Sign of the Cross is the act of visiting the four geographical extremes of the city of Curitiba, north, south, west, and east, starting from the site of its foundation, in the city center—a symbolic center, but not a geographical one. The route of roughly 100 km was covered by bicycle in a single trip.
From left to right: the original intended route, the route actually ridden, the occurrence sites and the resulting drawing, already converted to vector image.
The cross
One of the most horrific forms of torture and execution, the cross also has an esoteric meaning. By representing the death of Jesus, who washed away the sins of humanity with his suffering and pain, it became one of the main symbols of the most widespread religious trend in the world. In addition, following a path with this shape across the city map was a way of exploring the multiplicity of its landscapes, going beyond postcards and standardized concepts such as “European city”, “ecolfriendly capital”, or “smiling city”, among other politically biased clichés. Creating this design by bicycle is also a way of commenting on the city.
Editing the map in Illustrator
Stalkers
In the 1979 film Stalker, director Andrei Tarkovsky tells the story of paranormal beings, the only ones capable of traversing the paths of the so-called Zone—an exclusion zone created after an alien invasion. Contrary to the common idea about invasions of this type, the mysterious extraterrestrial beings do not seek to dominate our planet, remaining within their confined zone. On the other hand, this becomes an inaccessible perimeter for humans. Several attempts to retake it by force fail, and, realizing that the area has remained stable, the government decides not to carry out new operations in this area.
At the same time, the Zone is closed to civilians, making new attempts to enter it illegal. Still, people continue to ignore this ban because, according to rumors, there is a room in the center of the Zone, and whoever enters it will have their deepest and truest desire fulfilled. Hence the importance of the Stalkers, the only people capable of knowing the intricate and invisible paths of this forbidden area.
At one point, an explorer who is not a Stalker sees the room—a small, insignificant building in the middle of the forest—and heads straight for it. He is interrupted by a voice that comes out of nowhere and warns him that if he takes another step, he will be hit. There is no other option but to follow the instructions given by one of the last Stalkers still active, as there are no obvious or logical paths in the Zone.
At the same time, the Zone is closed to civilians, making new attempts to enter it illegal. Still, people continue to ignore this ban because, according to rumors, there is a room in the center of the Zone, and whoever enters it will have their deepest and truest desire fulfilled. Hence the importance of the Stalkers, the only people capable of knowing the intricate and invisible paths of this forbidden area.
At one point, an explorer who is not a Stalker sees the room—a small, insignificant building in the middle of the forest—and heads straight for it. He is interrupted by a voice that comes out of nowhere and warns him that if he takes another step, he will be hit. There is no other option but to follow the instructions given by one of the last Stalkers still active, as there are no obvious or logical paths in the Zone.
There are no obvious paths in the Zone.
Não existem caminhos óbvios na Zona.
With over two decades of experience as an urban cyclist and a decade as a road cyclist, I began to understand and feel that cyclists are the only ones who know routes invisible to other people. Like Tarkovsky's Stalkers, cyclists see and feel paths unknown to users of other means of transportation in cities, traveling routes that, when viewed on a city map, may seem counterintuitive. We are, for example, the only ones who know exactly where all the climbs are—something that even pedestrians don't know. Part of my experience as a cyclist sometimes turns into short stories published mainly on social media. One of them, Deliquents, was turned into a short comic book in 2018. Sign of the Cross is one of my first attempts to graphically condense and convey a narrative made along a route of just over 100 km through the city of Curitiba. This is a report and commentary on the city, based on the route traveled and specific points on the city map, recorded with a GPS and later processed graphically. The graphic elements, consisting of the planned route, the actual route traveled, and the locations of the events, overlap. The material produced was part of the Pragaescuta project — the name of the publication combines the words “praga” (plague) and “escuta” (in this case, meaning the act of listening to someone) – of the SESI-PR's Center of Visual Arts in 2018.
In 2025, Sinal da Cruz became a folded fanzine (10 x 178 cm when open), distributed free of charge. It used material gathered in 2018 in an adaptation and graphic storytelling that better represented the idea of the continuous flow of the journey made by bicycle.
Sign of the Cross was transformed into a fanzine, released on March 2025.