Lúcia Prancha / CASA DO SOL (2020-2022)

Solo Show: Human Resources, Los Angeles, USA (February 21st, 2020 – March 1st, 2020).

Screening: Official selection of the International and Experimental competitions of the 28th edition of Curtas Vila do Conde, Vila do Conde, PT (October 3rd-11th, 2020).

Screening: O Dia Mais Curto programme, Cinemateca Portuguesa, Lisbon, PT (December 21st, 2020 – 8 p.m.).

Solo Show: Escola Superior Artística do Porto, Porto, PT (January 6th, 2021, 18h). On display from 8 to 23 of January 2021 CASA SOL at Galeria DÍNAMO, Porto, PT.

Screening: Casa do Sol, INTERSECCIÓN - Festival de Arte Audiovisual Contemporánea, Coruña/Spain, (October 22nd–31st, 2021).

Still from Casa do Sol, 2020. 12', HDV, sound, color, 16:9. Experimental video.
Starring Júlia de Carvalho Hansen reading Hilda Hilst. Image, production and direction by Lúcia Prancha. Shot at Casa do Sol – Instituto Hilda Hilst, Campinas, Brazil, 2019.

Opening: Thursday, February 20th from 8–10pm

Dates: February 21st–March 1st, 2020

The Body of the Text, a reading circle & seminar: Saturday, February 22, 2-5pm

Human Resources is pleased to present CASA DO SOL, an exhibition of new work by artist Lúcia Prancha.

Prancha’s installation explores the work and legacy of Brazilian writer Hilda Hilst (1930-2004). Often described as the Marquis de Sade of Brazil, her astonishing work takes up mysticism, insanity, embodiment, eroticism, and female sexual liberation. Hilst is one of the most important Portuguese language authors of the twentieth century. Nevertheless, her work is virtually unknown in our community.

CASA DO SOL, translated from the Portuguese “House of the Sun” is the name of Hilst’s home. During her lifetime, her residence was an important gathering site for writers, artists and intellectuals. Today, CASA DO SOL holds her archive, and hosts an intimate residency program which allows writers and artists to breathe in the compound’s earthy magic.

Prancha’s video installation, CASA DO SOL, was shot on location at Hilst’s house and gardens during summer of 2019 and uses the text of one of Hilst’s short stories. This experimental video explores sexuality and the colonial through the political and poetic militancy of Hilst’s writing.

This show is possible with the kind support of Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Portugal.

Human Resources LA

410 Cottage Home
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Poster by my dear friend and great designer Ana Baliza.

Casa do Sol, 2020

Installation views, Human Resources, Los Angeles. 12', HDV, sound, color, 16:9. Experimental video. 20 pillows, carpet. CASA DO SOL's poster printed in fabric and embroidery, cotton fabric, cotton thread, 100 x 150 cm. Reading Group Reader: The Body of the Text, a reading circle & seminar (Saturday, February 22, 2-5pm) texts by Hilda Hilst. Printed on paper, clips, letter size. The Artist Book Hilda's Library (2020) works as a catalog on the ocasion of CASA DO SOL's show, printed paper, Plastic Comb Binding Spine, Crystals Presentation Covers, letter size, 75 pp. Edition 1 of 35.

The embroidery is already falling apart, here and there

Stubborn signs travel through history and time to flow into the deep desire of
colonized sex. Inscribing themselves directly on the body, they evoke ancient
properties and orders.

The machine for transforming pleasure into exchange value and a task is the
same that, piously, denounces excess and turns it into a calculation.
Censoring what has no measure and claims to be free from all social
organization, calls for the demand for writing that displaces language to, thus,
speak in its own name. It is not a matter of shocking but of creating in batch.

The voice signals the presence of the body and the house. The body that is
also the place through which fear speaks to us. The silence between the trees
is broken by the steps that mark the leaves. This must be what saves us in
the age of brutality and savagery ... poetry. That's what I feel. That's what we
hear at the House of the Sun.

[Eduarda Neves]

Detail of Termos Hilstianos para as partes pudendas [Hilstian terms for private parts], 2020
Artist Book / Object. Unique. Acrylic, water paint, fabric glue, printed fabric, polystyrene, felt pen.

Closed: A4, 63 pages, 30 x 22 x 15 cm / Open: 30 cm x 22 cm x 13 M.

Exhibition view: Farsa, SESC Pompéia , Sao Paulo, PT (October 20th, 2020– January 31st, 2021).

Photo Credits by Ilana Bessler.

VI, 2020

Artist’s Book. Object. Unique. Glossy photografic paper, acrylic box, bed sheet, cotton thread, pencil. Acrylic box: 24 x 18 x 8 cm; bed sheet: 200 x 225 cm. The appropriated text VI was taken from Hilda Hilst’s book “Letters from a Seducer” (1991).