Danilo Zocatelli Cesco

DEAR FATHER

1 Dear Father, it feels like leaving was necessary for me to realise that I needed to return 2023

Dear Father was developed between the artist and his father on their family’s farm in rural Brazil. Using drag, performance, and portraiture, the work creates a space of recognition and connection between them.

As a young queer person growing up in a rural community, Zocatelli felt distant from both his environment and the forms of masculinity embodied by his father. By working with his father through drag and revisiting scenes from childhood, playing football, tending the land, slaughtering animals, he reimagines these moments through a queer lens.

Dear Father is accompanied by a letter written by Zocatelli to his father, and pictured in the series, excerpts from the text become the titles of each image, extending the dialogue between them.

3 Dear Father, I have discovered the infinite source of love that bubbles up inside you and I am so grateful to have found it in time to tell you all this while we are still here.
4 Dear Father, you embarked on this journey with me, holding my hands and for the first time giving me control.
8 Dear Father, our story will be hung on a gallery wall and people will feel your love nine, ten or fifteen thousand miles away from your little house on the farm.
10 Dear Father, thank you for telling me you loved me at the moment I felt most vulnerable 52x37cm new
7 Dear Father, as a child I promised myself I would never drink beer, it tastes bitter.
9 Dear Father, I remember walking into the changing room a few times and seeing the team t shirts hanging on the washed blue wall.

Danilo Zocatelli 2026 Danilo Zocatelli
Danilo Zocatelli Cesco