Preparação II

Letícia Parente was a pioneer of video in Brazil, and In is one of her earliest video works. It depicts the artist entering a closet, suspending herself from a hanger, and closing the door. Parente used video as a political tool to protest the military dictatorship in Brazil, and to comment on the mass torture committed by the government. Much of her work concerned domestic space and its association with conventional roles to which women were expected to conform. Several videos by Parente transform daily household tasks into forms of resistance.

Letícia lies on an ironing board in front of her maid who calmly irons her mistress, clothed, with the same attention to detail as someone who irons out a flat piece of clothing. The artist is calm like an empty suit; she doesn’t move, she doesn’t complain, she simply lies there. She is an ordinary piece of clothing, on any given day. There is no indifference, it is just another task accomplished. In the mistress maid relationship there is no tension, just silent complicity.

A woman close to things asks about the ways of existing. the body, the name, the house, the thickness in which the subject is inscribed and daily modeled.

The artist sows the word 'Brasil' into the sole of her foot.

In Preparação I (Preparation I) Letícia Parente prepares herself to go out. In front of a bathroom mirror, she places bandages over her mouth and eyes, draws eyes and a mouth over the bandages, fixes her hair, takes her bag and leaves the room. This masquerade becomes a political commentary about the female gaze, voice, modes of interaction, sociality and corporeality in Brazilian society during the 1970s.