(this page was last updated in October 2018)
Born in 1984, in São Paulo, Brazil.
Lives and works in São Paulo, Brazil.
PIPA 2010, 2017 and 2018 nominee.
Regina Parra works with painting, photography, and video, addressing issues such as new hierarchies of power, limits, control, and shifts of cultural boundaries. Her work has been exhibited in institutions such as The Jewish Museum (NY, USA), Galeria Effearte (Millan, Italy), Studio Trendy (Miami, USA) and Pivô, CCSP, Parque Lage, Paço das Artes, Instituto Figueiredo Ferraz, SESC_Videobrasil, MAM Recife, Fundação Joaquim Nabuco (all in Brazil).
Website: www.reginaparra.com.br
Video produced by Do Rio Filmes, exclusively for PIPA Prize 2018:
“Antes que eu esqueça”, 2014, 08’09”
“Capitão do mato”, 2016, 5’40”
“Sobre La Marcha II – O sobrevivente”, 2015, 8’24”
“Fim de Partida”, 2014, 8’04”
“7.536 passos (por uma geografia da proximidade”, 2012, 20’33”
“As pérolas, como te escrevi”, 2011, 4’41”
“Sobre la marcha”, 2010-2011, 6’06”
“Why do you tremble, woman?” Regina Parra’s exhibition does not formulate a speech that is delivered at once, resisting the tired look. It is more an environment that resonates diffuse annoyances than a collection of things of precise meanings. Considering each of the works on display isolated, it is not immediately clear what moved the artist to elaborate them as a whole. From the interrogative title of the show – Why do you tremble, woman? – There is a deliberate bet on the imprecision of what is communicated, as if only through the opacity of the language employed it was possible to speak clearly. It is only when one goes from one work to the other that a web of senses is created in a ricochet between paintings, drawings, video, text and audio. Here, the sounds matter as much as the images, promoting synesthetic operations. The repeated listening of the expression “yes, sir” and other similar ones – isolated by the artist from their original contexts and chained in a sonorous narrative – evokes situations of assent to the speech of those who have the power to command. A type of obedience that immobilizes and regulates the bodies, inscribing in them, as if they were natural, movements that express agreement with the given orders. Automated body responses as the drawings by Parra suggest, which appear to belong to old gymnastics manuals. But, instead from a variety of gestures, the only movement taught in the artist’s works is that of the head which repeatedly moves up and down, a clear signal of acquiescence to what is commanded to it. Besides the sounds that refer to images that were subtracted from the viewer, there are paintings that describe absent sculptures, in a continuous process of replacement of immediate referents. These paintings fix representations of black people, indigenous people and women in sculptures commonly found in gardens or farmhouses in the states of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. Sculptures that have French or Italian origin and are generally called blackamoor, having as main characteristic the presentation of these men and women in situations of subservience, although always with the docile appearance of those who do not have will and are resigned or satisfied in being a servant. These sounds and images presented by Parra thus show some discrete, but still loquacious, marks of the violence that rules the history of Brazil – the remote as the recent. Violence that reaches blacks and Indians in full, and which has in women (including white ones, who are therefore a little black and Indian) one of their most frequent targets, as suggested by the question that gives name to the exhibition. “Why do you tremble, woman?” is a poem verse by Castro Alves that describes the fear of a woman enslaved to steal her small son to be sold. Fear of loss of something important that is similar to the sense by many Brazilian women in situations of violence against them or their children. The enclosed forest is portrayed in a large size painting, a symbolic projection of what lies beyond what the eye reaches and which causes fear because it is not a known territory. This paradox anchors the video “Captain of the Forest”, name taken from the bird that inhabits many of the forests of Latin America and that in the past gained such nickname by announcing, with its sharp corner, any strange movement in the forest, revealing fugitive slaves that tried to hide in the woods. In a landscape as exuberant as claustrophobic, the artist brings together bird song and sound coming from the mouth of man, in a staged remembrance of this improbable and deadly alliance. A pair of small paintings finally portrays a bird inert on the ground: the one who cries is now silent and dead. Other captains of the forest, however, still insist on their pursuit of persecution. In the last change and twist of the media, Parra writes and inverts, in neon lights, phrases that announce options of how to behave regarding the pain of the others, long ago enunciated by the martinican essayist Frantz Fanon: to remain terrified or to become terrible. However, it is not for her work to induce clear positions. This is not its responsibility, and it is up to each one whether or not to be affected by this sketch of an archeology of Brazilian violence that the artist presents. That is all that Art can offer to combat what is unbearable for many people. And it is already is enough.
by Moacir dos Anjos
Education
2011
– Master’s Degree in Visual Arts, Faculdade Santa Marcelina, São Paulo, Brazil
2008
– Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts, FAAP, São Paulo, Brazil
2003
– École des Beaux Arts in Paris, France
2000
– Centro de Pesquisas Teatrais (CPT), oriented by Antunes Filho, São Paulo, Brazil
Solo Exhibitions
2014
– “É possível, mas não agora”, curated by Ana Maria Maia, Pivô, São Paulo, Brazil
2012
– “Sobre la marcha”, Galeria Effearte, Milan, Italy
2011
– “Atrás das janelas”, Programa de Exposições do Centro Cultural São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Eldorado: clarões de desejo”, Galeria Leme, São Paulo, Brazil
2010
– “Eldorado”, Prêmio Trajetórias, Fundação Joaquim Nabuco, Recife, Brazil
2009
– “Rumor”, Galeria Leme, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Mise-en-scène”, Temporada de Projetos do Paço das Artes, São Paulo, Brazil
Group Exhibitions
2016
– “Sights and Sounds”, curated by Jens Hoffmann and Luiza Proença, The Jewish Museum, New York, USA
– “Totemonumento”, curated by Isabella Rjeille, Galeria Leme, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Jogos de Forças”, curated by Philipe Augusto, Paço das Artes, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Notícias de um novo MubBE: arquitetura e paisagem urbana”, curated by Cauê Alves, MubBE, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
– “CPR Film Festival Argentina (Curatorial Program for Research)”, curated by Tainá Azeredo, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2015
– “O espírito de cada época”, curated by Rejane Cintrão, Instituto Figueiredo Ferraz, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil
– “Frente à Euforia”, curated by Mariana Lorenzi, Isabella Rjeille and Fabio Zuker, Oswald de Andrade, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Encruzilhada”, curated by Bernardo Mosqueira, Parque Lage, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2014
– “I Trienal de Artes Frestas”, curated by Josué Mattos, SESC, Sorocaba, Brazil
– “Sights and Sounds”, curated by Luiza Proença, The Jewish Museum, New York, USA
– “Cães sem Plumas”, curated by Moacir dos Anjos, MAMAM, Recife, Brazil
– “Operações Fotográficas”, SESC Vila Mariana, São Paulo, Brazil
2013
– “Suspicious Minds”, curated by Cristina Ricupero, Galeria Vermelho, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Cães sem Plumas”, curated by Moacir dos Anjos, Galeria Nara Roesler, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Tempo Suspenso”, curated by Luisa Duarte, Brazil Art Fair, Miami
– “Arquivo Vivo”, curated by Priscila Arantes, Paço das Artes, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Exposição de verão”, curated by Luisa Duarte, Galeria Silvia Cintra, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2012
– “Rumos Artes Visuais 2011-2013”, curated by Agnaldo Farias, Itaú Cultural, São Paulo, Brazil
– “O fio do abismo”, curated by Gabriela Motta, Casa das Onze Janelas, Belém, Brazil
– “Itinerância Videobrasil 2012/2013”, curated by Solange Farkas, SESC Campinas, Campinas, Brazil
– “Volta ao dia em 80 mundos”, curated by Ana Maria Maia, Centro Cultural Octo Marques, Goiânia, Brazil
– “Para além do arquivo”, curated by Priscila Arantes and Cauê Alves, Centro Cultural Banco do Nordeste, Fortaleza, Brazil
– “Salão Paranaense”, curated by Lisette Lagnado and Paulo Herkenhoff, Museum of Contemporary Art, Curitiba, Brazil
2011
– “17º Festival Internacional de Arte Contemporânea”, curated by Solange Farkas, SESC Videobrasil, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Mostra Extranatureza”, curated by Paula Alzugaray, Casa M, Bienal do Mercosul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
– “Mostra Filmes de Arte”, curated by Paula Alzugaray, Bienal do Ventosul, Curitiba, Brazil
2010
– “Livro Acervo”, curated by Lenora de Barros e Arthur Lescher, Paço das Artes, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Feijão com Arroz”, curated by Jacopo Visconti, Studio Trendy, Miami, USA
– “This is not a Gateway”, curated by Deepa Naik, Hanbury Hall, London, UK
– “Arte Pará”, curated by Paulo Herkenhoff, Museu do Estado do Pará, Palácio Lauro Sodré, Belém, Brazil
– “À Sombra do Futuro”, curated by Luiza Proença, Instituto Cervantes, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Paralela”, curated by Paulo Reis, Liceu de Artes e Ofícios, São Paulo, Brazil
– “A Carta da Jamaica”, curated by Alfons Hug, Oi Futuro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2009
– Programa de Exposições MARP, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil
– “Epílogo”, Red Bull House of Art, São Paulo, Brazil
– 37º Contemporary Art Salon Luiz Sacilotto, Santo André, Brazil
– “Alcova”, curated by Marcelo Campos, Galeria Laura Marsiaj, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
– “Nouvelle Vague”, curated by Jacopo Visconti, Galeria Laura Marsiaj, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2008
– “2000 e Oito”, SESC Pinheiros, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Grupo 2000e8”, Museu Victor Meirelles, Florianópolis, Brazil
– “Arte Brasileira Contemporânea: 18 propostas”, curated by Celso Fioravante, Galeria Murilo Castro, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
– “Do Lado de Lá”, Museum of Brazilian Art, São Paulo, Brazil
– “As Constituições do Brasil”, Museum of Brazilian Art, São Paulo, Brazil
2007
– 39ª Anual de Artes Plásticas, Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Homens Trabalhando”, Galeria Florence Antonio, São Paulo, Brazil
– “As Constituições do Brasil”, Palácio do Planalto, Brasília, Brazil
– “Coletiva Galeria Florence Antonio”, Casa dos Macacos, São Paulo, Brazil
– “É Junho Mas Parece Novembro”, Galeria Polinésia, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Coletiva Florence Antonio”, Escola São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
2006
– 38a Anual de Artes Plásticas, Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado, São Paulo, Brazil
2005
– 37a Anual de Artes Plásticas, Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado, São Paulo, Brazil
Awards
2011
– Concurso de Videoarte Prize, Fundação Joaquim Nabuco, Recife, Brazil
– SESC_Videobrasil Prize, Ateliê Aberto, São Paulo, Brazil
2009
– Destaque da Bolsa Iberê Camargo Prize, Porto Alegre, Brazil
2006
– First prize of the 38ª Anual de Artes Plásticas, FAAP, São Paulo, Brazil
Video produced by Do Rio Filmes, exclusively for PIPA Prize 2017:
Video produced by Matrioska Filmes exclusively for PIPA 2010:
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