Letícia Parente

Letícia Parente (1930–1991) was a Brazilian visual artist who specialized in politically charged video art.^[1] Her surreal short films feature elements of body art and performance art. Much of her work is centered around protesting the use of mass torture by the Military dictatorship in Brazil throughout the 1970s. Besides her work in activism and art, Parente also held a Chemistry PhD and never left her scientific career after discovering art.^[2]

Biography[]

Parente entered into the art world later in life, at the age of 41 in 1971. She studied printing techniques at the Núcleo de Artes e Criatividade in Rio de Janeiro. Shortly after she met other artists like Anna Bella Geiger and Sonia Andrade. These contemporaries and others introduced her to video art.^[3]

Art[]

Her most well known work is "Marca Registrada", a silent VHS film which depicts the artist sewing the words "MADE IN BRASIL" onto the sole of her foot.^[3] Another film from the same period, "In", follows Parente as she suspends herself using a dresser hanger in a closet. According to artist Myriam Gurba, this video serves in part as an allusion to the execution of Brazilian journalist Vladimir Herzog by torture. The police attempted to cover-up his death as a suicide and he was found hanged in his prison cell.^[3]

Selected works[]

• Marca Registrada (1975)
• In (1975)
• Preparação I (1975)
• Tarefa I (1982)

References[]