Courtesy of André Parente
L201607_001

Medida

1976 (Date created)
2016 (Date created)
Installation
Installations
45 ft L x 15 ft W x 7.5 ft H (Object)
Notes: Room dimensions.
Conceptual work created in 1976, originally installed by the artist at the Museu de Arte Moderna in Rio de Janerio (MAM-RJ) as part of their Area Experimental (Experimental Space) project. Paulina Pardo Gaviria recreated "Medida" at the UAG in 2016 based on the archival documentation of the piece as installed in 1976. At the UAG it was part of the exhibtion "Data (after)Lives" (9/8-10/14/2016) and installed in the UAG's back gallery occupying the entire space of the room. As determined by Parente, all the walls were black and two panel divisions were added to the room. An audio component measuring every five seconds was part of the installation.
MEDIDA (MEASUREMENT) The installation Medida (Measurement) by Brazilian artist Letícia Parente (1930-1991) opened to the public in the Experimental Area of the Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro in June 10, 1976, at the height of Brazil’s military dictatorship (1964-1985). Presented for the first time in the United States forty years after its original installation, Medida, recreated as part of Data (after)Lives, contributes to the questioning of the relevance of exact human measurements, the relationship between individual data and identity, the political connotations of measurement practices, the aesthetic appearances of measuring tools and procedures, and the use of the resulting data once the collecting process has concluded. The present exhibition reproduces the original layout of Medida. The first and larger space—faithfully recreated here at the University Art Gallery to its fullest possible extent—is dedicated to the collection of data from visitors and invites them to compare the resulting data with average results of such measurements. The exhibit’s smaller space, dedicated to data visualization, presents the original images of Parente’s slideshow O livro dos records (The Book of Records, 1976) as it exists today in the artist’s archive, alongside historical documentation of the original exhibition. Throughout Medida as recreated at the UAG, gallery-goers in Pittsburgh can experience the mechanisms used by Parente to create an ambience of control within an artistic space during the mid-1970s in Rio de Janeiro. To this end, we invite you to follow the station’s instructions (when security reasons are not an impediment to do so), to temporarily subject your body to the artist’s measuring designs, and to record the results in the provided individual and collective databases. By directly engaging with Parente’s work one is able to critically approach the nature of measuring devices and unveil, through one’s own use of them, the relationships between individual bodies and institutional practices as encountered in daily life.

Researcher: Paulina Gaviria Pardo

NAME Letícia Parente (1930-1991) TITLE O livro dos records (The Book of Records) YEAR 1976 FORM archival images COURTESY Collection of André Parente These images composed Letícia Parente’s slide show O livro dos records that complemented the first section of Medida. They are displayed here as selected by Parente from the 1975 and 1976 issues of the Guinness Book of World Records (on view at Station G) and recovered from her personal archive. O livro dos records no longer exists in its original format and the accompanying audio of clapping hands has only been accessible through written accounts of Medida. RESEARCHER: Paulina Pardo Gaviria

NAME Letícia Parente (1930-1991) TITLE Medida (at the Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro) YEAR 1976 FORM documentary photograph COURTESY Collection of André Parente The present recreation of Medida is based on this layout of the installation included in the artist’s proposal to the museum and the photographic documentation of Parente’s work as originally presented in Rio de Janeiro. Offering close views of each station as well as exhibition views of the room, the photographs include images of Parente herself walking in the gallery room and testing her pain resistance at Station C, as well as participants, including artists Anna Maria Maiolino (1942- ) and Anna Bella Geiger (1933- ), measuring their bodies during the exhibition opening. RESEARCHER: Paulina Pardo Gaviria
Loan
André Parente, archival collection
Letícia Parente, personal collection
"Letícia Parente: Arqueologia do quotidiano" (exh. cat.); "Area Experimental" (Fernanda Lópes, 2015).
Please note that cataloging is ongoing and that some information may not be complete.
Conceptual art
Brazilian contemporary art