A Laboratory for Planetary Diplomacy

For the inauguration of its new location on Paulista Avenue, Swissnex presents the São Paulo edition of Planetary Embassy, part of a global event series exploring a new form of diplomacy that places nature at the center. Through an outdoor photography exhibition and a series of transdisciplinary encounters, the program invites you to reimagine our relationship with the living world.

 

Join us for the São Paulo edition of Planetary Embassy from September 28 to October 1, 2026. First developed for COP30 in Belém and Climate Week in New York, this global event series explores Swissnex’s experimental concept of planetary diplomacy, in which diplomacy extends beyond the human realm to encompass the other living, nonliving, and technological agencies that compose the planet. Following editions in Boston, Osaka, and, soon, China, Planetary Embassy in São Paulo marks the relocation of Swissnex’s Brazilian headquarters from Rio de Janeiro to São Paulo, and the beginning of a new strategic phase centered on nature. The program features the following highlights:

  • The outdoor exhibition Planetary Embassy on Avenida Paulista featuring seven large-scale photographs by emerging Swiss and Brazilian artists along the avenue, under the patronage of renowned Swiss-Brazilian photographer Claudia Andujar.
  • The launch of the Living Forest Coalition, Swissnex’s new platform to strengthen the partnership between Switzerland and Amazonia in research, innovation, and the arts.
  • The launch of the Urban Futures Residency, a Swiss-Brazilian initiative for reimagining planetary habitability, developed by Swissnex, ETH Wohnforum – ETH Case, the Swiss Leading House for Latin America, and São Paulo-based Instituto Tomie Ohtake.
  • The Confluence Dialogues, a three-part series of transdisciplinary experiences that takes the ancient rivers buried under the streets of São Paulo as a starting point to explore the idea of planetary diplomacy.
  • The opening ceremony Imagining Planetary Diplomacy at Swissnex’s new home on Paulista Avenue.

 

Program at a Glance

 

Thursday, September 25 – Thursday, October 1
Outdoor Exhibition // Planetary Embassy on Avenida Paulista

Monday, September 28
1:00pm // Confluence Dialogue // Landscapes of Care

Tuesday, September 29
9:00am // Launch Event // Urban Futures Residency (online)
6:30pm // Confluence Dialogue // A City Reimagined

Wednesday, September 30
2:00pm // Confluence Dialogue // Rooted Bioeconomy

Thursday, October 1
10:00am // Launch Event // Living Forest Coalition
1:30pm // Opening Ceremony // Imagining Planetary Diplomacy

 

Confluence Dialogues

Landscapes of Care: Ecologies, Practices, and Reciprocity

Monday, September 28
1:00-5:00pm
Jardim Botânico de São Paulo

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Landscapes of Care explores how practices of reciprocity emerge through relationships between people, plants, rivers, forests, soils, fungi, food systems, and the living landscapes they have shaped over generations. Across Brazil, Indigenous peoples, quilombola communities, riverine populations, and traditional healers have developed practices of healing, cultivation, seed keeping, food preparation, ecological stewardship, and community care that continue to evolve today. Rather than treating these practices as remnants of the past, or nature as a resource, the event approaches them as living knowledge and technologies that reveal landscapes as active infrastructures sustaining life. Through conversations, walks, shared food, and sensory experiences, artists, scientists, and knowledge holders come together to exchange practices and perspectives, asking how reciprocity, rather than extraction, can shape the ecological, cultural, and technological systems we build and contribute to more just, resilient, and regenerative futures.

 

Program
1:00pm // Transfer organized for participants from Avenida Paulista to Jardim Botânico
2:00pm // Opening · Cristina Takuá & Carlos Papá
3:00pm // Exchange on Landscapes of Care · Till Langschied, Eduardo Neves, Cristina Takuá & Carlos Papá. Moderated by Ana Roman
4:00pm // Picnic & Gathering, Food and drinks
5:00pm // Transfer organized for participants from Jardim Botânico to Avenida Paulista

Event held in Portuguese
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A City Reimagined: Housing, Nature, and Urban Futures

Tuesday, September 29
6:30-9:30pm
Instituto de Arquitetos do Brasil - Departamento de São Paulo

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What does it mean to inhabit a city in a time of climate, housing, and social crises? A City Reimagined brings together perspectives from architecture, urbanism, and community-led housing to explore how São Paulo could become a more inclusive, resilient, and habitable city. The conversation takes Entre Rios, the acclaimed documentary by filmmaker and researcher Caio Ferraz, as a starting point to reflect on how the transformation of São Paulo’s rivers has shaped the city and its relationship with territory, nature, and urban life. From there, the dialogue will expand to questions of housing, collective action, and the role of architecture and urbanism in shaping the cities we inhabit. Moderated by Danielle Dias, President of the São Paulo Chapter of the Institute of Architects of Brazil (IABsp), the discussion will bring together Caio Ferraz and other voices from São Paulo’s urbanism ecosystem. The event is organized by Swissnex in Brazil in collaboration with IABsp, and is connected to Urban Futures Residency: A Swiss-Brazilian Platform for Imagining Habitability in the Climate Crisis, a forthcoming initiative bringing together researchers and practitioners from Switzerland and Brazil around new ways of imagining and shaping urban futures. The evening will begin with a reception and a screening of the first 10 minutes of Entre Rios, followed by the panel discussion and a cocktail reception that will offer an opportunity to continue the conversation and preview the upcoming residency.

 

Program
6:30pm // Welcome & Networking
7:00pm // Opening Remarks · Karoline Reis, Swissnex in Brazil · Danielle Dias, IABsp · Caio Silva Ferraz, Interdependência
7:20pm // Film Screening: Entre Rios
7:30pm // Conversation on Urban Futures · Danielle Dias, IAB-SP · Caio Silva Ferraz, Interdependência · Moderated by Danielle Dias
8:30pm // Cocktail & Urban Futures Residency Presentation · Gabriela Devaud, Swissnex in Brazil
9:30pm // Closing

Event held in Portuguese
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Rooted Bioeconomy: Science, Territory, and Reciprocity

Wednesday, September 30
2:00-5:30pm
Swissnex (Avenida Paulista, 1754)

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Amazonia’s bioeconomy is shaped by a unique combination of scientific research, ancestral and local knowledge, entrepreneurial initiatives, and growing market opportunities. Connecting these different forms of knowledge and the people working across the territory is essential to turning ideas and research into products, partnerships, and solutions that respond to local realities and can thrive in the region. This session brings together researchers, funding organizations, companies, and ventures to discuss the opportunities and challenges shaping the bioeconomy today. From access to finance and scientific collaboration to supply chains, traceability, and market opportunities, the conversation explores how initiatives such as nexBio Amazonia can help build connections between knowledge, innovation, and business, creating new pathways for collaboration across the ecosystem.

 

Program
2:00pm // Welcome & Framing · Pedro Capra, Swissnex in Brazil
2:05pm // Keynote · Guilherme Brammer, The Hope Economy
2:30pm // Science, Territory & Funding · Taciana de Carvalho Coutinho (Pactas) · Pedro Capra (Swissnex) · João Arthur Reis (Amazônia+10)
3:10pm // Q&A
3:30pm // Business, Supply Chains & Markets · Antonio Carlos Freitas Souza (Bactolac) · Alex Alves (Earthworm) · Guilherme Manechini (BAS)
4:10pm // Q&A
4:20pm // Cocktail & Networking · Pedro Capra
5:30pm // Closing

Event held in Portuguese
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Launch Events

 

To be announced soon.

 

Opening Ceremony

 

Join us for Imaging Planetary Diplomacy, the opening ceremony of Swissnex’s new location in São Paulo and the main event accompanying our outdoor exhibition Planetary Embassy on Avenida Paulista. As Swissnex deepens its engagement in Brazil, the event will explore new opportunities for Swiss-Brazilian collaboration around the nature transition, from the Amazon and its emerging bioeconomy to more livable cities. We will present two new initiatives in this direction: the Living Forest Coalition, strengthening exchanges between Switzerland and Amazonia, and the Urban Futures Residency, bringing Swiss and Brazilian researchers and creatives together to explore how cities can contribute to the conditions for life on the planet. Inspired by Swissnex’s concept of planetary diplomacy, the ceremony will open with a keynote on the power of photography to question and transform our relationship with nature, celebrating the life and work of Swiss-Brazilian photographer Claudia Andujar, under whose patronage the exhibition is presented.

Program

1:30pm // Doors open & registration
1:55pm // Welcome by emcee · Isabela Temistocles, Program Manager Innovation & Startups, Swissnex in Brazil
2:00pm // Opening remarks · Peter Hafner, Consul General of Switzerland in São Paulo
2:05pm // Opening remarks · Hanspeter Mock, Ambassador of Switzerland to Brazil
2:15pm // Opening remarks · Benjamin Bollmann, CEO, Swissnex in Brazil
2:25pm // Keynote · Thyago Nogueira, Instituto Moreira Salles
2:40pm // Launch of Living Forest Coalition · Vincent Neumann, Head of Programs, Swissnex in Brazil
2:43pm // Program partner: Silvania · Natalia Renteria, Director Brazil
2:45pm // Program partner: NatureFinance · Luana Maia, Lead Brazil
2:47pm // Program partner: Earthworm Foundation · Alexandre Alves, Senior Manager Field Work LATAM
2:50pm // Launch of Urban Futures Residency · Vincent Neumann, Head of Programs, Swissnex in Brazil
2:53pm // Program partner: Swiss Leading House Latin America (video) · Vanessa Boanada, Director
2:55pm // Program partner: ETH Wohnforum – ETH CASE (video) · Tino Schlinzig & Daniela Sanjines
2:57pm // Program partner: Instituto Tomie Ohtake · Ana Roman, Artistic Superintendent
3:00pm // Official opening and music performance by Caio Rosa
3:15pm // Networking reception
5:00pm // Doors close

Event held in English
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Outdoor Exhibition

 

On view from Thursday, September 25, to Thursday, October 1, along the central bike lane of Paulista Avenue, directly in front of the office building where Swissnex is located (Avenida Paulista, 1754).

The photography exhibition Planetary Embassy on Avenida Paulista beings with a simple question: if keeping Earth habitable is the defining challenge of our time, how can we create new forms of dialogue and coexistence with the many beings and processes that shape our planet? Presented under the patronage of Swiss-Brazilian photographer Claudia Andujar, known for her longstanding work with the Yanomami people in the Amazon, the exhibition features seven large-scale photographs by artists from Switzerland and Brazil, installed outdoors along Paulista Avenue in São Paulo. Selected through an open call, these works and accompanying texts displayed at street level function as visual “what ifs,” inviting viewers to imagine how humans might engage with other forms of Earth-shaping agency, from fungi and rivers to forests. Rather than offering definitive answers, the exhibition seeks to open up new imaginaries for coexistence, asking what diplomacy might look like once humans are understood as one among many constituents determining the future of our planetary condition.

Planetary Embassy on Avenida Paulista is presented by Swissnex in Brazil, with the support of Presence Switzerland, in collaboration with Galeria Vermelho, which represents Claudia Andujar.

 

Artists

Brazil and Switzerland

Claudia Andujar

Claudia Andujar (Neuchâtel, 1931) is a Swiss-born, naturalized Brazilian artist and photographer whose practice has been deeply shaped by her relationship with the Yanomami people. She first encountered the Yanomami in 1971, and photography became a way to build relationships, document their lives and express their ways of inhabiting and relating to their territory. Over the following decades, Andujar developed an extensive body of work with Yanomami communities, combining documentary photography with experimental approaches to light, color, movement and multiple exposures to create images that convey both individual experiences and a broader sense of the Yanomami world. Her photographs form an important body of work on Yanomami life, culture and territory, rooted in a long-term relationship with the people she photographed. Her work is held in major collections worldwide, including MoMA, Tate Modern, MASP, Pinacoteca de São Paulo and Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, and has been presented in major exhibitions in Brazil and internationally.
Brazil

Novíssimo Edgar

Brazilian artist, born in the outskirts of Guarulhos, São Paulo, in 1993. He currently lives and works between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. A poet, visual artist, composer, and performer, his practice is rooted in authenticity and freedom, spanning different mediums and areas of research into metalanguage and transmedia. Photo Credits: Thasya Barbosa, Renanzeth And Marcão Black.
Switzerland

Martino De Grandis

Martino De Grandis is a Swiss-based Italian photographer and researcher operating across architecture, image-making and object culture. His work explores how economic, cultural and ecological conditions shape the production and perception of space, and how power relations are materialised and mediated through environments, spatial behaviours and images. Through collaborative research, site-specific installations, photographic production and exhibitions, he constructs speculative narratives and alternative readings that question our built environment. Martino previously earned a Bachelor of Arts and Design from the Photography Department of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. His graduation project Where are you? - I’m home received the Hogeschool van Amsterdam (HvA) Prize. Interested in further developing his spatial and research practice, he completed the MAIA programme at HEAD. Alongside his academic work, he has contributed to numerous exhibitions including Geneva Film Festival, Milan Design Week, the Biennale of Architecture and Landscape in France, HELGA ,and the Swiss Architecture Award.
Brazil

Alessandro Fracta

Alessandro Fracta (1997, Manaus, Brazil) lives and works between Amazonas and Rio de Janeiro. His practice unfolds across sculpture, embroidery, installation, and photoperformance, with jute fiber as a recurring material. His work explores the relationships between matter, body, territory, and memory, emerging from an affective connection with the Miriti River and the Amazonian landscape. Fracta has participated in exhibitions and artistic residencies in Brazil, including the II Bienal das Amazônias (Belém, 2025), and exhibitions at CCBB São Paulo, Galeria Nara Roesler, and Sesc Quitandinha (2026). His residencies include Casa Europa, ELÃ, and Parque Lage, in Rio de Janeiro. His work is part of exhibitions and collections in Brazil and abroad.
Switzerland

Johanna Hullár

Johanna Hullár (HU, 1989) is a Zurich-based visual artist working with photography, video installations and time-based sculptures. A graduate in communication design from HTW Berlin with a master's degree in photography from ECAL, University of Art and Design Lausanne, she explores connection, materiality, time and perception, mixing still and moving images with generated objects and sculptural arrangements frozen in ice - constantly in motion and changing state - to reflect on possible futures and the interaction of human-made and natural materials, through a humorous and feminine prism. Laureate of the Swiss Design Awards in 2024, she has exhibited internationally, notably at Swiss House Milano (2022), Tokyo Photographic Research (2019), and Paris Photo (2018). In 2026, Johanna Hullár joins Futures Photography, on nomination from Photo Elysée (Museum for Photography, Lausanne), and presents her new body of work with Plateforme 10 (Lausanne) in Fondation Fiminco, Paris.
Switzerland

Philippe Fragniere

Born and raised in a small village in the Swiss Alps, Philippe Fragniere grew up immersed in an outdoor lifestyle. He graduated from ECAL/Ecole cantonale d’art de Lausanne with a degree in photography and is now based in Switzerland, where he works as a photographer. His practice focuses on landscapes, crafts, and vernacular techniques and knowledge.
Brazil

Ricardo Takamura

Ricardo Takamura is a Brazilian photographer and visual artist based in São José dos Campos, Brazil. Since 2016, his artistic practice has explored the relationships between light, landscape, time, and human perception. Working primarily with night photography, long exposure, and light-based interventions, he creates images situated between observation and construction, reality, and fiction. His recent research focuses on natural forms of luminosity and phenomena that reveal scales of existence beyond ordinary human perception, from forests and living organisms to atmospheric and celestial events.

Partners

Planetary Embassy in São Paulo is presented by Swissnex in Brazil with the support of Presence Switzerland and other partners for specific events. The opening ceremony is also supported by the Swiss companies that make up the Program of Partnership and Cooperation of Switzerland in Brazil, led by the Embassy of Switzerland in Brazil.

  • Swissnex
  • Instituto Tomie Ohtake
  • IAB São Paulo
  • Galeria Vermelho
  • Nestlé
  • Roche
  • Zurich
  • Ameropa
  • Atlas Schindler
  • EBP
  • Hitachi
  • Lemo
  • Novartis
  • Swiss
  • TWS
  • UBS
  • Zurich Airport
  • Filantrópica
  • Bobst
  • Mirabaud
  • Swiss Re
  • Presence Switzerland