Subduing our bodies, in the sense of controlling our impulses and desires, is an aspiration which is older than Christianity. At that time, the dominant question was: how do you get good control over yourself? Christianity made women the symbol of possible loss of control over our bodies. Achieving our self-control turned into being able to control the woman, to avoid the temptation that she, malevolent, represents.
- Contardo Calligaris, author, psychoanalyst and playwright -
—Here I am. is a Familia Editions artist book by Regina Parra that portrays the role women have played throughout history through the eyes of the artist, the publisher, and through the speeches of female characters outlined by male playwrights in the history of theater.
The book is presented in two kinds of paper; two halves involved in a deep-red cover. One half tells the story through images and the other uses spoken words. On a see-through off-white paper, hand-painted quotes in their original language dialogue with the paintings and immediately trigger a curious mood in me. I wonder how these women feel while realizing they move my own internal landscape.
Printed on textured paper, the spoken word session presents monologues by the same women, subtly enwrapping the delicate hand-painted images. Together, images and spoken words tell a multilayered group of stories, such as that of a King's daughter whose lines include the words agony, brutality, suffer, conform, pleasure, violence, abused, fear, injured, ruin, harm, envy, beg, sword, coward. My mood shifts towards anger that, for the duration of my reading, turns into sadness and disbelief. These lines form a lexicon for women's stories told through female characters from different times and geographies.
Both book blocks are sewn with red thread, combining distinct experiences into one. And so, Regina Parra and Maria Lago re-enact the gesture of presence by William Shakespeare "- Here was I" in the book Regina Parra - Here I am.
Luciana Solano, Curator
Published in 2022.
EN or PT
104 p.
24 x 31 cm
Edition of 350 (230 Portuguese / 130 English) of which 35 are special edition.
Semi-hard cover with pink gold hot stamping finish. Offset printed in 5/5, sewn bound with exposed red thread mixing two paper styles. 24 reproductions of oil on paper originals commissioned for the book. The special edition includes the work Maenad.
Printed in Barcelona, Spain
Design: Maria Lago
Translation: Fernando Janson
Special Edition:
Maenad (2021)
Variable measures
Latex
Special packaging in a handmade box and an acrylic support
Edition of 35 signed and numbered
Co-edited in collaboration with 55SP
Produced by Oficina São João, São Paulo, Brazil
Regina Parra is represented by Millan gallery, São Paulo.