Left image: Cícero Costa, My father on the day his bar was shut down for alleged association with drug trafficking during an operation by the São Paulo city/state government in Cracolândia, 2017. C-print, variable dimensions. Right image: Cícero Costa, My mother at work, Brás, 2017. Gelatin silver print, variable dimensions. Courtesy of the artist.
Something in that proposition seemed to resonate directly with Anna Maiolino’s installation Rice and Beans (1979).
Maiolino’s work consists of porcelain plates filled with soil and sprouting rice and bean seeds. Displayed on banquet tables, the installation critiques hunger, social inequality, and the economic model imposed during Brazil’s military dictatorship. It presents a symbolic yet useless feast, underscoring the irony of staple foods that, in times of crisis, become inaccessible.
In Cícero’s installation, two common names in Brazilian society give title to the work. Upon entering the room, one encounters a blue plastic tarp—taken from the artist’s mother’s market stall—hung high on one wall and draped to the side. Nearby hang two aprons, one yellow and one white. Alongside them are two photographs of the artist’s parents: a portrait of his father in front of his workplace and another of his mother standing before hers. Toward the back of the space, a hole in the wall functions as a small oratory, where Cícero placed an image of Padre Cícero and a rosary of Our Lady. On a nearby table sit gummy candies, a bag of a popular snack called Fofura, a small bottle of Dolly soda, soccer balls made from duct tape, and a speaker playing forró and brega music.
Cícero Costa, Antonio and Maria, 2019. Installation view from the exhibition Mesa Posta – former Red Bull Station, São Paulo, 2019. Courtesy of the artist.
This arrangement transported me instantly to the 1990s, to the outskirts of São Miguel Paulista, in Vila Mara. Anyone who grew up in the periphery within a family of Northeastern migrants would immediately recognize and understand these symbols. But this is precisely Cícero’s insight: he does not simply present these elements for interpretation; he summons them as a kind of reliquary, activating the memories of those who recognize them. That was certainly the case for me.
Memory is a central theme in Cícero’s work, which employs objects and images to evoke personal history and identity. Two aprons hang on the wall—one yellow, one white—accompanied by the caption “Antônio and Maria.” Common names, yes, but also the names of his parents. The apron belongs to the visual and symbolic universe of labor, especially the daily routines of workers across many professions. It not only protects the body but also helps shape a worker’s visual identity. By hanging them as if to rest after an exhausting day’s labor, Cícero offers a direct illustration of labor relations. Displayed this way, the aprons suggest that there is more present than meets the eye—and indeed, there is.
Courtesy of the artist.
The logic of autonomous labor in peripheral contexts affects millions of people worldwide. In Brazil, the informal economy is a reality for countless workers, often compelled to accept precarious and poorly paid conditions in order to survive. Behind the promise of freedom and flexibility lies a reality of total dedication: life becomes inseparable from the workplace, and all relationships are mediated through it.
Cícero Costa, Bolacha e Danoni, 2024. Flour and water, variable dimensions. Courtesy of the artist.
From a Marxist perspective, labor is the activity that structures life, establishes rhythm and priorities, and helps build individual identity. It is not merely physical exertion, but conscious and intentional action. Within capitalist logic, however, labor is reduced to the buying and selling of labor power, driven by the relentless pursuit of profit and capital accumulation. In this process, the worker loses control over what they produce, over the production process, and ultimately over themselves, as creativity is transformed into a commodity—one that is rarely exchanged on equal terms.
As a foundation of dignity, labor promises financial autonomy and the means to support oneself and one’s family. As a value, the idea persists that if the worker produces everything, everything should belong to them. Yet in practice, while the worker produces, neither the final product nor the value it generates is appropriated by them. Social wealth is created by the working class, but it is rarely returned to it.
Cícero Costa, My mother dancing forró, 2019. From the series Carta de Despejo [Eviction notice]. Gelatin silver print, variable dimensions.
Courtesy of the artist.
Whether through the adage “work dignifies” or the contemporary mantra “work while they sleep,” both reflect a culture obsessed with meritocracy, productivity, and personal sacrifice in the pursuit of success. The belief that labor ennobles and elevates can generate an intrinsically conflicted relationship: on one side, labor as a form of exploitation aimed at accumulation; on the other, the worker, seeking subsistence and finding in labor a source of purpose and dignity. This latter view transforms extreme effort into a competitive advantage.
Cícero reveals these tensions through details laden with meaning. The nostalgic and familiar space he constructs is not merely an homage to family memory; it invites us to enter a field of layered significance—a battleground where voices silenced by history are recalled and affirmed.
Left image: Cícero Costa, Fogão [Stove], 2017. From the series Carta de Despejo [Eviction notice]. Gelatin silver print, variable dimensions. Right image: Cícero Costa, My father talking to my mother, with the TV in the background, 2017. From the series Carta de Despejo [Eviction notice]. Gelatin silver print, variable dimensions. Courtesy of the artist.
The dialogue between Antônio and Maria by Cícero Costa and Rice and Beans by Anna Maiolino shares a social critique and a meditation on memory and identity, articulated through a formally restrained visual language. Both artists elevate and refine the capacity of art to engage in social critique, demonstrating how simplicity can carry profound political and emotional weight.
Cícero, Favela of Dreams [Favela dos Sonhos – Ferraz de Vasconcelos], 2022. Gelatin silver print, variable dimensions. Courtesy of the artist.
Val Souza is an artist and researcher whose practice is grounded in iconographic investigations into the historical representation of Black women. Through the production of self-imagery, her work challenges dominant Brazilian social imaginaries by foregrounding narratives of abundance, joy, and self-determination.
She is currently a PhD candidate in Visual Arts at UNESP, holds a Master’s degree in Dance from UFBA, and a degree in Education from Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie. Souza has participated in national and international exhibitions and festivals. In 2020, she was awarded the ZUM/IMS Photography Grant. She is currently an artist-in-residence at the Cité internationale des arts in France.
To know more about Val Souza: @performervalsouza
Cícero Costa, Untilted, 2018. C-print, variable dimensions. Courtesy of the artist.
Cicero Costa, the pseudonym of Wallace da Silva Costa, was born in São Paulo in May 1994. He is the youngest son of Maria Alice da Silva Costa and Antonio Francisco Mendes Costa, both migrants from Brazil’s Northeast.
His human and aesthetic references emerged from his familial and geographic context: shaped by his parents’ work as street vendors and by the neighborhoods where he grew up: Bixiga, Baixada do Glicério, and Brás. These environments were fundamental in forming his worldview and sense of identity, later becoming central to his artistic practice. His work draws on affective memory, including labor, trauma, addiction, violence, beauty, and broader cultural and identity questions.
Cícero Costa, Untitled, 2018. From Baixa Estima series. Gelatin silver print, variable dimensions. Courtesy of the artist.
Hero image: Cícero Costa, Self-portrait, 2017. From Baixa Estima series. Gelatin silver print, variable dimensions. Courtesy of the artist.
