspecies cohabitation and of making visible the material, symbolic, and ideological layers inherited from the colonial era that continue to mediate the ways in which we relate to our surroundings.
The project involved a research process that began with immersion in various colonial archives and found ways to engage in dialogue with the exhibition Interespécies, at Garagem Sul MAC-CCB, through the production of an article; the writing of arborographies and a glossary, both with the desire to contribute to the counter-colonization of languages; two installations, “Buva 1” in Lisbon and “Escrevivências Vegetais” (Vegetable Writings), the latter at the invitation of the Space Transcribers collective in Braga; a cycle of four conversations with dinners attended by different knowledge makers, whose experiences contribute to broadening, decolonizing, and deracializing our perspective on the city; a podcast, recorded by Antecâmera radio, which weaves together conversations and research; and decolonial tour itineraries guided by the presence of urban trees, in collaboration with the Falas Negras collective.
The project was funded by the Diogo Seixas Lopes grant from MAC/CCB's Garagem Sul, as well as one of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation's grants for artistic creation.
collaboration: Agapi Dimitriadou, Apolo de Carvalho, Gabriela Salhe, Jessica Bruno, Vânia Puma, Laura Papalardo, Lisa H. Moura
guests: Nael Rafaela, Luan Okun, Kety Herrera, Ellen Wassu, Pedro Barbosa, Mariana Oliveira, Ana Rita Alves, Ana Catarino, Pedro Varela, Nizar Almadani, Zé Maria de Pina, Sabino, Beatriz Andrade, and Tuna.
Lisbon, Portugal, 2025
photos from personal collection and available on the Fabulários exhibition website
Fabulários: The waters, their people,
memories, plants, animals and other beings
Fabulários - The waters, their people, memories, plants, animals and other beings is an exhibition dedicated to childhood: educational, interactive and playful. Those who visited not only immersed themselves in the atmosphere of the waters, but also had the opportunity to get closer to those who live on their banks, navigate their currents, tell stories and share knowledge and traditions related to rivers and seas.
The relationship between childhood and water sought to demonstrate the fluid movement in which both permeate their natures.
The exhibition also included workshops, laboratories and six workshops that addressed, from a playful and poetic perspective, the many possibilities of water knowledge as an essential element of life. In addition to the spontaneous public, public schools from Canoas, Porto Alegre and the surrounding area were able to visit with the support of the Education and Culture departments.
Finally, a canoe library made up the exhibition, with more than 80 titles related to water and childhood.
The educational project was conceived in parallel with the exhibition itself, which meant that the collection selected and the activities proposed went hand in hand.
We worked with a multidisciplinary team of researchers, photographers, pedagogues, journalists, educators, designers and set designers, where we tried to bring together the most diverse knowledge.
collaboration: Ana Carol Thomé, Ana Paula Campos, Bruna Martins, Gabriela Romeu and Thais Caramico
Sao Paulo and Canoas, Brazil, 2023
photos from personal collection and available on the Fabulários exhibition website
Diary Book
At the invitation of Estúdio Voador, in collaboration with Editora FTD Educação, the diary-book was conceived as a material aimed at Early Childhood Education and intended to enable dialogue between schools, families and children, in an attempt to facilitate openness and closeness between these actors.
The book was conceived as a school diary in its own right, but it also provides another space for recording personal and emotional notes on a daily basis. There are also some informative pages about emotions and socio-emotional skills, such as creativity, cooperation and empathy, which are not only important for school life, but also for the subjective development of each child. In these pages, some activities are proposed in order to arouse curiosity, serve as a mechanism to make information more accessible and fun, as well as being an interactive moment for families.
Estúdio Voador developed the graphic material, while I was responsible for the content and writing.
Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2023
Xerente Visitor Center
At the invitation of architect Tomaz Lotufo and the studio Sem Muros Arquitetura Integrada, we collaborated to develop educational material in which the knowledge and building traditions of the Xerente indigenous community of Aldeia Ktepo, located in Tocantínea, Tocantins, were recorded. The material was designed in line with the Visitor Center that was to be built, also signed by the architect, in order to preserve the community's cultural diffusion, as well as to expand the possibilities of ethno-tourism in the region in a responsible and respectful manner.
The publication included a report on the visits, the workshops held to exchange knowledge, documentary photos and a step-by-step construction plan that included not only the ways of building, but also cultural traditions: the project would be conceived as a treetop, in its crown, the warã, the community center, and on each of its sides, or branches and roots, six krys, indigenous houses that would mark the Xerente clans.
Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2019
photos by Tomaz Lotufo
