University of Greenwich researcher and ZU-UK co-artistic director Professor Jorge Lopes Ramos has played a key role at COP30 in Belém, leading a series of events that placed disabled and neurodivergent artists at the heart of global climate conversations.
Working with partners in the UK and Brazil, Professor Lopes Ramos led three major strands of activity:
- DRIFT Belém Residency and Performances – a creative lab with 15 Belém-based artists as part of the Larpocracy research project, exploring participatory performance, climate justice and Amazonian knowledge. The residency culminated in public performances across the city, inviting audiences to experience the climate emergency from an Amazonian, lived perspective.
- Tudo Está Queimando / Everything is Burning – a disability-led immersive work by Persis Jadé Maravala and Bruno BO MC, co-presented by Professor Lopes Ramos following an UNLIMITED / British Council international commission. Mixing sound, haptics and live performance, the piece reframes climate crisis through the bodies and lives of those already living with systemic collapse.
- Rompa com a Balela: Arte, Deficiência e Clima – a public event at the Museum of the Amazons (UNLIMITED Connects), bringing together disabled artists, researchers and institutional leaders from UFPA, the British Council and the Fundação Cultural do Estado do Pará. Professor Lopes Ramos moderated the opening panel and co-designed an accessible, relaxed format that foregrounded local expertise and community-led solutions.
These activities, widely covered in local media, demonstrate the University of Greenwich’s international leadership in immersive arts, disability-led innovation and climate justice research.
