At the Crossroad

At the Crossroads investigates the intersection of ancestry, popular religiosity, and the suburban aesthetics of Rio de Janeiro. Centered on hand-painted figas—amulets of protection deeply rooted in Afro-Brazilian and popular traditions—the project reimagines these objects as performative and symbolic devices. By merging the chromatic excess of suburban Carnival—bate-bolas, samba schools—with graffiti, pixação, and everyday vernacular forms, the work creates a visual language that oscillates between ritual and contemporary art. In this way, it questions how memory, migration, and syncretism can be embodied through materiality and excess, offering new readings of protection, identity, and belonging.