The Great Serpent

“The Great Serpent” reveals one of Belém—my hometown, in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon—most enduring mysteries: the colossal snake said to inhabit the foundations of the Basilica, made manifest in this painting. The message that runs through the work begins within regional thought—decades of stories intertwined with earthquakes—and expands far beyond. It intrinsically addresses the way the Church perceives women, especially those who are not cisgender. Serpents, sin, androgyny, and fear—everything beneath a grand and revered monument—come to represent an inversion of values, revealed through each individual gaze. This is a painting shaped by personal decisions, one that governs our collective imagination—vast, minimal, impartial, nonexistent, inert—unfolding like skin, continuously renewing itself with every new perspective.