Brazil | April 30, 2026

Three artists have been selected for On Amazonian Forests, an art and science residency jointly organized by the Wyss Academy for Nature, Istituto Svizzero, and Swissnex in Brazil: Clarissa Levy (Switzerland), Robertho Paredes Coral (Peru), and Sabrina Da Silva Medeiros (Brazil). Chosen through an international open call, these three artists were selected for the distinct yet complementary ways in which their practices engage with questions related to ecology, memory, territory, and knowledge. Over the course of a three-month residency, they will engage with the Amazon’s ecological and cultural landscapes in Peru, before continuing their research in Rome, Italy.

The program’s first six weeks will take place in the Madre de Dios region, one of the world’s most biodiverse areas, where they will be hosted by the Wyss Academy for Nature’s Hub South America. There, they will explore the Amazon through exchanges with Indigenous leaders, conservationists, farmers, researchers, entrepreneurs, and other local actors whose lives and work are deeply connected to the forest. By bringing artistic practice into dialogue with scientific research and local knowledge, On Amazonian Forests offers a space to develop new narratives, rethink our relationship with nature, and co-create perspectives that emerge from the territory itself.

In its second phase, the three artists will continue their work at Istituto Svizzero in Rome, where they will join an interdisciplinary community of researchers and practitioners. The program will culminate in a public event in Zurich in December 2026.

Selected Artists

Clarissa Levy, Switzerland (1996) is an artist, writer, and filmmaker working between Switzerland and Brazil. Her practice combines moving image and literary writing to explore environmental imaginaries, oral narratives, and the relationships between ecology, economy, and lived experience. Drawing on long-term research in the Amazon forest, she engages with Indigenous and riverine communities, investigating how myths and ancestral knowledge shape social and ecological understandings. She is currently completing an MA in Documentary and Experimental Film at the Hochschule Luzern. During the residency, she will explore how mythical narratives and oral storytelling can be translated into moving-image works that expand contemporary notions of sustainability and ecological knowledge.

Robertho Paredes Coral, Peru (1988) is an artist-researcher based in Madre de Dios, in the Peruvian Amazon. Working across photography and moving image, his practice engages with Amazonian cosmologies, Indigenous sovereignty, and ecological transformations. Rooted in long-term relationships with local communities, his work engages with memory, myths, and environmental change from within the territory. He holds an MA in Folkloristics and Applied Heritage Studies from the University of Tartu, and an MA in Photography and Documentary Narratives from Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid. During the residency, he will focus on fire as a relational force within Amazonian ecologies through hybrid visual practices.

Sabrina Da Silva Medeiros, Brazil (1998) is an artist based between Paris and São Paulo. Her practice spans between painting, installation, and performance, seeking to reconstitute her memories in response to Brazil’s colonial erasure, through a quest for re-enchantment. She interrogates encruzilhadas (Crossroads, understood in Afro-Brazilian culture as a sacred space of encounter, tension, and transformation between the visible and the invisible). She studied at ENSAPC (DNSEP), is currently completing a postgraduate programme at ENSBA Lyon, and has exhibited at Fondation Fiminco and La Compagnie in Marseille. During the residency, she will explore Amazonian forests as cosmological spaces by weaving together rites, urban syncretisms, and vernacular forms of knowledge.