معرفی
Francesca Laura Cavallo is a curator, art historian, and interdisciplinary researcher at the Royal College of Art's School of Arts & Humanities, where she works as a Research Fellow on the AHRC-funded project Preemptive Listening with Aura Satz. Her academic career spans multiple institutions including University of Kent, London College of Communication, and University of Iceland, where she has taught modules in Art History, Curating, and Aesthetics.
Her research centers on the intersection between art and risk perception, examining how artistic practices can transform public understanding of ecological, health, and sustainability issues. She argues that risk has an aesthetic dimension that pervades all risk communications through warnings, instructions, pre-enactments, data visualization, and alert systems. Her work particularly focuses on how art can provide safe spaces to cultivate positive risk-taking and social resilience, with special attention to Indigenous artists' perspectives on human-made disasters.
Her publications demonstrate a consistent trajectory examining risk aesthetics, disaster preparedness, and climate communication through artistic lenses. The most recent works increasingly focus on Indigenous perspectives from Brazil, warning systems, and the political dimensions of probability visualization. Her research combines theoretical analysis with practical curatorial work, creating platforms where artists, researchers, and communities can interrogate emergency management structures.
- Post-Doctoral Research, Global Challenges Research Framework for 'Acting before the Emergency: Artists, Natural Disasters and Climate Change in Brazil'
- Vice Chancellor Research Scholarship, University of Kent (2016-2020) for PhD research
- Scholarship, Bollenti Spiriti Grant issued by Puglia Regional Authority with EU funding (2005-2006)
Cavallo has secured significant research funding including a Global Challenges Research Framework grant for her postdoctoral work on Brazilian artists and climate justice, and a Vice Chancellor Research Scholarship for her PhD. She has curated major exhibitions including Risk at Turner Contemporary (visited by 81,000 people), Manifesta 11 in Zurich, and the ICA in London. She founded Brazil Footprint 00, an online festival platform that has hosted multiple editions exploring ecologically-minded, de-colonial, and intersectional art practices across Brazil and the UK.
Her work connects with multiple research groups including the Centre for Indigenous and Settler Colonial Studies at University of Kent, where she serves as an Honorary Research Fellow. Brazil Footprint 00 operates as her primary creative platform, facilitating international collaborations between Brazilian and UK artists focused on climate justice and Indigenous perspectives.
