UNDER THE BRAZILIAN SKY

Starting in March of that year, the magazine Linus began including a curious color booklet in an unusual strip format. It was called AVAJ, an acronym formed from the initials of the four artists involved: Angese, Vincino, Andrea and Jacopo Fo. The project was conceived by Angese, who struck a deal with the owner of a travel agency: every month the agency offered a different destination to one of the cartoonists, who then recounted his travel experience through drawings and comics in the agency’s magazine. Each artist took part in two or three trips.

Andrea went to Brazil, sailing along the Amazon River. During his stay in Armação dos Búzios he left a mark of his visit: two murals, of which only a few photographs remain today. One of the two bears the title Sotto il cielo del Brasile(Under the Brazilian Sky), the same as one of his comic stories in which he would recount his trip in Avaj.

At the center of the mural stands a shady character in a trench coat and yellow gloves, holding a briefcase with a big C printed on it (perhaps a reference to the place of the mural itself), recalling the protagonist of Pazienza’s video Michelle dei Bittols. Among the elements that are not easy to interpret, we recognize a Carioca-style reworking of the Greek myth of Leda and the swan, in which Andrea depicts Leda as a sensual Black Brazilian beauty.

The second mural depicts a colorful, lively tropical jungle teeming with animals: a large red cockatoo, two toucans and a turtle roam among big leaves and multicolored flowers.