Marielle Franco as seen by illustrator Amandine Szczepaniak

Amandine Szczepaniak’s artistic vision for United Souls

Marielle Franco, a voice they could not silence

On March 14, 2018, in the heart of Rio de Janeiro, 38-year-old Marielle Franco was cowardly murdered, along with her driver Anderson Gomes. Her crime? Daring to give voice to those whom Brazilian society too often preferred to silence.

A Black woman from the Maré favela, a feminist and LGBTQIA+ activist, Marielle Franco embodied a new generation of Brazilian political leadership. Elected as a city councilor in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, she dedicated her commitment to defending human rights and fighting racism, discrimination, and police violence, which disproportionately affect Black communities and favela residents.

Her murder sent shockwaves around the world. From Brazil to every corner of the globe, crowds took to the streets to demand justice and make her name heard. A few months later, the election of Jair Bolsonaro served as a stark reminder of how essential the causes she championed remained.

They tried to silence a woman. Instead, they gave rise to a universal symbol of resistance.

Five flowers to celebrate life: Amandine Szczepaniak’s vision

Deeply moved by Marielle Franco’s story, watercolor artist Amandine Szczepaniak chose to pay tribute to her through a work where the delicacy of color meets the power of commitment.

In her illustration created for United Souls, the artist symbolically transforms Marielle’s afro-textured hair into a composition of five Brazilian flowers, each representing an essential dimension of her humanity.

• Blue, for a life and youth brutally cut short.
• Pink, for sexuality, the freedom to love, and the freedom to be oneself.
• Purple, for the mind, conscience, and freedom of thought.
• Red, for passion, courage, and the strength of her convictions.
• Orange, for pride, dignity, and the assertion of her identity.

These five flowers form much more than a floral crown. They become a celebration of everything Marielle embodied and everything her murder sought to destroy.

Through this artistic metamorphosis, Amandine Szczepaniak symbolically restores what racism, violence, and systems of oppression sought to strip from her: her youth, her freedom, her dignity, and her future.

But these flowers also tell a broader story—that of a Brazilian people whose creativity, diversity, and resistance continue to bloom despite the legacies of colonialism, slavery, and racial inequality.

When art becomes an act of remembrance and resistance

Where violence sought to impose death and silence, Amandine Szczepaniak chooses life, color, and hope.

Her flowers are not merely a memorial tribute. They are an invitation to nurture the ideals Marielle Franco championed: a more just society where every life matters and every identity can flourish freely.

For while a woman can be murdered, the ideas, hopes, and struggles she planted cannot be so easily erased.

This is precisely the conviction that drives United Souls: to make art a means of transmission, clothing a space for expression, and the memory of struggles a living presence in our daily lives.

By joining the United Souls Pantheon of figures of struggle, Marielle Franco continues to move through public spaces, carried by those who refuse to let her be forgotten and who share her aspirations for justice and equality.

With her five flowers, Amandine Szczepaniak does not merely paint the portrait of a woman who is gone. She makes art a promise of eternity.

For flowers may eventually fade, but the seeds of resistance can endure for generations.

Marielle Franco is present. Her struggle continues.