The Journey into Fragility eleventh stage, curated by Joachim Arndt, was recently completed in Brazil - after Ghana, Switzerland, Madagascar, Abu Dhabi, China, Singapore, Costa Rica, Wales, Iceland and France. It was inspired by the seventh thesis of the Manifesto for Earth and the Human Being, conceived by Massimo Morasso: Anthropocentrism, as the defining character of Western culture throughout the last centuries, is responsible for the environmental emergency.

The theme of this step was anthropocentrism as defining character of Western culture and collective consciousness regarding the human position in an ecological, social and cultural system. The focus was on urban area as almost 50% of world population is urbanized and of the juxtaposition of cultural diversities and social activities. The field of research was Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo (Brazil), two of the most populated city in the world, experiencing an economic boom and great social inequalities. Journey into Fragility was part of Transnational Dialogues Caravan Brazil: Change Utopia, during which artists, philosophers, researchers, activists and practitioners have been invited to discuss and criticize the present to image alternative futures and finding together news scales of values.

During the two weeks several alternative artists’ locations as well institutional art centres were visited, like Punto Aurora, PIVO Gallery, SESC Pompeia, Phosphorus, Casa do Povo in Sao Paulo and Studio – X, Fabrica Bhering (TAL), MAR (Museo de Arte do Rio), MAC (Museo de Arte Contemporanea), Casa Giromundo in Rio de Janeiro. For Journey into Fragility of certain interest was the debate The Urban, Communities and Education in SESC Pompeia (Sao Paulo). Here was discussed the meaning of the civil participation and protest and the role of arts as transformer of protest in constructive social activism.

In Studio-X (Rio de Janeiro) the meeting was focused on artists’ interventions and processes of urban regeneration, emphasizing complexities of urban areas such as the interconnection between different social strata, economical influence and policies. Journey into Fragility will collaborate with different artistic realities in order to start the interactive platform of collective consciousness.

For the twelfth and last step of Journey into Fragility Maria Rebecca Ballestra will realized a collaborative project involving international artists from all over the world. The final work NOWHERE will consist in a map of constellations where each star will be a piece of art, 5x5 cm each one of a different artist. Each art work will be inspired by the environmental problem of the Ozone Hole and/or inspired by the tenth thesys of the Manifesto for the Earth and the Human Being: Aiming at the restoration of past forms of life or pursuing an ideal of spontaneous harmony with nature is equivalent to a consolatory dive outside the frame of our historical horizon. The artists who have already joint the project are: Elsa Cha, Anders Andreas, Vittore Baboni, Marie Denis, Virginia Zanetti, Rachela Abbate, Flavia Bigi.