Ciça Fittipaldi: Illustrator – Brazil

I was faced with a world that is at the same time beautiful and terrifying. But then, I thought, this is also the imaginary world of children, that doesn’t conveniently exclude monstrosity, fear, uncertainty, and magic.… My intention was to build bridges between indigenous and non-indigenous cultures through art.

C. Fittipaldi

the world’s indigenous cultures and their histories provide a wealth of stories for the young imagination, many of which are yet to be told. Ciça Fittipaldi’s authored books and illustrations bring the myths and folklore of remote communities into richly animated life, transporting readers into vibrant visual worlds that access the magical and affective qualities of tribal art from Africa to Australia to the Americas. Painted in primary colors and patterned with bold outlines, dots, and an array of symbolic creatures, Fittipaldi’s work is invested with an energy and rhythm that makes the reading experience stimulating for the senses.

Born in Sao Paulo in 1952, Fittipaldi has been drawing since she was a child, but she describes this experience as one that happened in and with nature: organizing twigs and stones and handfuls of sand. A passionate dancer since those early days, she maintains that art is “something to be lived.” Fittipaldi studied architecture at university, where she honed her skills as a graphic artist and rediscovered Brazil’s diverse cultural and spiritual heritage by travelling to remote regions and reading the work of historians and anthropologists. Her first book João Lampião (1984), which she both wrote and illustrated, explored the little known traditions of Goiás, the state where she had worked as a newspaper illustrator and told children’s stories on local television.

Fittipaldi is constantly inspired by her environment and by the stories of people living off the beaten track. The time she spent amongst the Amazonian Nambiquara tribe, in particular, has strongly influenced the thematic direction of her book projects, concerned with reclaiming untold stories. Her illustrations for children’s books describing ancient animal ancestors (Naro, the Polecat, 1987), familial sagas in Kenya (The Twins of the Drum, 2006), or supernatural rites of passage (Olivia and the indigenous People, 2014) all provide a field of intuitive and empathetic interaction, aiming to articulate the delicate relationship between man, nature, and the cosmos. Fittipaldi’s work naturally touches on wider political and cultural concerns surrounding the recognition of marginalized voices, the documentation of intangible heritage, and indigenous communities at risk. As such, she also participates in educational initiatives and has designed non-fiction texts of social importance, such as the Guidebook for Indigenous Rights and the Yanomami Health Handbook (1980).