In infancy we depend on the care of others to survive, while growing into adulthood is correlated with needing care less and less and learning more and more to care for others and our world. However, in societies where dependence on care has been pathologized, perhaps we fear that needing care diminishes us, not recognizing care as part of the human condition, as noted by the authors of  The Care Manifesto   (2020). This disregard for the need of care is a concern reflected by Atul Gawande, when he asks “If Independence is what we live for, what do we do when it can no longer be sustained? (Being Mortal, 2015). Moreover, "if care activates our responsibility for the other and in its antithesis lies indifference, abandonment, or neglect," as argued by José Tolentino de Mendonça ("Cuidar da vida frágil", 2021), what do we do when faced with the need for care, both our own and that of others?

Bearing in mind the World Health Organization's definition of health as biopsychosocial well-being, and the interdependence between human health and environmental health, Antenna vol. 2 seeks original reflections and artistic expressions, in English or Portuguese, on the experience of caregiving, and of being cared for in the context of health or illness. We want to explore questions such as: Who and what deserves our care? How do we decide between responsibility and indifference? On what and whom do we depend? Is there fear, shame, trust in (inter)dependence? What does caring imply or being cared for? What does it take to respond to the vulnerability of others, to the fragility of the world, and to expose and acknowledge our own vulnerability? What practices and languages facilitate care? What is the role of relationships and presence in care? Does there always have to be asymmetry between the caregiver and the one being cared for or is it possible to have reciprocity? How do we care, individually and collectively, in childhood, throughout life, and at the end of life?