Catalogue > At random

CASA DO SOL 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, 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.

Lúcia Prancha (1985, Portugal) obtained her MFA from CalArts (USA) in 2015, after completing BA studies in Lisbon (PT, 2009) and MA in São Paulo (BR, 2012). Lúcia Prancha explores the tensions between aesthetics, perception and politics, often by rethinking specific historical and social sites through sculpture, video and printed matter. Her work has been exhibited at LACA–Los Angeles Contemporary Archive, Los Angeles, USA, Hordaland Kunstsenter, Bergen, NO, Serralves Foundation, Porto, PT; Galeria Leme, Sao Paulo, Brazil and Museu Berardo, Lisbon, Portugal. In 2016, her film SEBASTIAN, THE GHOST was screened at Les Rencontres Internationales Nouveau Cinéma et Art Contemporain in Paris and, at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; and the 24th Curtas Vila do Conde – International Film Festival, Portugal. In 2017, Prancha was in residency at the Jan van Eyck Akademie in Maastricht, NDC. During the Spring of 2020, Lúcia is a Visiting Artist Faculty at CalArts–California Institute of the Arts.