Luna Bastos

Luna Bastos is an urban artist, tattoo artist, and illustrator from Piauí, currently living in São Paulo.

Bastos’s visual identity is based on her study of Body Psychotherapy as part of her undergraduate degree in psychology at the State University of Piauí (UESPI). Her art expresses emotions and feelings through her personas, human figures in their multiple experiences. One of the narratives found in her works is the importance of representation in the process of reconstruction and re-signification of Black identity, considering art as a tool to create new possibilities of being in the world.

The illustrations by Luna B for the Instituto Ibirapitanga Collection are inspired by excerpts from the "As long as there is racism, there will be no democracy" manifesto. Luna’s starting point was the excerpt from the manifesto, "Any project or coordination for democracy in the country requires a firm and real commitment to confront racism," as well as its statement on the Black movement as a political subject that defends Black citizenship in Brazil and the importance of Black voices in spaces of power where decisions are made. Luna says that she usually uses more symbolic language in her work. In the first image, she introduced "a persona that symbolically represented a commitment, confrontation, and combat against racism in search of equity.” Rounding out this group, she described "the importance of recognizing and valuing the Black population and its struggle in the building of a more democratic society.”