The current moment beckons boundless uncertainties, crafting transformations likely to materialise in the future. Much like in a blind crossing, the course of the journey takes an unstable and impalpable shape. In the hope of coming across unexpected guiding lights that might arise from new collective, political, social and environmental arrangements, as well as from art – so used to navigating storms by fashioning imaginary and symbolic connections –, here we are, in unequal boats, both witnesses and protagonists in this fragment of human history.

This is the backdrop for the multi-genre project “Extinction is Forever”, conceived and directed by artist, composer, director and writer Nuno Ramos. The pursuit of urgent and plural reflections on contemporary issues has brought together artists from different backgrounds, each with their own art form, to create hybrid formats that make up a seven-piece set. The CHAMA (FLAME) installation, a virtual monument of mourning, will remain active for a year and the other episodes will take place as the unpredictability of the pandemic allows.

To undertake a sociocultural and educational endeavour such as this, which values institutional relations, amidst such an undefined and complex moment, is to sketch possibilities that might allow us to embark together on a warmer, more solidary and judicious crossing, fuelled by the many layers that surround the endless discoveries afforded by art.

Danilo Santos de Miranda – Director of SESC São Paulo