You Katalog

angelika stepken ( e d.)

you

Ketty La Rocca

works and writings

1964 – 1976

revolver

angelika stepken ( e d.)

you

Ketty La Rocca

works and writings

1964 – 1976

revolver

you

Ketty La Rocca works and writings 1964 – 1976

1

angelika stepken (e d.)

you

Ketty La Rocca

works and writings

1964 – 1976

revolver

3

CONTENTS

7

subjectivization and resistance

Angelika Stepken

17

from my words to yours and from your words to mine

Emi Fontana

24

ketty la rocca

Pier Luigi Tazzi

33

collages

49

signs and words

71

ketty la rocca, writings 1964 –1975

99

gestures

131

meta–language

203

radiographs

214

biography

225

about the authors

226

imprint

5

SUBJECTIVIZATION

AND

RESISTANCE

KETTY LA ROCCA’ S MOST RADICAL WORK

1964 –– 1976

angelika stepken

Ketty La Rocca is an artist whose works

have been shown frequently over the

past decades in important international

exhibitions, yet despite this, she’s

had to be rediscovered again and again.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, while

La Rocca was still alive, she was a prominent

figure on the vibrant Italian art

scene. Along with Gina Pane, Carla

Accardi, Helena Almeida, Lygia Clark,

Lili Dujourie, Valie Export, Joan Jonas,

Yvonne Rainer, Ewa Partum, Nancy

Spero, Hannah Wilke, and Martha

Rosler, she belonged to the first generation

of women artists who confidently

asserted their “otherness” in response

to the male gaze, called for subjectivity

in their artistic works, and allowed

the body and its gestures to “speak” for

themselves. During her lifetime, Ketty

La Rocca exhibited in renowned galleries;

in 1972, she took part in two sections

of the Venice Biennale. But her work

was only granted the short time span

of a decade’s production, during which,

restless and strong-willed, “alone” and

unique, she underwent a rapid artistic

development with enormous energy and

intelligence. Initially, inspired by the experimental

visual poetry of the mid-sixties,

Ketty La Rocca critically investigated

questions of communication in the

age of mass media. She soon began addressing

herself in her work as both an

artist and a woman in a desire to find

“another” language to express difference

and the non-identical. She worked with

collage, photography, video, text, drawing,

and performance to develop a language

of gestures and appropriated imagery

of disempowerment. She investigated

the difference between sign and

body, metaphor and reality, power and

alienation and searched for expression

in the gaps between these differences.

7

Up until her premature death on February 7, 1976, Ketty La

Rocca lived in Florence, a city that became the setting for

a vibrant interdisciplinary and internationally interconnected

artists’ scene throughout the 1960s and early 1970s.

During the second half of the 1960s, the groups and protagonists

of Radical Architecture (Superstudio, Archizoom, Ufo,

Zziggurat, 9999, Remo Buti, Gianni Pettena et al.) emerged

from the architectural Faculty of the university; they attracted

international attention when they showed their work at the

Museum of Modern Art in the 1972 exhibition Italy, the New

Domestic Landscape. At the same time in Florence, Gruppo

70 (Lamberto Pignotti, Eugenio Miccini, Lucia Marcucci,

Luciano Ori, and Giuseppe Chiari) was active in the area of

visual poetry with numerous collaborations in the milieu of

the Fluxus movement. In 1965 the musician and composer

Pietro Grossi offered Italy’s first course in electronic music

at the Conservatory in Florence, while in 1972 Maria Gloria

Bicocchi initiated Art/tapes/22, a studio for video production

where Bill Viola edited his first works, among others. In the

midst of the heterogeneous movements and protagonists of

the Florentine art scene, Ketty La Rocca was a lone figure who

raised her voice and published her work, but kept a distance

from groups, joining neither Gruppo 70 nor the first feminist

movements. She corresponded with American art critic Lucy

Lippard, the Italian artist and philosopher Gillo Dorfles wrote

the foreword for her artist’s book In Principio Erat (1971), the

critics Lea Vergine and Renato Barilli reviewed her exhibitions

and performances. Ketty La Rocca exhibited in group

exhibitions with Pino Pascali, Pier Paolo Calzalori, and Jannis

Kounellis (Modena, 1970) and in 1972, for the Venice Biennale,

she cooperated with the German filmmaker Gerry Schum, the

first person to run a video gallery, which he opened in 1971. In

many aspects, Ketty La Rocca was “avant-garde” in her work,

in her critical investigation of text, image, and media, in her

“feminist” insistence on subjectivization paired with conceptual

austerity, and in her early use of video and performance.

But she only had a little more than ten years to develop her

artistic work. From 1966 on she knew that she had little time.

In 1974, Lucy Lippard wrote that Ketty La Rocca was unable

to “break into the male art world” with her art and texts 1 .

In retrospect, the art critic Lara Vinca Masini, who lives in

Florence to this day and who followed Ketty La Rocca’s work

during her lifetime, praised her resistance and autonomy,

which kept her from joining in feminist demands 2 . Following

La Rocca’s death in 1976, Masini organized a retrospective in

the Galleria Carini in Florence in 1989. Twelve years later,

art historian Lucilla Saccà organized a monographic exhibition

of her oeuvre in the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome

and the Museo Monsummano near Florence. Both exhibitions

were accompanied by Italian-language publications

that are out of print today. The artist’s estate is run by her

son Michelangelo Vasta, professor of Economic history at

the University of Siena. In 1994, Emi Fontana took Ketty La

Rocca on in her Milan gallery program until she moved to Los

Angeles in 2012. Ketty La Rocca’s works have not been forgotten;

she has continued to appear in important exhibitions including

Künstlerinnen international 1877 – 1977 (Berlin, 1977),

wack! Art and the Feminist Revolution (Los Angeles, 2007),

Donna: Avanguardia Femminista negli anni 70 dalla Sammlung

Verbund di Vienna (Rome 2010, Hamburg 2015), and Körper als

Protest (Vienna, 2012).

Anyone who views individual works by Ketty La Rocca –

which continue to remain for the most part in her son’s archive

– or who has the opportunity to sample the various different

phases of her career, ranging from the early collages

to the later so-called riduzioni (reductions) and X-ray images,

becomes aware of an enormous artistic register that encompasses

both a powerful desire and analytical precision

and resistance; the urge to express and an ongoing reflection

of the media used to do so; conceptual severity and a subjective

voice that emerges between the gaps. Throughout Ketty

La Rocca’s life, the relationship between image and message,

sender and receiver, sign and signified, individual woman

and society – and finally head and body, “I” and “You” – remained

a driving force. In texts, some of which she published

in magazines and made public during her performances, she

rebels against the “crisis of communication,” calls for a reclamation

of language and meaning, and seeks ways to overcome

the prevailing “meta-languages.” While at first the

“other sex” claims a self as an other-directed entity lacking

1

2

Lara Vinca Masini, “Per Ketty 25 anni dopo”, in Lucilla Saccà (ed.), Omaggio a Ketty La Rocca, Pacini Editore, Pisa, 2001, p. 13.

Ibid, p.12.

its own language, her focus increasingly shifts to the boundary

zone where “I” ends and “you” begins, where the one becomes

alienated in the other.

As an 18-year-old, Ketty La Rocca, born 1938 in La Spezia,

moved to Florence, where she met her husband Silvio Vasta,

she married in 1957. Her son Michelangelo was born in 1960.

Ketty La Rocca never attended an art academy. Beginning in

1963, she took private courses with Pietro Grossi (1917 – 2002) in

his studio for musical phonology S 2F M, well before he began

teaching at the Conservatory Luigi Cherubini in 1965. In 1968

Grossi organized an international congress of experimental

centers for electronic music in Florence for the xxxi Festival

of Maggio Musicale. Ketty La Rocca soon turned to poetry,

however. Through her friendship with Lelio Missoni, whose

“passionately anarchistic and creative spirit fascinated her,” 3

she came in contact with the main figures of the Gruppo 70

in Florence.

In 1963 and 1964, Lamberto Pignotti, Eugenio Miccini,

Lucia Marcucci, Luciano Ori, and Giuseppe Chiari organized

the first congresses on “Art and Communication” and “Art

and Technology,” which Aldo Rossi, Gillo Dorfles, Umberto

Eco, Pietro Grossi, and Maurizio Kagel participated in, among

others. In 1963 they initiated the mobile happening Poesia e

No, which was dedicated to interaction between poets, musicians,

and the public and took place for the first time in the

Florentine Gabinetto Vieusseux (a European literary circle

that was founded in the 19th century and exists to this day).

Ketty La Rocca also took part in subsequent editions of

the festival, for instance in 1966 at the Libreria Feltrinelli.

Beginning in 1965, Gruppo 70, which was dedicated to Poesia

Tecnologica, also organized exhibitions in the Florentine galleries

La Vigna Nuova and Numero, which Fluxus artists such

as John Cage, Philip Corner, George Brecht, Wolf Vostell, and

Nam June Paik took part in. In 1967, in Fiumalbo, near Pistoia,

Lelio Missoni (artist’s name: Camillo) organized the festival

Parole sui muri, which Claudio Parmiggiani, Franco Vaccari,

Franz Mon, Helmut Heissenbüttel, Timm Ulrichs, Jochen

Gerz, Jiri Kolar, Henri Chopin, and Ketty La Rocca took part

in, along with many other artists, musicians and film makers.

Two years later, Eugenio Miccini founded the magazine

Tèchne (1967 – 1976) and a center of the same name where

young theater groups such as the Magazzini Criminali (at

the time Il Carrozzone) with Pier Luigi Tazzi and the Teatro

Jarry found a home. Throughout the 1960s, the visual poetry

movement was active in many parts of Italy; circles of people

like Achille Bonito Oliva and Nanni Balestrini collaborated

in Genoa, Naples, and Palermo.

In 1967, during the festival “Poesie e Non,” Ketty La Rocca

handed out flyers in the street made from colored flimsy paper.

In doing so, she was reproducing the medium and gesture

of political propaganda, with the difference that she was

using thin, delicately colored flimsy paper that bore the following

texts and text fragments, among other things:

Metro Goldwyn Mayer is proud to present / four years of

war already, it doesn’t seem like it / it’s passed so quickly

/ and yet so many things have happened / this story that

has touched the world / the senate has met / who / has

news of Patrizia Vicinelli? / you can die of benzopyrene /

without even realizing / because humanity’s reasons for

alienation / are much more profound / it’s essential / it’s

right / it’s inevitable / the triangle of the highway code /

life is something else

These typewritten texts referred to thematic areas that Ketty

La Rocca had been working on in her image/text collages

since 1964/65. They are based on social conflicts and the way

they’re represented in language and the media: war, the obscenity

of the film industry, the so-called Third World and

everyday banalities, sayings, legitimization, and inevitably

propose the bitter, utopian conclusion: life is something else.

She reproduces the stereotypes of a depleted language that

she chooses only to caricature in fragments.

This critical and skeptical relationship to a disenfranchised

language, to a “crisis of communication” accompanied

Ketty La Rocca throughout her entire artistic career. At the

same time, she wrote her own texts, poems, newspaper articles,

and scripts for her performances. In 1967, handing out

her flyer poetry on the streets, the abstract language of the

outside world (media, politics) already turned toward a body,

3

Lara Vinca Masini, “Per Ketty 25 anni dopo”, in Lucilla Saccà (ed.), Omaggio a Ketty La Rocca, Pacini Editore,

Pisa, 2001, p. 15.

9

a voice that subjectifies itself. It remains a matter of speculation

whether or not this insistence on singularity, which became

the driving force in all her subsequent work and soon

led to a language of gestures, had anything to do with her

knowledge of her illness. In 1966 Ketty La Rocca learned that

she had a tumor.

In 1964/65 Ketty La Rocca worked on collages on cardboard

(for the most part smaller than A3-size) that combine

images taken from advertising and news photographs with

text fragments. These are passionate, oppositional, at times

sarcastic calls to become politically aware, to resist the exploitation

of the female body, the danger of war, political and

clerical manipulation, the way the media renders people submissive.

She also articulated these themes in her poetry, for

instance in “No rejoinder from Hanoi today / the everyday

round again / another drag and a cappuccino and two pastries”

and “the woman is in the bare hands / like the shiny

body that seeks words” and “for women this is not a time for

statements: they have too much to do and then they have to

use a language that isn’t theirs, within a language that is as

alien to them as it is hostile.”

Some of the works have a confrontational emphasis similar

to that of the American artist Martha Rosler 4 for instance

when Ketty La Rocca places an advertising blonde diagonally

in the picture and covers her abdomen with a tondo containing

the press image of a family sitting on the ground eating

rice. The sentence “healthy as daily bread” carries over the image

like a stamp. In another collage, an African mother and

child are standing in front of a white background with newspaper

letters below them spelling out the sentence: “Signora,

lei che ama cucinare bene” (Madame, you love to cook well).

Many works have the image of a Western woman at their

center, done up by the advertising industry and offering herself

as a consumerist good to the world of men: “la libertà è

arrivata!” (freedom has arrived!) Along with picture grounds

that cover the entire surface with collaged photo fragments

of polemical content, many collages have an empty black or

white background. The white of the image support in Bianco

Napalm visualizes or rather doubles the meaning of the text;

next to it, cropped images of two children and a bomb being

thrown can be seen. Later, in photographic works and videos,

Ketty La Rocca will once again use the technique, borrowed

from graphic design, of cutting a motif out of its context and

using it as an image concept without ground.

Starting in 1967, Ketty la Rocca’s works increasingly employed

a diction deriving from day-to-day politics. She began

investigating the effects of alphabetical writing, its directive

power, and its forms of dissemination and formulated

strategies of resistance and refusal. Two versions – one

with white Letraset letters on a black cardboard background,

the other in black tempera on a white panel – feature the sentence

Verbum parola mot word (1967). The word seems promising

as a visual motif, as a sign of itself, and as a tautological

proclamation in several languages. In another work, also

made in two versions, this very “word” is left out. In the piece

In Principio Erat (1967), in handwritten cursive letters and in

small printed letters on a black background, Ketty La Rocca

writes the opening words of the Gospel of John describing the

creation of the world. The omission of the word “word” poses

a question. What was in the beginning? In an undated manuscript,

she writes: “language does not exist, everything is

metalanguage / articulated language transferred from the

deputed site of parallel lines / reduced to the sign of an image,

it is placed in its authentic and inalienable / dimension

as eternally reductive. … the attempt of language to wear out,

to depose renders concrete / a real situation / a discourse, the

paradox of metalanguage, marks the images, a pretentious

/ global discourse transported by gesture, the gesture of the

hand writing on the page.” Later, in calligraphic miniature,

she will once again use handwriting in the large series of the

riduzioni (beginning in 1973).

In 1972, La Rocca once again used the text of In Principio

Erat in an artist’s book that she showed at the Venice Biennale,

a book that was re-published in an enriched version in 1975

by the Museum am Ostwall. The strategy of omission became

her conceptual strength in the few years that followed; it appeared

in serial works such as the riduzioni, which not only

addressed the process of omission/appropriation, but also

the distances between an image and its subsequent version.

Additional word pieces from the years 1968/69 operate

with text fragments on image supports resembling traffic

signs, contrasting the feel of public instruction with narra-

4

See her work Bringing the War Home: House Beautiful, 1967 – 72.

tive “information bits” (Ketty La Rocca) in part charged with

emotion and expectation and formulated in the first person.

Language fragments are isolated in order to articulate the

discrepancy between inside and outside, public discourse

and personal voice. In 1969/70, La Rocca made the work Due

Punti: the words are written in black printed letters on a yellow

ground, while to the left and taking up the full height of

the picture are two large dots, typographic signs that something

would normally follow, i.e. direct speech. An announcement

whose semiotic self-referentiality also recalls the work

of the American artist Joseph Kosuth, who has been working

with tautological statements and various different forms of

representation (i.e. the object, photograph, and definition of a

chair) in New York since the mid-1960s. In her text from 1989,

Lara Vinca Masini writes that Ketty La Rocca read books by

Roland Barthes and Claude Lévi Strauss 5 . Clearly, she was

involved in the intellectual discourse of these years.

In 1970, an abrupt change took place in Ketty La Rocca’s

work. She isolated alphabetical letters and signs not only

from the logic of meaning that language gives them, but also

from their support, the canvas or surface. She cut greatly enlarged

periods and commas (22 inches high) as stencils out

of black plastic and hung them as flat objects on the empty

white wall. It was a step from a closed image format into

space. Along with the period and comma, she also fabricated

two letters of the alphabet – the i and j – from plastic and painted

them in black enamel, one of them 16, the other 36 inches

high. These are removed from the wall and actually occupy

space in the room. In 1969/70, in the outdoor section close to

Forte Belvedere in Florence, she showed knee-high comma

objects in a group that could no longer be ascribed to a linear

syntactical order of any kind.

Two years previously, in the same location, she showed

a singular group of mirrored objects outdoors: diagonally

cropped black metal cylinders with round mirrors attached

to the cut sides that reflected the surrounding space and

viewers. These were no longer signs that framed a reference

to public space and its language, but bodies that reflected

bodies. Now, the “addressed” viewer enters the image and

sees him- or herself as “you”. In later works in which Ketty

La Rocca operates with gestures and with writing as gesture,

this mirroring, alienated self is again and again, obsessively

called upon in handwriting. But before the “you” (that will

always remain on the page, in the text, in the image) is the

I, the French “J” standing in space as a fragile, independent,

slender three-dimensional body that holds its balance.

A work from 1971 with two black dots one above the other

comes across as an exercise close to this self-referential subject-body;

in the top part of the image, in capital letters, are

the words “il punto”, in the bottom part, in small letters, “la

rocca.”

In 1969/70, Ketty La Rocca fabricated numerous flat stenciled

“J”s that covered the floor of her studio in Florence like

an inscription, hung from the ceiling, or stood freely in space,

turning her studio into an echo chamber of the self, a place

of self-affirmation and self-abstractification. The letter became

a bodily sign, a placeholder, many placeholders – without

a voice, hermetic, fragile, delicate, and dark. This group

of works was restricted to a short period of time in which, at

the same time, written language imploded into ambitious

nonsense, eroding away to a caricature of claims to meaning

and hegemony.

In 1970, Ketty La Rocca wrote the phrase “Dal momento in

cui” (considering that any) onto square formats. She wrote it

by hand on a small sheet of paper, printed it as typeset text in

the same format, and transferred it to a large-scale photo canvas

in white letters on a black background. It’s a dense text assembled

together from found material, fragments of sayings

and authentifications; it’s about practical need and perspective,

observation and affirmation, points of view, trials and

setbacks, order, structure, duty, adjectives such as paradoxical,

frustrating, incalculable, pertinent, unpostponable, hypothetical,

balanced, consistent, and contradictory. A bureaucratic-seeming

sermon of considerations, doubts, demands,

introduced in the moment in which the order of language

has long since consumed its content and leaves the speaker

without a place. A version of this tirade was also published

in 1973 (with a short lead and trailer) in the Italian magazine

Nac (Notiziario Arte Contemporanea), which dedicated itself

to the contemporary art scene in Tuscany in its January

issue. Ketty La Rocca introduced the lead with the question:

who are the persons determining the current artistic

5

Lara Vinca Masini, Ketty La Rocca, Galleria Carini, Florence, 1989, p. 6.

11

situation in Florence? This is then followed by nonsense

text. For Ketty La Rocca, over the next years Dal momento

in cui remains a kind of text matrix that she recited in the

performance Le mie parole, e tu? in 1975 at the Faculty of

Architecture of the University of Florence and used repeatedly

in the drawings of her riduzioni. In 1976, a few months

after her death, the canvas version of the text was shown in

the Galleria Schema in Florence.

Up until this point, Ketty La Rocca had worked, always

from a position situated between attack and self-referentiality,

through the legacy of visual poetry and her own stark criticism

of expropriated metalanguages in order to formulate

another, non-dominant, personal language in art. But it was

only after the hand no longer merely wrote – no longer dedicated

itself to enacting text, but itself entered the image, became

the image, and articulated itself in it with its own corporeality

– did she experience the breakthrough and singularity

that led her to her last major series of works that arose

parallel to one another: the language of gestures, the radiographs,

and the large series of the so-called riduzioni. It’s not

“industrious women’s hands” (Ketty La Rocca) that enter the

picture here, but performative hands that singly or in groups

carry out simple, dramatic, or playful gestures. Women’s and

men’s hands, her own hands that seek to communicate with

one another, sometimes in dramatic relation to one another.

Hands in “mechanical pictures,” as Ketty La Rocca termed

them, photographed hands or hands filmed with a video camera.

She later wrote, polemically, “[…] I propose once again an

attempt at annihilation of articulate language … My attempt

consists in having dilated this dimension within a hyperbolically

asemantic text – the language of hands – and of having

alienated this text by redesigning the images, materially

no less, thus rendering a real situation concrete … These

mechanical images are assumed by me to be events, that is,

real.” For her, the hands are resistance against codings and

representations, while photography and the video image constitute

a kind of indexical trace of the real. During this time,

Ketty La Rocca investigated the gestural sign language of the

deaf. In 1972, she worked on an experimental format for the

Italian tv channel rai called Nuovi alfabeti that was shown

the first time on March 20, 1973 on rai 2, the second channel

of Italian State tv and broadcast for three years. For the first

time, the news didn’t have to be lip-read, but could be communicated

in sign language. For Ketty La Rocca, this was an

affective language that can communicate without exclusion.

“In the great community of speakers there’s something like

a collapse of physical-psychological balance at the moment

of communication, a moment constrained within a specific

linguistic code that does not involve the body that makes the

gesture, at times and in a subordinate position,” she writes

in a text on the Nuovi alfabeti. The language of gesture harbors

“a wealth of mythical, ritual, fantastic elements that are

a world heritage … at present there is an irrepressible urge

to recover the primary possibilities of that simple and available

tool that is our body …”

This bodily language, focused on hands, action, and comprehension,

manifests itself in three large bodies of work: the

book In Principio Erat that Ketty La Rocca introduced in 1971,

prior to its presentation at the Venice Biennale, at the Galleria

Flori in Florence; the video film and subsequent photo series

Appendice per una supplica (Appendix for a supplication), and

the performative and photographic works for Le mie parole, e

tu? Her work with gestures was limited to the years 1971/1972,

the same years she began the drawing work for the riduzioni.

Here, the gesture is no longer in the image, but is manifested

in the performative hand that writes on the pictures, draws

contours, dissolves the image, dissolves the text. Ketty La

Rocca’s criticism of the disappropriation of images through

mass reproduction, of the reproduction of metalanguage

in alphabetical texts and of art criticism manifests itself

in the form of processual sequences in the series riduzioni.

In her usage of mechanical, technical image media, Ketty

La Rocca draws a clear distinction between photographs

made for documentary purposes and those that are declared

to be autonomous works. In 1975, for instance, she wrote a

note declaring that the footage of her performance Le mie parole,

e tu? in March at the Faculty of Architecture and the subsequent

performances in Brescia and Rome possessed purely

documentary value, did not replace the action, and were not

for sale. “Part of my work consists in subsequently reworking

the documentation material as subjective reading and

writing, in the attempt to restore to them a different authenticity

to bring it back to memory as sign.”

Today, Ketty La Rocca’s book In Principio Erat (1971) is

considered to be one of the early examples of Body Art, which

the critic Lea Vergine was the first to dedicate a book to in

1974 5 . Along with the body-based works of Ketty La Rocca,

the book presents those of Annette Messager, Gina Pane, and

Trisha Brown alongside those of Vito Acconci, Joseph Beuys,

Günther Brus, and Rudolf Schwarzkogler. Ketty La Rocca’s

text YouYou is also reproduced in the book. Lara Vinca Masini

quotes Vergine in her introductory text 6 . The common denominator

among all artists using the body as a language is

“la perdità di identità” (the loss of identity) and “la tenerezza

come metà mancata e quindi frustrante” (tenderness as

half-failure and therefore frustrating).

In Principio Erat, published by Centro Di in Florence with

a foreword by Gillo Dorfles, shows a pair of hands on the cover,

or to be more precise: two fists grasping one another. The

hands are shown isolated on a black background, without a

visible body or even arms. It’s a theatrical, dramatic photograph

in which the light shines solely on the two tense hands.

This is followed by pages of additional photographs of the

artist’s sculptural-looking hand appearing with outstretched

fingers and bitten nails, of pairs of hands stretching toward

one another, touching gently, clasping one another. While In

Principio Erat keeps to the classical bound book format, with

Libro a Mano and Senza titolo, La Rocca experiments with the

physical way of handling a book, of picking it up and holding

it: Senza titolo is also one of the few self-portraits in the form

of a classical facial portrait. Here, instead of hand gestures,

she shows her own facial expressions in 32 photographic portraits.

There are two versions of Libro a Mano, which shows

outlined hands on one half of the picture, handwritten lines

of text on the other: one is unbound, a sewn sequence of pages

that hangs vertically, while the other version is bound in

the middle, but not closed to form a book.

In Principio Erat was shown in 1972 at the Venice

Biennale in the section Il Libro come luogo di ricerca (The

book as research location), curated by Renato Barilli and

Daniela Palazzoli. In the performance and video section,

curated and produced in part by Gerry Schum, Ketty La

Rocca’s silent video film Appendice per una Supplica was

screened, showing hands in three chapters: the artist’s

hands in simple gestures, for instance her left hand held

between two men’s hands that frame it, grasp it, hold it

prisoner, and a pair of hands counting on its fingers as in

a children’s game. The hands are posed before a theatrical

black background, like actors. Prior to this video, photo series

were made of gestures of male and female hands, some

of which are covered in the handwritten word “You,” for instance

in Le mie parole, e tu? (1971/72). In 1975 this also became

the title of a performance at the Faculty of Architecture

of the University of Florence. The text of the performance

was “Dal momento in cui qualsiasi …,” first realized as a

text piece in 1970 and exhibited in 1976, only a few months

after her death, at the Galleria Schema in Florence. Le mie

parole, e tu? is considered to be a study for her video film,

from which numerous photographic versions were derived.

When Ketty La Rocca, at the age of 34, filmed the nineminute

video Appendice per una Supplica, video technology

was still in its beginning phase. The first exhibition to feature

video films was shown in New York in 1969. The studio

Art/tapes/22 in Florence, inspired by the praxis of Gerry

Schum, was founded toward the end of 1972 / early 1973 by

Maria Gloria Bicocchi and her husband Giancarlo Bicocchi.

For almost four years, Art/tapes/22 became the meeting point

in Florence for international artists who wanted to work with

video, including Vito Acconci, Giulio Paolini, Alighiero Boetti,

Marina Abramovic, Arnulf Rainer, Gilberto Zorio, Antoni

Muntadas, Dennis Oppenheim, Urs Lüthi, Allan Kaprow,

Jannis Kounellis, Joan Jonas, and Joseph Beuys. Bill Viola

lived for eighteen months in Florence, produced his first videos

there, and ran the production of Art/tapes/22 as technical

director. Almost 150 video films were produced between

1973 and 1976. In the end, Maria Gloria Bicocchi gave the entire

archive to the Archivio Storico delle Arti Contemporanee

asac dell’Ente Biennale di Venezia. While the films were restored,

they have hardly been seen since. Ketty La Rocca did

not produce her work at Art/tapes/22. In a letter that she presumably

wrote in late 1975 from the hospital, she asked Maria

Gloria Bicocchi to finally send her a loan contract for the video

Appendice per una Supplica that she’d given her the previous

year. The letter begins with the assertion that she never

worked together with Art/tapes/22, partly because she was

never invited to. She never undertook a “needless” attempt

5

6

Lea Vergine, Body Art e storie simili: Il corpo come linguaggio, Prearo Editore, Milan,1974.

Lara Vinca Masini, “Per Ketty 25 anni dopo”, in Lucilla Saccà (ed.), Omaggio a Ketty La Rocca, Pacini Editore, Pisa, 2001, p. 12.

13

herself, but it was well known that she was one of the first

artists to work with the medium 7 .

As little as Ketty La Rocca was evidently counted among

the inner circle of video artists, she also resisted ascribing

herself to feminist initiatives that fought from 1970 on for

women’s “autocoscienza” or self-awarness in Italy. Together

with the art critic Carla Lonzi (1931–1982) and feminist Elvira

Banotti (1933 – 2014), the artist Carla Accardi (1924 – 2014) initiated

the collective “Rivolta Femminile” and in 1970 published

the first feminist manifesto of the same name. Quote:

“The power of men is to identify themselves with culture, ours

is to refuse. Let‘s spit on Hegel.” The “Rivolta Femminile” did

not call for equality of the sexes, but rather difference, insisting

on the importance of the body, self-determined sexuality,

and the recognition of female work as productive;

it rejected marriage. Six years later, the critic Annemarie

Sauzeau Boetti, wife of Alighiero Boetti, wrote: “there is still

no declared group situation in Italy among the artists who

are aware of their historical condition as women, and their

awareness is much more of a private identification than a

move towards self-vindication and promotion.” 8

Sauzeau Boetti had already published her text “Lo specchio

Ardente: Appunti teorici sul concetto di ‘altra creatività’

di segno (o gene?) femminile” (16 – 17, July/August 1975)

the year previously in the Italian magazine Data. In this essay,

she juxtaposed the artistic practice of Marisa Merz, Carla

Accardi, and others with the theoretical discourse of Luce

Irigaray 9 and Julia Kristeva 10 and quoted Irigaray: “women’s

‘otherness’ remains unrepresentable, the double syntax,

woman not just different from man, but different from the reified

image of woman as ‘other.’” 11 Also published in the same

issue of Data was Ketty La Rocca’s text on her performance

Le mie parole, e tu? Published in issue 12 of 1974 was a text by

Daniela Palazzoli on “Ketty La Rocca: ‘tornare e parlare con le

mani.’” “Of all Italian artists active during the 1970s, La Rocca

fulfilled many of the requirements of feminist art practice

for Vergine along with Sauzeau Boetti and Lippard. Active

in Florence but excluded from the art world, La Rocca began

as an artist of poesia visiva (visual poetry) and died prematurely

at the age of thirty-eight in 1976. … La Rocca, like Pane,

represented the body itself as ‘writing, a system of signs that

represent and translate the undefined quest for the Other.’ In

photography, film, and video, La Rocca’s inventory of touching,

grasping, and gesturing hands constitute a private sign

language addressed to viewers directly in text and image.” 12

Beginning in 1971, Ketty La Rocca used the X-rays of her own

skull as image supports, almost in the same way that she

used advertising images as found material years before. The

X-ray is the matrix onto which she inscribes herself, or rather

“you,” on which she identifies and alienates herself, articulates

resistance: photographs of her hand – balled up into a

fist, as an open palm, or even a single finger – penetrate into

the inside of the skull and fill the emptiness. The repeated

“you” in small letters outlines the contours of her skull

and sometimes traces the eye sockets and mouth. The radiation

image becomes a battlefield of attempts at appropriation

and otherness, of inner and outer invocations and

struggles, of invasion and retreat. Head and hand are iconically

superimposed, a cold skull and a warm hand, two “mechanical”

images. She is reflected in her alien skull and calls

to it and herself as a “you” that falls back on itself. “You” becomes

a never-ending echo. Eva Meyer writes with Ketty La

Rocca: “The sound is the trace of the voice that can wait and

outwit the fault of not having one’s own voice … it is a medium

of resistance and a linguistic mirror of the alien within

oneself, and for this reason stronger than the narcissistic

illusion of having to have one’s own words and images.” 13

The radiographs are complex, dramatic self-portraits. In 2010,

one of these radiographs was acquired for the gallery of artists’

self-portraits in the Vasari corridor of the Uffizi.

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

Lucilla Saccà (ed.), Ketty La Rocca: i suoi scritti, Martano Editore, Turin, 2005, p. 145.

“Negative Capability as Practice in Women’s Art”, Studio International 191, January – February 1976, quoted from:

Wack!, Art and Feminist Revolution, mit Press, 2007, p. 289.

Luce Irigaray, Speculum of the other woman, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 1985, first published 1974.

Julia Kristeva, La révolution du langage poétique, Éditions du Seuil, Paris, 1974.

Wack!, Art and Feminist Revolution, mit Press, Cambridge, 2007, p. 391.

Judith Russi Kirshner, “Voices and Images of Italian Feminism”, in Wack! Art and the Feminist Revolution, mit Press,

2007, p. 390.

Eva Meyer, “Ich als Fotoexistenz”, in Ketty La Rocca, Supplica per un’ Appendice, Texte 1962–1976, Archive Books, Berlin,

2012, p. 68.

My images

the end of an image / or the image of an end / or / the illusion

of an image or / the image of an illusion / or / the

end of the illusion of an image or / the end of the image

of an illusion

A dear friend of mine told me that any film contains

around fifty million images: it’s the inflation of the century!

An inflation that has debased the meaning of all the

images of the past. … The fifty million images of a film

have completely dispossessed us … I take images that are

ready-made, already seen by so many people and for so

long, rendered vacuous by consensual descriptions, and I

relive them with all the knowledge stereotypes that have

been thrust upon me until, for me, they become something

else, they become ‘that’ image, over and above any

choral reading.

In 1973, Ketty La Rocca began her most extensive series of

works titled riduzioni, with which she is represented in the

majority of exhibitions and collections. In a text from 1974,

she talks about negating the metalanguage through tautological

reduction: “I propose once again an attempt at annihilation

of articulate language, now assumed in my latest

works in its dimension of metalanguage and disguised in

its eternally reductive function.” 14

The riduzioni are works

on paper consisting of several parts that are based on an existing

photographic image. The repertoire of motifs extends

from film posters and early art historical printed books from

Florence in the Archivo Alinari to the artist’s own private photographs

and media images of current figures in world politics.

“These mechanical images are assumed by me to be

events, that is, real: not a city, but its mechanical image is

the actual city; not Michelangelo’s David but a photo of it is

the actual David. This is the authentic sense of information,

not the nonsense of articulate language.”

The riduzioni always occur in at least three to five steps

or sheets. At the beginning is the chosen “mechanical” image,

which she then “transcribes” in the next sheet: using

microscopically small writing, she writes around the contours

of the figures or objects, “transcribing” them in their

meaning, tracing them with a text that almost always uses

“Dal momento in cui” as a basis. For this reason, people have

often spoken of nonsense text in the riduzioni, but what she

achieves with these texts is far more and includes a bitter

critique of art criticism. She writes by hand, on the one hand

reproducing the catchword rhetoric of criticism, but also enacting

the incorporation and even the dissolution of the image.

Ketty La Rocca does not write about images, but rather

over images; using a light box, she replaces their image

with text, in other words negates it. In the actual process of

transference, her hands touch the image while dissolving

it. This procedure recalls Carla Lonzi’s Autoritratto, which

was published in 1969 and was nearly her last statement as

art critic before she directed her activities exclusively to the

feminist movement. Lonzi, born 1931 in Florence, published

her Autoritratto by inscribing herself into a dialogue with

artists, by having a conversation with them. The following

year she published “La critica è Potere” in the magazine nac

(Notiziario Arte Contemporanea) and wrote: “neither culture

nor society are based on authenticity, but rather (they) speculate

on the authenticity of others: in other words, they live

on the level of power, while controlling, in an indiscriminate

way, authenticity and inauthenticity.” 15 In 1973, Ketty

La Rocca published a version of her text “Dal momento in

cui …” in nac.

Ketty La Rocca did not stop at writing into or over the image.

The third work in the riduzioni also dissolves the text,

the alphabet, the handwritten, the memory of given meaning,

and draws the trace of the written word using no more

than a line. In works made after the third piece, Ketty La

Rocca dramatizes drawing by using additional omissions and

broad, flat accents which partly recreate the image even as

they attack it. In the 1974 text quoted above, Ketty La Rocca

writes about the “liberation” of the images from the metalanguage,

and at the same time about a process of exhaustion

and disempowerment.

In all work groups from 1971 on, the handwritten “you”

turns up again and again. Ketty La Rocca quickly rejected the

stenciled letter “J.” In an undated two-part photograph, one

14

15


Carla Lonzi, “La critica è potere”, in Notiziario Arte Contemporanea, 3 December 1970, pp. 5 – 6

15

again sees the sculptural body of the “J” lying next to her like a

partner in bed, once with the subtitle “con inquietudine” (with

disturbance), another with “con attenzione” (with attention).

The assertion of the “J” becomes a call for the “you.” It is a

manifold “you,” written several times over the photographed

hands, a “you” that repeatedly replaces all other text in the radiographs,

a “you” that places itself in the riduzioni and in the

window front of the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi. In 1973, Ketty

La Rocca writes in an unpublished text on the occasion of her

solo show at the Galleria Seconda Scala in Rome: “‘you, you’

attempts to obstruct the mental process, making the asymptote

of alienation immediately clear, ‘you’ means that ‘i,’ i have

no alternatives, i am saved / in my own hysteria / in making

living other than me microscopic / in my being an example of

alienation / but not of perversion / not the partial” The text

was published in a reworked version the following year in

Lea Vergine’s book 16 . In the performance Le mie parole, e tu?

in March of 1975 in the class of Gianni Pettena – who also invited

Allan Kaprow, Terry Fox, Chris Burden, and others to

the Faculty of Architecture department – the “you” is finally

spoken out loud in a threatening, dramatic cacophony. Ketty

La Rocca read the text Dal momento in cui (1970) out loud, and

in a rhythmic alternation between invocation and interruption,

she continuously repeats the “you” while her fellow performers

chime in for the refrain, becoming louder and louder

and pointing their fingers at her. The “you” is flung back

at Ketty La Rocca like a boomerang. Her head sinks slowly

onto the table.

“In this action that I would call conjugation I am an example

to myself and to others of a total enslavement to language,

to its most enticing infrastructures, I force myself to

speak through a refined example, the others that take part in

the action combine both a real drama and my interior drama,

my relation with the medium: captivating but sterile: language

does not determine even illusory freedom, but proliferates

contagiously, creates victims that conjugate their very

own condition and define it ‘you.’” 17

Ketty La Rocca’s work has dramatic aspects to it. Basically,

however, it is the drama of every artistic production between

the urge to subjectivity, the reflected rejection of the given,

and the search for a valid form. Throughout the 1960s and

1970s, Ketty La Rocca had the incredible energy and intelligence

to pursue this tension in a purity and radicality that

make her an invaluable artist’s artist to this day. While the

conditions of artistic production have changed enormously

in the four decades since her death, her voice remains present

in its resistance and desire while the work continues to

be a true discovery.

16

17

Lea Vergine, Body Art e storie simili: Il corpo come linguaggio, Prearo Editore, Milan, 1974.


FROM MY WORDS TO

YOURS AND FROM YOUR

WORDS TO MINE

ON THE CRITICAL FORTUNE OF KETTY LA ROCCA AND THE CULTURAL

CONTEXT OF HER WORK FROM THE SIXTIES TO THE PRESENT.

emi fontana

“Artist Ketty La Rocca dies at the age

of thirty-eight, killed by an incurable

illness.” This opening line appeared on

several Italian newspapers in February

1976. As La Rocca’s friend, Daniela

Palazzoli, wrote at the time, “Her artistic

language, sprung from the self-awareness

of the avant-garde, was able to reach

outside these exclusive circles to a much

wider audience.” 1

Amongst the many

faces of her artistic practice, La Rocca

also worked as a creator of experimental

programs for deaf mutes on Italian national

television (rai-Radiotelevisione

Italiana). Language was everything and

nothing to Ketty La Rocca.

Nearly a year after Ketty’s death, in

the May-June 1977 issue of Art in America,

Lucy Lippard published a groundbreaking

essay. 2

The article made wide reference

to Lea Vergine’s pivotal book from

1974, Body Art e storie simili: il corpo come

linguaggio. 3 One of the works from Ketty’s

Craniologies series is reproduced in the

magazine, but the opening sentence almost

sounds like a spell: “Ketty La Rocca,

unable to break into the male art

world with her art or her writing”. 4

Actually, Ketty was considerably successful

when she was alive, often the

only woman in all-male shows, but it

is obvious that she struggled enormously

and paid a very high emotional price.

1

2

3

4

Daniela Palazzoli, “Esploratrice di Linguaggi”, Corriere della Sera, February 9th, 1976.

Lucy Lippard, “The pains and pleasures of rebirth: women’s body art”, in Art in America, May – June 1977, pp. 74 – 82.

Lea Vergine, Body Art e storie simili: il corpo com e linguaggio, Prearo Editore, Milano 1974.

Lucy Lippard. op. cit.

17

In the late sixties and early seventies, the Italian art world

was entirely dominated by men. Those were the years in

which the Arte Povera movement, known for its chauvinistic

and macho attitude was starting its triumphal march,

lead by the critic Germano Celant. In this world, few critical

female voices were rising, over all the one of Carla Lonzi,

who eventually abjured the art world in favor of militant

feminism. In the same article, Lucy Lippard compares

what was happening for woman artists in Europe and the

United States. Female imagery had already been accepted,

especially in Los Angeles, thanks to Cal Arts’ feminist program,

initiated by Judy Chicago and Miriam Shapiro in 1971,

the experience of the Womanhouse in 1972, and later the

Women’s Building. Once this idea reached the East Coast,

where Conceptualism and Minimalism ruled, it started to

find some resistance. In Europe it was even worse: “the male

establishment, unsympathetic to women participating in

to the art world as equal competitors, has approved (if rather

patronizing and perhaps lasciviously) of women working

with their own, preferably attractive, bodies and faces.” 5

This attitude would lead to an odious double standard for

which women artists using their own bodies were tagged

as narcissists.

La Rocca’s approach to the body is indeed very peculiar.

Her interest is in body parts that have more to do with immediate

communication: hands and facial expressions. In 1971

she starts a series of works with hands, realizing her book,

In Principio Erat: “In the beginning was the word” so begins

the Gospels according to John. In 1972, the book is included

in the xxxvi Venice Biennale with another work by La Rocca,

the video Appendice per una Suplica, realized in collaboration

with Gerry Schum. The fact that Ketty at the age of 34

was part of the Biennale in two different sections definitely

proves that her work is not going unnoticed by her contemporaries.

The two sections of the Biennale are respectively, The

Book as a Venue of Experimentation, curated by Renato Barilli

and Daniela Palazzoli, and Performance and Videotapes. The

choice of working with these two different media is interesting;

they seem almost antithetical and anachronistic: the

book and the video, but they do have something in common:

the possibility of widespread circulation. With these works,

La Rocca initiates her poetic quest of the use of hands as a

meaning of communication, prayer, expression and relation

to others. A text by Gillo Dorfles, the legendary Italian cultural

critic and philosopher, introduces the images in the book.

“The speaking hands,” he writes, “… gestures that denounce,

clarify and protect … the most inimitable and authentic communicative

quality of humanity.” 6

For another artist book in 1974, La Rocca collects images

of her face with thirty-two different expressions. In her

search for authenticity, in her stripping bare and unmasking

the pantomime of language, La Rocca, toward the end,

gets to the bones, or to be more precise, to the skull: the container

of the brain where language is formed, but also according

to many spiritual traditions, the mask of our real

selves. The Craniologie is the last series she realizes before

her premature death of cancer. These enlarged X-rays of her

cranium are manipulated, overlapped with images of hand

gestures, masks and hand-written words. In December 1975,

she sends two of these works to Romana Loda, the curator

who is going to exhibit them in the show Magma. 7 A note is

enclosed: “Animus: don’t die of words on me. / The x-ray of

the cranium is the mask of modern man / a mask he wears /

and that makes every man look like every man / for him the

face is a pantomime, language has made it such / the cranium

mask betrays him, doesn’t follow him / the woman conserves

a tragic fragile face. / But seeking elsewhere is merely

involution / man is now / either alienation / or perversion

/ or lives clinging to syllogisms / deer are fast, Indians are

fast: Indians are deer.” 8

In her pivotal book on women’s art, From the Center,

Lippard 9 reproduced one of the Craniologies and wrote, in relation

to La Rocca’s work, about “a need of a profound level of

transformation of the self and of the others.” 10

5

6

7

8

9

10

Ibid.

Gillo Dorfles,”Introduction” in Ketty La Rocca, In Principio Erat, Centro Di, Florence, 1971.

Magma curated by Romana Loda, Castello Olofredi, Iseo (Brescia).

“Ricordo di Ketty La Rocca”, Romana Loda, Il Giornale di Brescia, February 14th, 1976 (Translated from Italian to English

by the author).

The article in Art in America mentioned above is actually an extract from the book.

Lucy Lippard, From the center: feminist essays on women’s art, Dutton 1976.

There is indeed an alchemical quality in the work of Ketty

La Rocca, a constant process of transfiguration unfolding.

Looking at her art from this prospective, her physical disappearance

from this world could be read just as a phase of the

process of transformation that will lead her art and its critical

reading to many rebirths.

In 1978, two years after her death, her work is once more

included in the Venice Biennale in a retrospective with two

other Italian artists, who like her, died premature deaths:

Domenico Gnoli and Claudio Cintoli. In the same year, one

more survey of her work is presented in Italy in the evocative

setting of the Castello dei Guidi, in Vinci, the same location

that houses the Leonardo Museum, where more than fifty

models of the “machines” projected by Leonardo da Vinci

are permanently exhibited. After this show, for nearly a decade,

a curtain of silence will fall on the work of Ketty La Rocca.

Then came the eighties. Things were happening that were

going to make the art world the way we know it now. The

black-and-white dominated seventies, the era of conceptualism

and the “dematerialization of the art object” 11 were over,

brushes and colors were back, objects were in favor again,

money was starting to flow into the contemporary art business

as never before. All of this seemed very far away from

the art of Ketty La Rocca, but underneath the glossy surface,

conversely, something else was happening. During this time

we witnessed a real breakthrough of woman artists, some

who were working with language, re-appropriating images

from advertising and subverting their semantics.

Ketty La Rocca started her journey as an artist in the

Florence of the sixties. At the time, groups of young artists

and intellectuals were challenging the status quo with their

experimental practices. Until then, Florence mainly reflected

the image of the Medicean city, treasure chest of the Italian

Renaissance. In the years between 1965 and 1975, a lot was

happening in Florence. The dramatic flood of 1966 had destroyed

many human lives, millions of masterpieces and rare

books. Past and history were swept away in a tragic fashion

by waves of mud, symbolically and dramatically opening up

a new era in the contemporary art scene of the city.

At the time, the experimentation was mostly happening in

the fields of visual poetry, music and, later on, radical architecture.

In those years La Rocca starts to work, appropriating

images from the media world of advertising; she experiments

with the techniques of collage and montage, introducing

language in the form of made-up advertising and media

headlines, often playing the message of the visuals in reverse

or amplifying it to the point of paradox. Her main focus

is on how the image of the woman was represented by media:

apparently a little bit more independent, maybe a little

bit more undressed, targeted more as a consumer, but still

strongly objectified as a product of patriarchal culture. To

quote some of Ketty’s works from the time: “Healthy as the

daily bread,” “Will monkeys learn how to talk?”

Amongst the women artists breaking through the art system

in the eighties, Jenny Holzer and Barbara Kruger were

investigating new ways to introduce narratives and commentaries

as part of a visual experience in the public sphere.

Neither Holzer nor Kruger knew La Rocca’s work at the time,

but we can definitely trace some parallels within their practices.

Jenny Holzer’s first public work, Truism (1977 – 1979)

appeared anonymously around Manhattan as flyers with

just one sentence printed on each: “Protect me from what I

want”, and “Romantic Love was invented to manipulate women,”

and so on. In 1980, in the context of the pivotal exhibition,

Times Square, the truisms took over the public space in

a more overt way with Holzer using led signs.

In 1966, La Rocca works in close proximity with Gruppo

70 and participates in their event called Poesia e no, in which

she distributes flyers with single sentences printed on them,

often poetic nonsense. In using sentences that she invented,

as well as sentences from different existing sources, La

Rocca appropriates and dismembers, mixing messages from

corporate and media language with more personal, poetic

and subjective communication, realizing a linguistic assemblage

that results in “a polyphonic chorus composed by

voices”. 12 To give some examples: “La Metro Goldwin Meyer e’

fiera di presentare” (Metro Goldwin Mayer is proud to present),

“A story that moved the world,” “ Any news about Patrizia

11

12

Lucy Lippard, Six Years: The Dematerialization of the art object from 1966 to 1972, University of California Press, 1997.

Previously published New York, Praeger 1973.

Rossella Moratto, “Note sulla produzione poetica di Ketty La Rocca”, in Lucilla Saccà (ed.), Omaggio a Ketty La Rocca,

Pacini Editore, Pisa, 2001, pp. 176–179.

19

Vicinelli?” Or simply: “Ketty La Rocca.” In Italy, experimental

poetry was at its peak. Besides the visual or technological

poetry of the Florentine clique, the poets of Gruppo 63

(Nanni Balestrini, Alfredo Giuliani, Antonio Porta amongst

others) are also experimenting with collage techniques applied

to language.

Between 1967 and 1969, La Rocca starts to work with

street signage, using poetic statements within the shapes

of road signs and car plates.

In an essay from 1989 Lara Vinca Masini 13 precisely isolated

the work Io sono Peter (I am Peter) (1964 – 65) as the moment

in Ketty’s oeuvre in which she makes a transition from

the collages to the signage. Io sono Peter is composed as a

collage but is in reality a print on plastic, mounted on wood.

Progressively, in the collages of the Poesie Visive (Visual

Poems) (1964 – 1966), La Rocca’s typographic fonts become

more and more predominant in the composition; they fascinate

her as pure form, rather then for their meanings.

La Rocca must have been acquainted with the Saussure

and Pierce’ studies of the signifier and the signified. We can

also assume that post-structuralism works by Levi Strauss,

Foucault, Barthes and Lacan, which in the same years were

flourishing just across the Alps, was informing the intellectual

milieu she was part of. In Io sono Peter, the font of the word

“Io”, Italian for “I”, become predominant. One of the main ideas

in Lacan’s work is that the unconscious is structured like

a language and is not a primitive or archetypal part of the

mind separate from the conscious or linguistic ego. Later in

his career, Lacan came to consider the mirror stage as not just

a moment in the life of an infant, but a permanent structure

of subjectivity. With Io sono Peter, for the first and last time,

Ketty uses the first-person pronoun “I,” emphasizing it with

the typographical treatment of the two letters that compose

the word “Io” and the way the word dominates the composition.

The verb is also Italian: “sono.” “Peter” is English for

Pietro, who is the founder of the Catholic Church. On the white

background the only figurative element is an array of little

Catholic priests that look like they were taken from a picture

of the well-known Italian photographer, Mario Giacomelli.

This work is enigmatic and dramatic: the play of gender reversal

in the sentence, the overt criticism to the patriarchal language

of the Catholic Church and its hegemonic power that

was very much felt in Italy at the time. From this moment

on, La Rocca frees herself of any trends that have influenced

the beginning of her career. Her work becomes very personal

and unique. Jacques Lacan has somehow theorized that language

murders the thing and takes its place. 14 Few years later,

after the works on street signage, the big, mannerist typographic

“I” of Io sono Peter, will translate into the tridimensional

space with the sculptural series of the I, the J and the

punctuation. These typographic signs will occupy space with

a much greater presence than the one normally ascribed to

them. “They will inhabit the urban landscape with the dignity

of objects”. 15 From now on in her practice, La Rocca kills

the supremacy of the subject, subverting the discourse and

slipping into new territories and in the politics of desire.

The word “you” appears to stay for the first time in her work

around 1971. It will become a mantra (as Vergine first called

it) 16 accompanying the journey of transformation in Ketty La

Rocca’s work and life. In a letter to Lucy Lippard 17 from 1975,

Ketty describes the word “you” as a “minimal measure of language”.

The first time she uses it is in the context of her work

on the hand gestures that will culminate with In Principio

Erat, the artist book presented at the Venice Biennale in 1972 .

Why does Ketty La Rocca choose to use “you” in English

and not the Italian “tu” of her native tongue? Especially in a

world in which globalization was not really happening the

way it is now. Certainly “you” is more complex and graphically

interesting, with the “y” with its little leg. “You” is

more universal. In English, the formal second person singular

pronoun doesn’t exist; the pronoun is the same for singular

and plural. “You” can address an intimate other or a

stranger as well as an anonymous multitude or a generic

otherness. Luigi Carluccio, in his text for the 1978 Biennale,

writes, “ ‘You’, the foreign word, repeated infinite times, is

the only possible term of a narrative that wants and has to

13

14

15

16

17

Lara Vinca Masini, Ketty La Rocca, Galleria Carini, Florence, 1989.

Lacan, Jacques, Ecrits: a selection, 1989. Translated by Alan Sheridan, Routledge, London.

Achille Bonito Oliva, Ketty La Rocca. Le presenze alfabetiche e lo spazio parlato, exhibition catalogue, Modena 1970.

Taken from personal communication with Lea Vergine, 1994.

Lucilla Saccà (ed.), Ketty La Rocca: i suoi scritti, Martano Editore, Turin, 2005.

remain encrypted”. 18 Ketty makes it pretty clear: “ I do not narrate.”

19 “You” is a gesture “repeated infinite times” 20 to draw

the outline of an image with handwriting. The use of second

person implies a relation, or rather, the lack of one. “You” is

absence and desire, the “minimal measure of language”, transition

between verbal expression and body language; “you”

immediately precedes a gesture: accusation or prayer. “You”

is indeed the ultimate trace of a narrative lost in the dramatic

dance of the subject with its object. Paraphrasing further

La Rocca’s words, she uses “you” “as an antidote, a mantra in

fact, to not get lost “in the narcissism of syllogisms: Deer are

fast, Indians are fast, deer are Indians”. 21

At the dawn of the eighties, Barbara Kruger started to manipulate

existing images from the world of advertising and

mass media communication, juxtaposing and superimposing

figures and figures of speech, using a similar montage composition

to the one used by Ketty in her early collage works. They

both often use pre-existing pictures that have been staged,

sometime pairing those with more photojournalistic images.

Kruger had more technology available to manipulate pictures,

and at the time she was working, the presence of media

in everyday life had become far more oppressive. Nevertheless

her work didn’t develop as a response to the media and out

of the context of the art world, but “in the belly of the beast of

commercial visual culture”. 22 In fact, Kruger prior to becoming

an artist, worked as a graphic designer for women’s magazines.

After a while she realized she could use her graphic

skills to inform her artistic practice and to “instrumentally

build a critique of the culture that constructed and contained

me”. 23 However the intention of altering the meaning of an image,

repositioning its elements, playing with scale and actually

restaging them through montage and editing, has some affinities

to Ketty, who was also very interested in new technologies,

which started to affect communication. Craig Owens in

his pivotal essay on Kruger’s work The Medusa Effect 24 says

her work is not concerned with action, but rather with gesture.

We have seen that gesture is central to all of La Rocca’s

production. Since the beginning, Kruger also started to incorporate

personal pronouns in her art, “I” and “You” exclusively.

The corporeal quality of these pronouns is clear. It is an “I”

that plays out unlikely gender identification, revealing the absurdity

of using a language created in the name of the father

in the attempt to construct a feminine identity. Afterward, La

Rocca will forever shift to “you”. Personal pronouns are classically

defined as “shifters” in discourse. In post-modern linguistics

and criticism the reading of the use of pronouns became

more connected to a discourse of alienation and identity:

“the ‘you’ that must never be ‘I’.” 25 “You are not yourself,”

says Kruger in a work from 1983.

Indeed even if the eighties were for Ketty La Rocca a season

of absence from the international scene, time was silently

working on her side. Wall Street crashed in 1987, and as

usual, a couple of years later, the art market followed. The

glossy surface of the eighties art world cracked, bringing

again to the foreground discourses such as identity politics,

gender and ethnicity related issues, that in reality were

at work for the whole decade under the surface. The formal

aspect of the art object dissolved once again to make spaces

for ideas and politics in the contemporary discourse. In

this context, the rediscovery of La Rocca’s work was inevitable.

In 1992, The Centre d’Art Conteporain in Geneve, directed

by Paolo Colombo, organized a retrospective of the artist,

the first one after over ten years. In response to the show, in

the March issue of Artforum, an article appeared by Judith

Russi Kirshner on the work of Ketty La Rocca. 26 In the nineties,

the reading of La Rocca’s work was strongly informed

by the discourses on identity politics, subjectivity and gender.

It also feels like that dooming sentence by Lippard, in the

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

Luigi Carluccio, “Ketty La Rocca 1938 – 1976”, in xxxviii Biennale di Venezia, Dalla Natura all’Arte dall’Arte alla Natura,

La Biennale di Venezia, Electa, Milan, 1978.

Lucilla Saccà (ed.), Ketty La Rocca: i suoi scritti, Martano Editore, Turin, 2005.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Barbara Kruger, personal communication with the author, April 2015.

Ibid.

Craig Owens, The Medusa Effect, or, The Specular Ruse, Beyond Recognition, Representation, Power and Culture, California

Press 1992.

Francois Lyotard, “The Insistence of Pragmatics”, Winter Spring 1983, p. 91.

Judith Russi Kirshner, “You and I”, in Artforum International, March 1993, pp. 80 – 83.

21

article 27 from 1972 had set the tone for much of the reception

of her art and the mystique created around her. On gender instead,

once more, I like to reference La Rocca’s words directly

with a quotation that ironically addresses the issue and her

being an artist in the art world of the seventies “I gave away

my skirt a while ago, could you even imagine a pleated tartan

skirt, from now on pants only, colonial style, not the colonial

style from before, the short ones, but the ones in fashion now,

pale blue like sugar-paper color, but this time around the sugar

is from long ago, bell bottoms, large ones, the ones you are

dragging on, never new! What about lipstick? I don’t want to

even think about it, I used to like it a lot; I tried, if I was wearing

lipstick they asked if I was a painter. Sophisticated association,

adequate if coming from a cop during an interrogation

of a suspect; what am I going to do? Should I beat him up

now or should I tell him he could have well made the association

with a different part of the body, the one that doesn’t wear

lipstick, instead the one that makes you wear it …” 28 We like

to say that Ketty’s work goes far beyond the search of identity

in a male dominated world; she is a step ahead of all of this

that belongs, after all, to a linear discourse of logic invented

by “men clinging on syllogism” she knows she cannot partake

in that world. La Rocca instead chooses to deconstruct a language

that she perceives as hostile, that doesn’t belong to her

and doesn’t serve the construction of her own self as subject.

In the nineties there is also an increased interest around

the issue of the archive. Aby Warburg’s Mnemosyne Atlas,

composed in 1929, received a renewed critical attention. In

1989, the first edition of Atlas, an impressive collection of images

by the German painter Gerard Richter, is published. This

collection of personal images heavily influenced art produced

by emerging artists, for whom the archive and its documented

materials, became a style in the artistic dialogue and no

longer merely a source.

Between 1972 and 1973, La Rocca started a new series of

works known as riduzioni, her most acclaimed body of work.

The works usually consist of two or more panels of which the

first is a found picture that gets progressively dissolved into

signs after going through an intermediate stage in which the

artist retraces the outlines of the image with her handwriting.

The main source of the pictures Ketty uses in this series

comes from the Archivio Alinari, based in Florence; it is one

of, if not the most, amazing archives of photography in the

world. Founded in 1852 by the Alinari brothers, the archive

is certainly the oldest photography foundation in the world

that is still active. It consists of a patrimony of 5.5 million,

images mostly art related.

Several years prior, the historical exhibition Pictures, curated

by Douglas Crimp, at Artists Space in New York in 1977,

marks the birth of “appropriation art.” Ketty is already using

existing imagery inducing a different approach and awareness

of the power of photography and reproduction of images

in our contemporary society. For instance, in regards to

the picture of David by Michelangelo, one of the most iconic

historical masterpieces that she uses in one of the riduzioni,

she writes, “The David doesn’t exist anymore, the real one is

the one of the postcards … the one reproduced in the art history

books … but if I want a David all for myself I have the

only chance to make it again, based on my memory on my

way of being, of feeling, of living.” Ketty is well aware of living

in a world in which images, objects and words are signs.

Her way toward re-appropriation and de-construction still

passes through her own body and expresses itself in handwriting,

in a text with no meaning, and in the obsessive repetition

of the word “you.”

In 1994 I started to show Ketty La Rocca in my gallery in

Milano working with her son, Michelangelo Vasta, contextualizing

her work in what was considered a cutting edge program.

In 1995, with Nicolaus Schafhausen, we curated a show

of hers at the Künstlerhaus Stuttgart. At the time, joining

forces with Künstlerhaus, Galleria Emi Fontana produced,

together with Michelangelo Vasta, a CD Rom on her work. In

1996 at the Kunsthalle Wien, she is included in an exhibition

titled Auf den Leib Geschrieben (Written on the Body). In this

show, La Rocca is paired with other pivotal women artists

from her generation and after, like Mary Kelly, Valie Export,

27

28

“Her artistic language, sprung from the self-awareness of the avant-garde, was able to reach outside these

exclusive circles to a much wider audience.” Lucy Lippard. “The pains and pleasures of rebirth: women’s body art”,

in Art in America, May – June 1977, pp.74 – 82.

Lucilla Saccà (Ed.), Ketty La Rocca, I suoi scritti, Martano Editore, Turin, 2005.

Sue Williams, Shirin Neshat and Elke Krystufek, who also

used writing in a corporeal and gestural manner. Ketty La

Rocca’s name starts circulating again in the most avant-garde

circles, and her work is showed internationally. In Italy

in 1999, there was a survey in La Spezia, the town where

she was born in 1938. In 2001, the retrospective Omaggio a

Ketty La Rocca at Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, curated

by Lucilla Sacca. In 2002, with Alma Ruiz and Giovanna

Zamboni, we curated a survey of Ketty’s work at the Italian

Institute of Culture in Los Angeles that eventually led to an

acquisition of her work by the Museum of Contemporary Art.

In 2003 Silvia Eiblmayr curated another survey show for the

Galerie im Taxispalais in Innsbruck. In 2007, Ketty La Rocca

is included in the show wack! Art and the Feminist Revolution

curated by Connie Butler at the Museum of Contemporary

Art in Los Angeles, the first major survey on art and feminism.

In the catalogue, Judith Russi Kishner, writes again

about Ketty and Carla Accardi, the only other Italian woman

included in the show, in the context of Italian Feminism.

It is almost ironic to write a text on the critical reception

of Ketty La Rocca’s work and to have to rely on words to do so.

Overall, art writers and curators love her work, and so have

the new generations of art professionals. It is hard not to be

taken in by the drama, the romantic cliché of the artist who

died young, the Cinderella syndrome. Undeniably, when it

comes to woman artists, there is much more interest directed

toward their biography and much more space for projections

from the side of who is writing.

Le mie parole e tu (My Words and You), it is a title that Ketty

must have especially loved. She uses it more than once for different

works. In 1970, she composed a text, roughly one page

of a grammatically perfect piece of writing that doesn’t make

any sense and starts with the words “Concidering that any …”

(Dal momento in cui …). The wording of the whole text could

be from a heavily academic essay on aesthetics or art. Ketty

exhibited it as a text in different forms. In 1975, she used it

for her last performance that she staged in several venues:

Florence, Rome and Brescia. The title of the performance is

Le mie parole e tu. There are various accounts of how the performance

went, and she could have changed it slightly in each

venue, but more or less it goes like this: Ketty is sitting at a

desk surrounded by the audience. In Florence at the Faculty

of Architecture, the environment is a classroom. She is reciting

the text, “Considering that any procedures …” The closest

circle of the audience around her is in reality composed by actors,

who at different times start to recite the same meaningless

text, rhythmically punctuated by the word “You.” They

are extending their arms, pointing at the artist with a gesture

of judgment and accusation. Towards the end, the cacophony

is intolerable, the artist’s voice inaudible; the only

word that remains to be heard is “You.” Language has imploded.

The artist bows her head in a sign of surrender. There is

nothing more to say. Ketty would have probably agreed with

Kathy Acker, the genius, experimental, punk writer, who almost

two decades later wrote, “Life doesn’t exist inside language:

too bad for me.” 29

29

Kathy Acker, My Mother: Demonology, 1994.

23

KETTY

LA

ROCCA

pier luigi tazzi

I. LA KETTY

We met for the first time in the home of

Lelio Missoni, who was living on an upper

floor of an ugly Fifties building just

across Ponte alla Carraia. It was right

after the big flood.

That day Ketty was wearing a light,

wispy outfit in intense pink tones, with

her hair teased like Mina: a flaunted

femininity that would have embarrassed

and frightened me, at the same

time, had it not been for the immediate

sense of familiarity, accompanied

by a sort of affectionate curiosity on her

part. I sat back and let myself be enveloped

by the pleasant mists emanating

from her person – the same thing would

happen almost twenty years later, in

Paris, when my friendship began with

Marina Abramović. In any case, that

type of clothing or hairdo did not survive

in the image Ketty assumed shortly

thereafter, and was to maintain for the

rest of her life.

We hit it off almost immediately. We

had friends in common, Missoni and

Eugenio Miccini, among others, and

there were plenty of opportunities to

cross paths in Florence back then. I introduced

her years later to Il Carrozzone

and it was instant, mutual attraction.

We were linked by an indiscreet complicity

that came from intimate and

reckless confessions, a constant, uninhibited

exchange of small but fundamental

emotions that were the most

indispensable and least unanimously

sharable of our everyday experiences. 1

Even when at the start of the seventies

I began to stay away from the city, in

the countryside at Le Catese and in my

first intense detour away from Europe,

at Al Hoceima, while she was starting

the most concentrated period of her artistic

career, which often took her away

from Florence, we continued to stay in

touch. I kept abreast of everything that was going on in her

life, her love stories pursued with exemplary correctitude,

her artistic growth, the dramatic situations she had to cope

with, right to the end. In all that time she never showed signs

of yielding, but always exuded positive irony, while hiding

nothing from herself.

I never wrote about her back then: we were too close for

me to have the detachment necessary for the task.

We had seen her a few days earlier, at the hospital. That

evening, at Le Catese, Roberto and I, under the effects of

hashish, in which we indulged freely at the time, had a

shared hallucination that deeply troubled us. I saw an apparition,

at the height of the cushions where we were stretched

out, a small figure with blurred contours, but palpably solid,

emanating a vibrant, milky glow. Trying to describe it later,

I compared it to the whitish patch on the back of the horse

in the Conversion of Saul by Caravaggio in Santa Maria del

Popolo.

Later, we found out that Ketty had passed away at that

moment.

II. AVANT ET APRÈS LE DELUGE

Ketty La Rocca began to make art towards the middle of the

sixties, in a Florence that had yet to totally divest itself of

the antique charm of the myth with which its foreign visitors

– mostly but not only English – had clothed it starting

in the mid-1700s, when it was the capital of the Grand Duchy

of Tuscany. Then came the flood in the fall of 1966, which besmirched

the city, erasing a large portion of its crafts community

whose workshops were on the ground floor, in the

semi-basements and cellars of the center, but also washing

away a bit of the ancient patina. Everything seemed to

change – for the worse, it was thought at the time.

When Ketty La Rocca first approached the city’s art scene

it was divided – and had been since at least the start of the

decade – into two opposing and barely communicating areas.

On one side there were the “figuratives,” the distorted realism

of the post-Guttuso painters connected with and supported

by the pci 2 (Communist Party) at the time. Palmiro

Togliatti, 3

the Migliore, who back in 1948, under the pseudonym

Roderigo di Castiglia had personally stigmatized

“Abstractism” in Rinascita, had just died in Crimea. 4

The artists:

Xavier Bueno, 5 who arrived in Florence in 1940, was developing

a style of painting heavy with leaden grays, with a

vague Murillo-esque tone and what was called “social” content;

Fernando Farulli 6 painted the steel mills of Piombino;

Piero Tredici, 7 a frequent illustrator for Rinascita, combined

Francis Bacon 8 with the Informale. The gallery of reference:

Nuova Corrente. Their mentor at national level: Mario De

Micheli, 9 official art critic in those years of L’Unità, 10 who had

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

My relations with Ketty and Marina, much later, at times have very similar characteristics, above all those of complicity

and trust, accompanied in both cases by my great respect for their respective and different personal attitudes, in both

moral and professional terms.

Founded as the Partito Comunista d’Italia as a result of the separation of the left wing, guided by Amadeo Bordiga and

Antonio Gramsci, of the Partito Socialista Italiano during the course of its 17th Congress in Livorno in 1921. It took the

name Partito Comunista Italiano, pci, in 1943. The party was dissolved at its 20th National Congress held in Rimini in

1991, under the general secretary Achille Occhetto. The majority formed the new Partito Democratico della Sinistra, pds.

Genoa 1893 – Yalta 1964, one of the founders of the Partito Comunista d’Italia, later pci from 1943, secretary general of

the party from 1927 to 1934 and then from 1938 until his death.

Monthly political- cultural magazine of the pci. Founded by Togliatti himself in 1944 and directed by him until his death,

it became a weekly in 1962, stopped publishing in 1989, and resumed five months later with a new format and new numbering,

before closing for good in 1991.

Vera de Bidasoa 1915 – Fiesole 1979.

Florence 1923 – 1979.

Sesto Fiorentino 1928 – 2011.

Dublin 1909 – Madrid 1992.

Genoa 1914 – Milan 2004.

25

published Le avanguardie artistiche del Novecento in 1959.

Their local supporter: Renzo Federici, 11

another art critic,

writing for the Roman daily Paese Sera 12 which was very close

to the pci at the time, and a teacher at the Porta Romana Art

Institute in Florence. 13

On the other side were the “abstractionists” who after a

short but felicitous “informal” period at the end of the Fifties

dominated by Riccardo Guarneri, Paolo Masi, Mario Fallani,

Claudio Verna and Lanfranco Baldi, 14 had in many cases converted

to the geometric abstraction championed by the art

historian Giulio Carlo Argan. 15 They were actively sustained

by Lara Vinca Masini. 16 The former editorial secretary of the

seminal magazine Sele Arte 17 had close ties to Argan at the

time, and was still working in a discreet but extensive manner

on the editing of the fourth and final volume of his Storia

dell’arte italiana, titled L’arte moderna 1770 – 1970. These artists

never really had their own gallery, though they did open

and manage their own constantly shifting exhibition spaces,

aided in these undertakings by a bright young Florentine

critic named Claudio Popovich. 18 To Guarneri, Masi and Baldi

I would add the names of at least two other artists working

in this area: Vittorio Tolu and Paolo Scheggi. 19

Most of

them had emerged from that hotbed of the most advanced

and open artistic experimentalism that was Fiamma Vigo’s

Numero gallery 20, 21 . This had its modest origins in 1951 in a

space inside the Bar degli Artisti on Via degli Artisti, and

was named after the artistic-literary magazine founded by

Vigo herself two years earlier; by the mid-sixties it had prem-

ises not only in Florence but also in Rome, Milan and Venice.

The art of the “abstractionists” had a positive virtue based

on the materialism of perception and the elaboration of clear

forms, divorced from any manifest protest against the ills of

the world, any flaming or paroxysmal symbolism. For this

very reason it occupied a direct, active dimension of intervention

in the world, not through the rhetoric of figures but

through the visible construction of form: that same “formalism”

stigmatized in the past by Roderigo di Castiglia, recovered

by them in new “democratic” modulations, in opposition

to the triviality imposed by increasingly invasive mass

culture. Their political commitment was important, though

not always avowed, yet Lanfranco Baldi was a member of the

Partito Comunista Italiano (Marxist-Leninist) from 1966 to

1969, while Claudio Popovich became increasingly close to

the positions and practices – even the most radical and extreme

ones – of the so-called “counterculture” or “alternative

culture” that flourished in Italy from the second half of

the sixties to 1977.

To further complicate the Florentine art scene, in the early

sixties a new movement had emerged. Triggered by a profound

critique of mass culture, it was more compact than the

other two camps, limited to a certain number of figures who

identified with it: this was Poesia Visiva, and Gruppo 70 was

its squad. The initiators were Eugenio Miccini, 22 responsible

for the name Poesia Visiva, and Lamberto Pignotti, 23 who

had coined a different term that met with less success: Poesia

Tecnologica. Critics of the dominant language and socio-

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

Daily newspaper founded by Antonio Gramsci in 1924, and then, in succession, the party organ of Partito Comunista d’Italia,

the pci, the pds and the ds. Since 1991 the history of the newspaper, which still exists, has changed. This is not the

place to expand on its progress.

Mantua 1921 – Florence 1990.

Initially the name of the afternoon edition of Il Paese, which was founded in 1948, it replaced the name in 1963. With certain

ups and downs, it survived until 1994.

Founded in 1869 in the Santa Croce district as “Scuola di intagliatori in legno, Ebanisti e Legnajuoli,” after having widened

its educational scope it was moved in 1923 to the former Royal Stables of Palazzo Pitti.

Riccardo Guarneri and Paolo Masi: both Florence 1933; Mario Fallani: Florence 1934 – 2014; Claudio Verna: Guardiagrele

1937; Lanfranco Baldi: Florence 1938 – 1990.

Turin 1909 – Rome 1992.

No biographical information available: born in Florence.

Founded and directed by Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti and his wife Licia Collobi in 1952, published until 1966.

Again in this case I can find no biographical information. He died in Florence many years ago. We were good friends. The

most brilliant curator ante litteram this city has ever produced, before Francesco Bonami, and with a very different destiny.

Vittorio Tolu: Atzara 1937; Paolo Scheggi: Florence 1940 – Rome 1971.

Bahia Blanca 1908 – Venice 1981.

Founded in 1966, not by chance in Livorno, by a group that had left the ranks of the pci, and after going through multiple

splits it merged into Movimento per la Rifondazione Comunista, later known as Rifondazione Comunista, in 1991.

Florence 1925 – 2007.

Florence 1926.

cultural order, they proposed a mixture of artistic genres, especially

visual arts and verbal writing, linking back to a tradition

that crossed the entire history of the art avant-gardes

of the 20th century, particularly Futurism 24 and Dada, 25 and

later filtered into movements like French Lettrisme, 26 Poesia

Concreta, 27 and the more recent international Fluxus 28 movement.

Beyond the theoretical analysis, which was mostly

acute and precise, guided, inter alia, by the neo-Marxism of

the Frankfurt School 29 as expressed starting in the Fifties,

Miccini and Pignotti developed a radical critique not only of

the languages of communication, but also of artistic languages

and poetry which tended to blend in their works. For

them operative practice was fundamental, and the visual

poets multiplied, producing an indiscriminate surplus of

artifacts of a logo-iconic character in the form of collages,

photomontages, assemblages. At times these developed

into authentic performative events often dominated by a

spontaneity that was ultimately ingenuous, which not only

totally failed to disturb the graphic and “creative” evolution

of the mass media they were so adamantly opposed to, but

was often inferior to the same in terms of form and quality.

So this was more a practice of resistance than a stylistically

innovative proposal.

Against the backdrop of this already variegated scene,

we should not forget that the city was also experiencing the

slow demise of its own mythology. The English, joined by

the Americans after the war, had returned to their magnificent

hillside villas: Harold Acton, 30 not yet Sir, to Villa La

Pietra on Via Bolognese, which had belonged since the early

years of the century to his parents, the Englishman Arthur

and the wealthy American heiress Hortense Mitchell, 31 and

where he had been born; the Sitwells to Montegufoni, the

castle acquired by Sir George 32 in 1910, more frequently inhabited

by his second-born Sir Osbert 33

with his lifetime

companion David Homer; 34

Hugh Sartorius Whitaker, 35 of

the Whitakers, producers of Sicilian Marsala, to the slopes of

Fiesole at Villa Papiniano; 36 here in 1925 he had had the garden

done over by Cecil Pinsent, 37 an English landscape architect

but Florentine by adoption; Whitaker’s secretary/factotum

was the Tyrolean Max Ladstaetter 38 from the family of

Ladstaetters who were once producers of “Florentine straw

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

The Manifesto del Futurismo, signed by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, was published for the first time in Bologna in the

Gazzetta dell’Emilia on 15 February 1909, but had greater circulation when it appeared in French on the front page of Le

Figaro in Paris on the 20th of that same month.

The movement was officially launched in Zurich in 1916 at Cabaret Voltaire by the German Hugo Ball, and its first spokesperson

was the Romanian Tristan Tzara. It then spread to the major cities of Europe and America.

Developed above all in Paris in the 1940s by its main exponent, another Romanian expat, Isidore Isou.

The name covers a vast area of poetic research connected with visual art. The term emerged starting in the 1950s, first in

Switzerland, with Eugen Gomringer, Bolivian by birth (on his mother’s side), and with the German Dieter Roth, and in Brazil,

with – among many others – the brothers Haroldo and Augusto de Campos. Many artists have operated in this specific field

over the years, such as (besides Roth himself) the Scotsman Ian Hamilton Finlay, and the Florentine Maurizio Nannucci.

The name appeared for the first time on the invitations to the three conferences of Musica Antiqua et Nova, organized by

the Lithuanian George Maciunas in New York in 1961. Maciunas was the first to formulate the basic ideas of this avowedly

Neo-Dada movement, which spread very quickly throughout the Western world and beyond, especially in Japan. It

brought together musicians as different from each other as John Cage, Genesis P-Orridge and LaMonte Young, poets like

Dick Higgins and Emmett Williams, artists like Ray Johnson, Wolf Vostell, Joseph Beuys, Ben Vautier and Dieter Roth.

Among the Italians, there were the Florentine musicians Sylvano Bussotti and Giuseppe Chiari, and the Milanese poet

Gianni Emilio Simonetti.

See in particular the works translated into Italian starting in the late 1940s by Max Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse, Theodor

Adorno and the younger Jürgen Habermas.

Florence 1904 – 1994.

Arthur Mario, born in 1873, according to some sources, in 1879 according to others (it is not known where), presumably

died in Florence, again on an uncertain date, between 1952 and 1953; Hortense, Alton, Illinois 1871 – Florence 1962.

London 1860 – Locarno 1943.

London 1892 – Montegufoni 1969.

(Unknown) 1900 – (Unknown) 1982.

(Unknown) 1885 – Fiesole 1971.

Mentioned for the first time in the property register of 1427, starting in 1533 it became the dwelling of Baccio Bandinelli,

who restored it. Known as “Lo Spineto,” it took the name of Villa Papiniano in the 1800s when it became the property of

the jurist and deputee Giuseppe Mantellini, in honor of the great Roman jurist Aemilius Papinianus, beheaded by order of

Caracalla for not having agreed to prepare a speech to deliver to the Senate to justify the emperor’s fratricide.

Montevideo 1884 – Hilterfingen 1963.

Province of Bolzano c. 1904 – Geneva c. 1980.

27

hats.” There were also the Baron Caius von Münchhausen 39 at

Vicolo San Marco Vecchio, and a Princess Trubetzkoy, 40 whose

husband Lucien Tessier 41 had acquired Villa San Michele in

Fiesole 42 in 1950 and two years later transformed it into one

of the most fascinating hotels in the area.

Bernard Berenson 43 had recently died at the age of 94 at

Villa I Tatti in Settignano, where he had lived without interruption

for 58 years. On the other side of the Arno, Roberto

Longhi 44 still lived with his wife, the writer Anna Banti, 45 in

Villa Il Tasso at Marignolle where they had been since 1939.

The antique dealers prospered, though they could no longer

draw on that apparently infinite store of items plundered by

Joseph Duveen, 46 a baron since 1933, and Alessandro Contini

Bonacossi, 47

a count since 1928, to supply the great collectors,

above all the Americans, the Fricks, Morgans, Mellons,

Rockefellers, with affidavits signed by Berenson or Longhi.

So it was no coincidence that in 1959, through the initiative

of the antiquarians Mario and Giuseppe Bellini, the Mostra

Mercato Internazionale dell’Antiquariato was held for the

first time in Palazzo Strozzi, the location it would have until

1977. The International Antiques Fair is still held today, hosted

since 1997 in Palazzo Corsini. This year it was graced by the

presence of Jeff Koons, 48 who was allowed to install two of his

works, never shown before, one in front of Palazzo Vecchio

next to the copy of David and another inside the building. In

short, everything continues according to plan.

So the situation was rich but provincial. Outside Florence,

the art world was full of movement. The sixties was a time

of heroes. In the United States there were Happenings, 49 Pop

Art, 50 Minimal Art, 51 Robert Smithson 52 and Bruce Nauman. 53

In Europe, Joseph Beuys 54 , the international Fluxus movement

– which although it saw the light in New York had its

loftiest manifestations in Europe – the Aktionismus 55 in

Vienna and Marcel Broodthaers 56 . In Italy there was Arte

Povera 57 in Turin, Rome and Milan. In short, the world was

headed in a new direction, and this would also have an

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(Unknown) 1913 – Florence 1985.

An old noble Russian family originating in Ruthenia.

I can find no biographical information on the Tessiers.

Previously a Franciscan monastery built in 1413 by the Davanzati, it was expanded at the end of the 1500s by Santi di

Tito based on a design by Michelangelo. Suppressed as a monastery by Napoleon in 1808, it passed through various owners

until it was purchased by the Tessiers.

Born Bernhard Valvrojenski to a Lithuanian Jewish family at Butrimonys in 1865, he moved to Boston with his family

in 1875; the family had taken the name of Berenson. Starting in 1900 he lived with his wife Mary Pearsol Smith in Villa I

Tatti, which he purchased in 1906 from Baron Westbury. He died in 1959.

Alba 1890 – Florence 1970. Professor of Art History at the University of Florence from 1949 to 1961, teaching the last two

years of the program.

Born Lucia Lopresti in Florence in 1895, she took the pseudonym Anna Banti, that of a relative of her mother who had

greatly impressed her as a child. She married Longhi in 1924. In 1950 they founded the magazine Paragone: he was the

editor of Paragone Arte, while she was responsible for Paragone Letteratura, later editing both after the death of her husband.

She died at Ronchi di Massa in 1985.

Hull 1869 – London 1939.

Ancona 1878 – Florence 1955.

York, Pennsylvania 1955.

A type of artistic event whose name and structure come from Allan Kaprow and his 18 Happenings in 6 Parts performed in

New York in 1959, which then spread throughout the art world of the time. See, in particular, Michael Kirby, Happenings:

An Introduction, Dutton, New York 1965.

Forecast in the 1950s by certain British artists like Richard Hamilton and Eduardo Paolozzi, and ushered in by other artists

from New York who passed as New Dada, such as Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, Pop Art rose to extraordinary

success in the first part of the 1960s with artists like Roy Lichtenstein, George Segal, Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg

and Tom Wesselman. See in particular the writings of Lawrence Alloway on this movement, for which the English critic

claims to have invented the name.

The English philosopher of art Richard Wollheim provided the name for this movement that developed in the United States

halfway through the 1960s, in an article entitled “Minimal Art” in Arts Magazine in 1965. The leading exponents were

Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt, Dan Flavin, Carl Andre and Walter De Maria. See, in particular, Gregory Battcock (ed.), Minimal

Art: A Critical Anthology, Dutton, New York, 1968.

Passaic, New Jersey 1938 – Amarillo, Texas 1973.

Fort Wayne, Indiana 1941.

Krefeld 1921 – Düsseldorf 1986.

The group, active from the first half of the 1960s, was composed of Otto Mühl, Hermann Nitsch, Günter Brus and Rudolf

Schwarzkogler, who operated separately while sharing themes and lifestyles.

Saint-Gilles 1924 – Köln 1976.

The first exhibition with this name was held in 1967 in Genoa at Galleria La Bertesca, curated by Germano Celant, presenting

impact, shortly thereafter, on Florence, where the need was

felt for a turning point. It would not come so much from the

artists, through their work, which was still not so much anchored

to that tradition, that history as it was mired in the

cultural atmosphere I have tried to outline above. Instead, it

came from the people who set up new operative infrastructures:

members of the Tuscan nobility and upper middle

classes. By this I do not mean that the artists were absent,

but that their presence was manifested, I repeat, not so much

by their work as by their desire to create this type of initiative.

Centro Di was begun by Ferruccio Marchi and Alessandra

Pandolfini, 58 as an archive and then developed into a bookstore

and publishing house, already in the second half of the

sixties. Alberto Moretti, Roberto Cesaroni Venanzi and Raul

Dominguez 59 opened Galleria Schema in 1972. At the end of

that same year Maria Gloria Bicocchi 60 opened the video production

studio Art Tapes 22. In 1974 Zona began, run by an

association of artists including Maurizio Nannucci, 61 Paolo

Masi and Mario Mariotti. 62

Ketty La Rocca, in her own essential solipsism, was part

of this change, and her artistic history runs parallel to these

facts. And as an artist she was a sign of it, perhaps the only

one, together with Maurizio Nannucci, though with very different

attitudes. Nannucci knitted up relations that took him

beyond Florence into a universe still in great ferment – albeit

less heroic than in the sixties – which he fully subscribed to.

Ketty La Rocca, on the other hand, kept her own individual,

separate position, characterized by a “writing” that is hers

alone and reflects both her innate isolation and the desire

to break through any confining structure of style or content.

Hers was to remain a solo trip.

She was initially prompted by Poesia Visiva, listening

above all to Miccini, but also looking to Giuseppe Chiari, 63

who is not a visual poet though he was part of Gruppo 70. But

above all, she listened to Lelio Missoni, alias Camillo, 64 “ceramist,

philosopher, poet” as he described himself, whose terse,

linear style was taken up by Ketty in her early efforts. This

was to remain her language, even later: visceral, terse, a ligne

claire that leaves room for a new freedom, open to passions

that are never evoked, still less contained, as if they were eternally

free beyond the sign. From a certain point on, the distance

from Poesia Visiva becomes total. “… you you you you

you …” I am elsewhere, despite dragging you into it every time,

but at the end of the day no longer addressing you.

Many of the photographs on which she inscribes the

echolalic nonsense of her … you … you … you … come from

the Archivio Alinari, 65 and they are mostly images of sculptures.

These are the same black and white pictures, even of

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works by Alighiero e Boetti, Luciano Fabro, Jannis Kounellis, Giulio Paolini, Pino Pascali and Emilio Prini. Other exponents

of the movement include Michelangelo Pistoletto, Mario Merz, Marisa Merz, Giovanni Anselmo, Giuseppe Penone,

Gilberto Zorio and Pier Paolo Calzolari. See Germano Celant, Arte povera, Mazzotta, Milan 1969.

Ferruccio Marchi died in 1981, and his wife Alessandra Pandolfini, who died at the age of 81 in 2015, continued to run the center.

At the time Alberto Moretti was a successful artist, Roberto Cesaroni Venanzi an aristocratic Florentine, owner of the premises

on Via della Vigna Nuova where the gallery was located, while Raul Dominguez was an Argentinian architecture student,

the companion of Moretti until the latter’s death, in his nineties, in 2012.

Florence 1934, second daughter of the Futurist painter Primo Conti.

Florence 1938.

Montespertoli 1936 – Florence 1997.

Florence 1926 – 2007. The music scene in Florence in this period was very intense. The city was home to great musicians

like the composer Luigi Dallapiccola, who lived for over 20 years in Casa di Annalena on Via Romana and died there in 1975,

or the Catalan violoncellist Gaspar Cassadó, who lived with his Japanese wife at Por Santa Maria and apparently died of

a heart attack caused by exertion due to the flood of 1966. Besides Chiari, there were other outstanding musicians in the

city, first of all Sylvano Bussotti, and one of the first publishers of modern music, Aldo Bruzzichelli Editore. In 1963 Pietro

Grossi, first violoncello in the Orchestra del Maggio and professor of that instrument at Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini,

founded the Studio di Fonologia Musicale s2fm, one of the first in Italy and the world to conduct research on electronic

music in connection with new computer technology.

An elementary school teacher, his colleagues included both Eugenio Miccini and Ketty La Rocca; previously a minister of

a Protestant sect with facilities on Via Zanella in Oltrarno, he was a member of Gruppo 70, and in the mid-1960s was at

the center of a group – including among others Miccini and Ketty – to which he preached the sense of non-possession in romantic

relations. Polygamous, after the breakdown of the group he left Florence and went to Hamburg at the start of the

1970s, shortly thereafter moving to Sydney, where he died before 2000. Nothing is known of his works after he left Florence.

In 1854 Leopoldo Alinari founded the art publishing house Alinari, independent of his brothers Romualdo and Giuseppe,

who nevertheless soon entered the firm, taking over its management after his premature death in 1865. Both brothers also

died, a few months apart, and the firm was inherited by Vittorio, the son of Leopoldo, who ran it until 1920, when it was

acquired by the company i.d.e.a. (Istituto Di Edizioni Artistiche), which merged the companies to form Fratelli Alinari

29

paintings, that were used up to a short time before by art historians

– those of the school of Roberto Longhi in the specific

local context – to hone their skills of interpretation. The reference

is thus to a tradition and a history in which the local

context (outlined above) is still steeped, but at the same time

there is an opening to the vast panorama of art, of culture

and Western civilizations. It remains as background imagery,

a field of operation, a terrain to hold the imprint of her gesture,

even if it is the echolalia of a simulacrum of discourse.

Later that writing tablet would be replaced by images, still

photographic, of parts of her own body, hands, arms or the

extreme ones of her own head traversed by X-rays. From the

iconography of culture and history that is phantasmatically

emptied in the paired sequences, to the photographic and

radiographic icons of her own body. “We are (each) in a body …

Out of my body, I don’t exist,” as stated in a recent interview by

the outstanding Anglo-Iranian artist Shirazeh Houshiary, 66

another woman, one of “them”.

III. WHERE THE GIRLS ARE

Indeed: “them”, who?

Something was emerging in the world of art, something

that would still take a while to become consolidated, but had

already been there for some time, active and operative.

I am talking about the feminine sensibility/sensitivity

that undermines at its foundations the male ascendency

that had dominated the model of Western Art unchallenged,

in spite of the Properzias, Artemisias, Rosalbas, Angelicas,

Suzannes, Merets, Rebeccas. 67 At the start of the century, it is

true, there were the Alexandras, the Olgas, the Ljubovs, the

Varvaras, 68 but they were traveling companions who – excellent

and refined – had contributed to what their revolutionary

male comrades were creating, closed in their formal and ideological

rigidity which they, the girls, attempted to mitigate

without betraying its intentions. There were the Agneses, 69

who had carved out their own space in the elsewhere, the desert

or some other clime, like certain mystics. But now something

absolutely unprecedented was making its appearance,

not based on exception, opposition or competition, but on difference,

in praesentia rerum, on the spot, sur place.

Already in the mid-Forties Louise Bourgeois 70 had developed

her own art which at the outset smacked of a Surrealist

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i.d.e.a. SpA. The mission of the firm from the outset was mainly the photographic documentation of the landscape and cultural

assets first of the city, then of Italy and finally of all Europe. Following the acquisition of two important photographic

archives, Archivio Brogi, which dates back to more or less the same period in Florence, and Archivio Anderson, whose

formation dates back to the 1890s in Rome, at the start of the 1860s Archivo Alinari had about 200,000 images on glass

plates. Its headquarters since 1863 has been on Via Nazionale, on a portion of the street that for some years now is known

as Largo Fratelli Alinari. In 1982 Claudio de Polo Saibanti entered the company as a member of the Board of Directors and

General Director, becoming President in 1983, and the story of Archivo Alinari changed once again. This is not the place

to delve into these developments.

Shiraz 1955.

Properzia de’ Rossi: Bologna c. 1490 – 1530, sculptress; Artemisia Gentileschi: Rome 1593 – Naples 1623, painter; Rosalba

Carriera: Venice 1673 – 1757, miniaturist and painter; Angelica Kaufmann: Chur 1741 – Rome 1807, painter; Suzanne

Valodon: Bessines-sur-Gartempe 1865 – Paris 1938, circus horsewoman, painter, model, mother of Maurice Utrillo; Meret

Oppenheim: Berlin 1913 – Basel 1985, Surrealist artist and model for many works by Man Ray; Rebecca Horn: Michelstadt

1944, artist and filmmaker.

Aleksandra Ekster: Bialystok 1882 – Fontenay-aux-Roses 1949, painter, set designer, costume designer; Olga Rozanova:

Melenki 1886 – Moskva 1918, painter; Lyubov Popova: Ivanovo, Možajsk 1889 – Moskva 1924, painter, set designer and

fabric designer; Varvara Stepánova: Kaunas 1894 – Moskva 1958, poetess, philosopher, painter, graphic artist, set designer,

designer of fabrics and clothes, wife of Alexander Rodchenko.

Agnes Martin, Macklin, Saskatchewan 1912, American citizen since 1940, in 1967 she moved from New York to Taos, New

Mexico, where she died in 2004. Painter.

Born in Paris in 1911, in 1938 she married the American art historian Robert Goldwater, with whom she moved immediately

to New York; in 1958 they took a house in Chelsea, where she lived until her death in 2010.

matrix from which she would, however, soon break free, just

as she distanced herself from her new New Yorker Abstract

Expressionism 71 friends. Her work moved towards possession

of an eidetic essentiality utterly foreign to the larger

Surrealist narrative with all its magniloquent symbolic trappings,

which she nevertheless observed. In like manner, she

stepped away from that sort of total energy investment that

marked the desire for power of the Abstract Expressionists.

What her work conveys is constituted of minimal events,

often of piercing intimacy. This is the expression of a female

that subverts the male desire for domination.

At the end of the Forties, in Rio de Janeiro, Lygia Clark 72

worked on abstract forms, devoting particular attention not

so much to the perceptive aspects they can induce, as to the

sense of an inner life that can be approached and stimulated

by perceptive access to those forms. Thus, while on the one

hand she participated as an initiator of the Neoconcreto 73

movement, on the other, in the later years of her life, she

abandoned art tout court to focus on art as a therapeutic

tool.

From the early Fifties in Japan and then from 1957 in

New York, Yayoi Kusama 74

continued what she had started

as a child in the grip of obsessive hallucinations and depression.

These she objectivized in works, first drawings and

then paintings, then ambiences and three-dimensional objects

and – especially in the New York period – happenings,

mostly connected to the hippie culture that was flourishing

at the time, as well as poetry and narrative. A continuous

flow, uninterrupted up to the present, in the grip of a nervous

disorder that forced her to live in hospital after her return

to Japan in 1973. The dots, the Infinity Nets, ambiences

that are expanded to infinity by a game of mirrors, the blatantly

phallic forms crowding sculptures or again in closed

and open settings, the pumpkin, the giant flowers, represent

the obsessive character of her continuously expanding world.

Then, already in Ketty La Rocca’s time, Marisa Merz 75

found herself taking part, in Turin, in that movement of

total renewal of artistic action represented by Arte Povera

in the mid-sixties. In her work she accentuated dispersion

as boundless expansion, while at the same time condensing

in figural nuclei – the little heads, the woven copper wires –

her own sense of being there, the Dasein of Heidegger, where

matter and form combine in dazzling intensities. All sustained

by an attitude of vigilance, of constant awareness of

the self and her surroundings, without retreat.

In the same time period, in New York, where she had

lived ever since her parents, Jews from Hamburg, had emigrated

there to escape Nazism in 1939, Eva Hesse 76

reacted

against minimalist rigidity – despite being very close to

some of its exponents, Donald Judd and Sol LeWitt in particular

– to follow her own utterly independent path of research.

Here organic forms prevailed, materials were subjected

to minimum alterations and the principle of transformation

deployed by the artist was based on attention to

and restitution of the specific characteristics of materials –

latex, fiberglass, resin – rather than their manipulation for

the definition of a form.

Shortly thereafter the adventure of Marina Abramović 77

began. Her initially solo performances, while taking their

cue from Joseph Beuys and Hermann Nitsch, unlike those

artists asserted a ferocious presence based precisely on her

identity as both woman and artist. The coarse, crude signs

of a story at once personal and collective rain down upon

her own, present, body. She moved to Amsterdam in 1976,

where she lived until her much later move to New York, and

then came the encounter with Ulay, 78 the relationship with

the other-than-self, the male, the object of love, the companion

in undertakings, the Relation Work. The Lovers 79

went

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The first major American art movement. Starting in the 1940s in New York, it also marked the passage from Paris to New

York of the center of the western art world. Among its most outstanding exponents: Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock,

Barnett Newman and Ad Reinhardt. See in particular the writings of Clement Greenberg from 1942 to 1957.

Belo Horizonte 1920 – Rio de Janeiro 1988.

O Movimento Neoconcreto developed in Rio de Janeiro at the end of the 1950s, and Lygia Clark and Hélio Oiticica were its

main exponents. See in particular “O Manifesto Neoconcreto”, in Suplemento Dominical do Jornal do Brasil, 23 março 1959.

Matsumoto 1929.

Turin 1926.

Hamburg 1936 – New York 1970.

Belgrade 1946.

Pseudonym of Frank Uwe Laysiepen, Solingen 1943.

31

their separate ways in 1988 on the Great Wall of China after

having walked it all starting from opposite ends.

In my perspective, which I admit is partial, these are the

women artists who changed the course of Western art history,

who undermined its male hegemony in work that focused

above all on their essence, without loud proclamations, but

obstinately and without concessions.

Now the path had been opened for the bold advance of

Marlene Dumas and Liliana Moro, Sharon Lockhart and

Rineke Dijkstra, Koo Jeong A and Merve Berkman, 80 and all

the others who have been part of our artistic landscape for

decades, at this point, and who continue to emerge on the

new scenes with their characteristic discretion.

Vaginal or clitoral, at times vaginal and clitoral, their orgasm

is independent of that which accompanies male ejaculation.

They do not reformulate the eroticism that traversed

the male pro-ject, they go beyond its intrinsic necessity to

reach a state of diffuse and “happy” expansion which requires

no certain proofs. Their respective work has nothing

to prove, it has only to form the basis for their own being,

which goes beyond any certainty, in a constant desiring tension

which is the sublime tension of the living, sublime and

unsatisfied.

Ketty La Rocca was one of them, despite the circumscribed

perimeter in which her work manifested itself.

NongPrue, between the end of the rainy season and the start

of the dry season

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80

Marina Abramović and Ulay, The Lovers, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 1989, publication made for the exhibition at the

museum, containing texts by Wim Beeren, Frank Lubbers, Thomas MacEvilley and Dorine Mignot, with a detailed account

of the double voyage on the Great Wall of China completed, amidst various vicissitudes, at the start of the summer of 1988.

Marlene Dumas: Kaapstadt 1953; Liliana Moro: Milan 1961; Sharon Lockhart: Norwood, Massachusetts 1964; Rineke

Dijkstra: Sittard 1959; Koo Jeong A: Seoul 1967; Merve Berkman: Istanbul 1977.

33

COLLAGES

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37

39

41

43

45

47

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La cultura che non vive

1964 – 65 / Collage on paper, 44.5 × 29.5 cm

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La gabbia


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Operazione sclerosi

1964 – 65 / Collage on paper, 44.5 × 30 cm

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S.O.S. Salvate l’umanità


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Chi cosa dove

1964 – 65 / Collage on paper, 47.2 × 34 cm

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Bianco Napalm

1966 / Plasticized collage on wood, 75 × 50 × 1.8 cm

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Signora, lei che ama cucinare bene

1964 – 65 / Collage on paper, 34 × 23.5 cm

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Sana come il pane quotidiano

1965 / Collage on paper, 44.5 × 29 cm

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Il sultano malato


44

La guerriglia

1964 – 65 / Collage on paper, 49 × 38.5 cm

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Poeta segnaletico


46

Le scimmie impareranno a parlare?

1964 – 65 / Collage on paper, 25 × 33 cm

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Oggi per vivere nella giungla

1964 – 65 / Collage on paper, 35 × 50 cm

All works / photographs: The Ketty La Rocca Estate

SIGNS AND WORDS

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51

53

55

57

59

61

63

65

67

69

50/ 51

1967 / Ketty La Rocca, Approdo performance along the highway, Florence,

photograph

52/ 53

Vasta Eco

1968 – 69 / Tempera on wood, 20 × 90 cm

52/ 53

Un iniziativa

1968 – 69 / Tempera on wood, 20 × 90 cm

54/ 55

1968 / Florence

56/ 57

Il punto di vista

1969 / Emulsified canvas, 67.5 × 94.4 cm

58/ 59

Due punti

1969 / Enamel on sheet metal, 60 × 90 cm

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Verbum Parola Mot Word

1967 / Tempera on wood, 70 × 50 cm

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1969 – 70 / Photograph

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Comma with 3 dots

1970 / Moulded and painted pvc, 38 × 55 cm, diameter dots 20 cm

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J with dot (sculpture)

1970 / Moulded and painted pvc, 89 × 38 × 12 cm, diameter dot 20 cm

64/ 65

66/ 67

68/ 69

Virgole

1970 / pvc. 60 × 40 × 55.9 cm (2 parts), 60 × 60 × 76.2 cm (1 part), 50.8 × 61.9 × 76.2 cm

(1 part), 14.9× 25.1 cm (1 part) The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

Purchased with funds provided by the Curatorial Discretionary Fund and with additional

support from Gondrand s.p.a., Turin, and the Istituto Italiano di Cultura,

Los Angeles

1970 / Installation of works, photograph

1970 / Photography and handwriting, 2 works

All works / photographs – where not otherwise specified: The Ketty La Rocca Estate

KETTY LA ROCCA, WRITINGS 1964 –– 1975

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a good idea

una buona idea /// Mi sento la pelle tirata (disidratata, penso) ci vuole /// una crema fluida

e leggera antirughe /// mi verrà senz’altro una buona idea /// la velva moisture film delicata e

fresca /// rende la pelle una rugiada /// evita una pelle asfittica /// mi verrà senz’altro una buona

idea /// e per il rilassamento ci vuole un tonico a base di erbe /// per evitare la couperose e

per i pori dilatati /// ci vuole qualcosa di più stimolante /// mi verrà senz’altro una buona idea

/// poi il fondo-tinta non regge se non tengo per venti minuti /// la formuline-day picchiettando

coi polpastrelli /// ma potrei provare col plum-cake di Max Factor /// mi verrà senz’altro una

buona idea /// e l’Erace crea sotto gli occhi giochi-luce /// ma col tempo fa le borse alle palpebre

/// poi l’importante è sentirsi à la page /// come le ragazze-pilota dei grandi magazzini ///

mi verrà senz’altro una buona idea

My skin feels drawn (dehydrated, I think) you need

a light and fluid anti-wrinkle cream

I’m sure I’ll come up with a good idea

the delicate and cool velvety moisture film

renders the skin fresh as dew

preventing clogged skin


and for the slackening a herb-based toner

to prevent blotches and for the enlarged pores

you need something more stimulating


and then the foundation won’t last unless I keep

the daytime formula on for twenty minutes tapping with my fingertips

but I could try the Max Factor plum cake


and the Erace corrector creates light plays beneath the eyes

though over time it makes the eyelids sag

and then the important thing is to feel up-to-the-minute

like the promotion girls in the department stores


1966 / Published in Letteratura, no. 82 – 83 July – October 1966, pp. 143 – 145

sicuro in curva /// sicuro in frenata /// sicuro in velocità /// 50 anni di esperienza

/// una gioventù disadattata /// la mania delle cospirazioni /// è

giunta in America /// tesori d’arte cristiana /// la sposa sorteggiata /// in

tutte le edicole /// richiesta fiacca per l’Africa da vicino /// con i jet Alitalia

/// mercato difficile per i ciclomotori /// a 200 chilotoni /// qualcuno crede

che i cinesi siano sbarcati in California /// la vedova Rossi ringrazia

safe on bends

safe in braking

safe at speed

50 years’ experience

maladjusted youth

conspiracy mania

has reached America

treasures of Christian art

the bride drawn by lot

in all newsagents

weak local demand for Africa

with the Alitalia jets

difficult market for scooters

at 200 kilotons

some think that the Chinese have landed in California

widow Rossi conveys her thanks

Published in La Nazione of 21 May 1966

Animus: non mi morire di parole. /// La radiografia del cranio

è la maschera dell’uomo di ora /// una maschera che porta

addosso /// e che assimila ogni uomo ad ogni uomo /// il volto

per lui è pantomima, il linguaggio l’ha reso tale /// la maschera

cranio lo tradisce, non lo segue /// la donna conserva

un tragico volto fragile. /// Ma cercare altro è solo involuzione

/// l’uomo ora è /// o alienazione /// o perversione /// o vive avvinghiato

ai sillogismi /// i cervi sono veloci, gli indiani sono

veloci, gli indiani sono cervi.

Animus: don’t die of words on me.

The x-ray of the cranium is the mask of modern man

a mask he wears

and that makes every man look like every man

for him the face is a pantomime, language has made it such

the cranium mask betrays him, doesn’t follow him

the woman conserves a tragic fragile face.

But seeking elsewhere is merely involution

man is now

either alienation

or perversion

or lives clinging to syllogisms

deer are fast, Indians are fast: Indians are deer.

1975 / Published in an article in the Giornale di Brescia on 14 February 1976

At the end of 1975 Ketty La Rocca sent the text to Romana Loda, who owned a gallery in Brescia and then

had it published on the death of the artist.

79

za crederci /// fermati a guardare /// “charrj, charrj,

charrj /// ma continua a ballare /// a un tratto metti

in dubbio ogni variante /// non tenere per certo il

solido /// lavora ogni linea /// Sei in rimprovero ///

La partenza dell’aereo ore 8.51 c’è un fresco in valigia,

/// due miste terital, un pigiama, il rasoio, /// il

biglietto prenotato. ///

go with the doctor, turn on the light,

a few steps forward, a pillow behind the back,

an outing for all to see, indifferent.

A profile

where many want a signature with rights,

a hobby, do you disapprove?

It doesn’t matter, it’s not required

Refusal? No

The plot is consistent

“supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, if you say it loud enough, you’ll always

sound precocious” 1

re il solido, imperversa nelle varianti e completa ///

“charrj, charrj, charrj, charrj /// in plastica, in fornica,

metallizzato, campanello, aria condizionata

/// toccare con mano e credere /// lascia ogni cosa

al suo posto /// faresti un lavoro inutile proponendo

un profili /// vantaggio? economia? lunga durata?

/// metti in dubbio la resistenza /// non inciampare

/// ci vuole un ordine, una sicurezza /// sen-

don’t vary the solid, it’s all the rage in the variants and rounds off

“charrj, charrj, charrj, charrj 2

in plastic, in formica, metallised, bell, air-conditioned

seeing is believing

leave everything in its right place

you’d do a pointless job proposing a profile

advantage? saving? hard wear?

question the strength

don’t trip up

you need an order, a security

accompagna il dottore, accendi la luce, /// qualche

passo avanti, un cuscino dietro la schiena, /// un’uscita

fuori sotto gli occhi, indifferente. /// Un profilo

/// dove molti vogliono una firma con diritto, ///

un hobby, disapprovi? /// Non è importante, non è

richiesto /// Rifiuto? No /// La trama ha consistenza

/// “supercalifragile e spiralidoso, se lo dici forte

avrai un successo /// strepitoso” /// non varia-

without believing it

stop and look

“charrj, charrj, charrj

but go on dancing

all of a sudden you doubt all variants

no longer hold the solid certain

work each range

You are in reprimand

The plane leaves at 8.51 there’s a lightweight wool in the suitcase,

two mixed Terylenes, a pair of pyjamas, the razor,

the booked ticket.

Unpublished in Ketty La Rocca’s lifetime

1

2

These lines are taken from the soundtrack of the musical film Mary Poppins, directed by Robert Stevenson and released

in 1964. The release date is useful for dating the text.

It may be that the chorus formed by the repetition of this word, presumably derived from the English word “charm”, is the

name of a range of accessories that were fashionable at the time.

Ogni posto alla sua cosa, /// l’altro

poi, spesso programmato poteva essere

più falso /// non previsioni ///

aspetta senza aspettare /// Soffiati

il naso rumorosamente, /// indice in

molti casi di disturbi nervosi /// non

te ne privare /// anche una leucemia

fa molta strada più di una nevrosi

Every place in its right thing,

and then the other, frequently planned, could have been more mistaken

not forecasts

wait without waiting

Blow your nose noisily,

in many cases a sign of nervous disturbances

don’t do without it

even leukaemia goes much further than a neurosis


se vuoi scrivere una poesia /// non hai che da guardare fuori finestra /// che

il ramo è in fiore e la rondine cinguetta. /// E non mi dire che non si può aprire

la finestra di camera /// perché il distributore fa un fracasso del diavolo ///

che lo stanzone giù delle scarpe da incollare /// ti riempie la stanza di benzolo

/// e nemmeno quella di cucina /// che di fronte hanno alzato una scala

d’acciaio /// per la reclame /// e soltanto ti rimane quella del gabinetto e sporgendo

/// la testa puoi vedere i gerani della signora di sotto /// Ebbene vorrai

ben fare un po’ di sacrificio /// per scrivere una bella poesia.

if you want to write a poem

you have only to look out the window

where the branch is in bloom and the swallow is twittering.

And don’t tell me that you can’t open the bedroom window

because the petrol station makes a helluva racket

because the workroom downstairs with the shoes to be glued

fills the room with benzene

and not even the kitchen window

since they’ve put up a steel staircase opposite

because of complaints

and the only one left is that of the toilet and if you poke

your head out you can see the geraniums of the woman downstairs

Well naturally you have to make a little sacrifice

to write a nice poem.


81

la donna è nelle mani nude /// come

il corpo lucido che cerca le parole

/// per un’indicazione /// e il richiamo

non sarà creduto /// sopra i piedi

freddi si formeranno /// eleganti

macerie /// s.o.s. salvate l’umanità

the woman is in the bare hands

like the shiny body that seeks words

for a sign

and the complaint will not be believed

above the cold feet

elegant ruins will form

s.o.s. save humankind

1964 / Unpublished in Ketty La Rocca’s lifetime

Da Hanoi oggi non si replica /// riprende ogni giorno /// una barba di nuovo e un cappuccino

e due paste /// le stesse soste al distributore /// il servizio meteorologico segnala

identici scarti /// fra minima e massima /// i bambini hanno la cartella alle spalle anche

ora /// il 29 raccoglie il gruppo fermo /// il sole e la pioggia /// una sirena dei pompieri, un

incidente /// ma non basta /// e neppure un’eclisse /// Hanoi, una barba, /// un distributore,

/// uno scarto meteorologico, /// un 29 /// da non confondere /// non si replica

No rejoinder from Hanoi today

the everyday round again

another drag and a cappuccino and two pastries

the same stops at the petrol station

the weather report gives identical indications

of high and low temperatures

the schoolchildren have their satchels on their backs even now

the number 29 picks up the waiting group

the sun and the rain

a fire engine siren, an accident

but it’s not enough

and not even an eclipse

Hanoi, a drag,

a petrol station,

temperature highs and lows,

a number 29

make no mistake

no rejoinder


100 lavatrici col buco nero rotondo perfetto /// da ogni

buco un uomo precipita /// l’abito a doppio petto è irrestringibile

/// la cravatta firmata /// la bocca aperta e

anche le gambe e le braccia /// è ancora disponibile /// il

cucciolo bastardo si annoia /// gira la testa /// non sa il

ridicolo suo esserci con il secchiello /// in bocca sul panchetto

non pretende /// di essere patetico /// tutto è perfettamente

razionale

100 washing machines with perfect round black holes

a man falls out of each hole

the double-breasted suit is shrink-proof

the tie is designer

the mouth is open and so are the arms and legs

he’s still available

the mongrel pup is bored

he turns his head

he doesn’t know how ridiculous he is with the bucket

in his mouth on the bench he doesn’t claim

to be pathetic

it’s all perfectly rational


notice

avviso /// Considerata la serietà della ditta in

questione, /// data anche la rinomanza internazionale,

/// considerata la normale competizione

commerciale, /// dato l’impegno degli esperti

in ogni circostanza, /// avviso /// a qualcuno,

/// a ognuno, /// a qualunque, /// a ciascuno

Considering the professionalism of the firm in question,

given also its international renown,

considering normal commercial competition,

given the commitment of the experts in all circumstances,

notice

to someone,

to everyone,

to anyone,

to each one


83

la metafora si è esaurita? /// come se non bastasse, se non fosse sufficiente,

/// evidenziare gli aspetti metaforici di un’ immagine ancora che li assuma: ///

impossibile prima /// esasperare la metafora, anche la tautologia ancora una

volta ha perso la sfida /// il linguaggio assume il ruolo di linguaggio globale

attraverso la dimensione /// metalinguistica /// il linguaggio non esiste, tutto

è metalinguaggio /// il linguaggio articolato trasferito da’ luogo delegato delle

linee parallele, /// ridotto a segno di un’immagine, è posto nella sua autentica

e inalienabile /// dimensione di eterno riduttore /// il tentativo di esaurimento-esautoramento

del linguaggio rede /// concreta una situazione reale /// un

discorso, il paradosso del metalinguaggio, segna le immagini, un pretenzioso

/// discorso globale trasportato a gesto, gesto della mano sul foglio che scrive

has the metaphor worn itself out?

as if it weren’t enough, it weren’t sufficient,

to highlight the metaphorical aspects of an image even before it assumes

them:

impossible before

to intensify the metaphor, once again even tautology has lost the challenge

language assumes the role of global language through a

metalinguistic dimension

language does not exist, everything is metalanguage

articulated language transferred from the deputed site of parallel lines,

reduced to the sign of an image, it is placed in its authentic and inalienable

dimension as eternally reductive

the attempt of language to wear out, to depose renders concrete

a real situation

a discourse, the paradox of metalanguage, marks the images, a pretentious

global discourse transported by gesture, the gesture of the hand writing on

the page


Mi piacciono sempre di più

gli altri. Trovo che agli altri

vengano tante idee. Io non ho

tempo per le idee, solo per le

ossessioni.

I like other people more and more.

I notice that other people have lots

of ideas. I don’t have time for ideas,

only for obsessions.

1974 / Note, unpublished in Ketty La Rocca’s lifetime

considering that any …

da struttura inizialmente non verificabile in una

trasformazione equilibrata tale da riscontrare una

fondatezza di principi considerato l’assenteismo

nel quale una linea delineata di improcrastinabile

impegno fattivo in area sperimentale con ipotetici

inglobamenti per un problema più vasto al quale

viene annessa in un tale contesto una concreta

rilevanza da conferirsi particolarmente in un’area

di azione fortemente contaminata da eccessive

ma giustificabili necessita in un determinismo

talora paradossale in una simbiosi di tipo affettivo

ma frustrante tale da conferirgli una posizione

dal momento in cui qualsiasi … /// dal momento

in cui qualsiasi procedimento presuppone da

un punto di vista pratico un’esigenza di carattere

concreto accettabile nell’ambito di una prospettiva

disgiunta da considerazioni parziali in un campo

cosi vasto che inevitabilmente trova un’affermazione

non del tutto pertinente e specifica tanto che

in una visione di aspetti non immediatamente rilevabili

finanche ad un’osservazione attenta di imponderabili

fenomeni che dilatano una visione talvolta

resa parziale ad un’effettiva impossibilità di

verifica attinente ad un ristretto campo di considerazioni

consequenziali e contraddittorie che determinano

atteggiamenti ambigui per un’incipiente

partecipazione affinché possano valutarsi nel tempo

le singole ripercussioni derivanti da impreviste

deviazioni con degenerazioni anche se marginali

risolvibili obbiettivamente in una dinamica operativa

per un graduale miglioramento che escluda

effettivamente ogni forma di immobilismo non

immediatamente evidenziabile con alternanze di

disponibilità e interdisciplinari posizioni chiarite

successivamente in un più idoneo assestamento

tale da permettere la formazione di una soli-

considering that any procedure from a practical point of view presupposes

a requirement of a concrete character that is acceptable within the framework

of a perspective detached from partial considerations in a field so vast

that it inevitably finds a confirmation that is not entirely pertinent and specific

to the extent that in a vision of not immediately detectable aspects even

on close observation of imponderable phenomena that dilate a vision sometimes

rendered partial to an effective impossibility of verification related to

a narrow field of consequential and contradictory considerations that determine

ambiguous attitudes for an incipient participation enabling a valuation

over time of the individual repercussions deriving from unforeseen deviations

with degenerations albeit marginal that can be objectively resolved

within an operational dynamic for a gradual improvement that effectively

rules out every form of inactivity that cannot be immediately pinpointed

with alternations of availability and interdisciplinary positions subsequently

clarified in a more appropriate arrangement such as to permit the

formation of a solid structure initially not verifiable in a balanced transformation

such as to encounter a validity of principle considering the absenteeism

in which a clearly-defined line of urgent active commitment in the

experimental area with hypothetical incorporations for a larger problem annexed

to which in this context is a concrete significance to be attributed in

particular to an area of action strongly contaminated by excessive but justifiable

necessities in an at times paradoxical determinism in a symbiosis of

the emotional type but so frustrating as to confer a position on it

1970 / Text on emulsified canvas, 75 × 61 cm, Archivio Galleria Schema.

85

and me?

297 partenza 6.05 arrivo a Milano ore 10.05 partenza

19.55 arrivo a Firenze 23.30 a letto. basta, i cattivi

ti guardano, vuol dire: ma questo non è viaggiare,

e io? lo so bene che questo non e viaggiare, che

viaggiare vuol dire andare a Rimini, d’estate senza

orari, si cambia solo a Bologna, a fare il bagno.

/// ora zitta. raccolgo in fretta e impacciata, si fa

per dire impacciata, mezza roba per terra, scivola

dappertutto, raccogli, ammucchi le 18/24 e le poche

24/30 tutte già e ormai spiegazzate. e lui: stai

bene e te, neanche con troppa convinzione: che ti

venga un colpo.

mai, attenzione a parlarne male. /// di dove sei? di

Firenze, ma non sono fiorentina, precisazione cretina,

uno che è fiorentino ancora glielo perdonano,

ma uno che ci va apposta. allora tu ti correggi

e male. per trasferimento, si, la scuola. ah! quella

dei bambini. /// abiti solo lì a Firenze? /// ed io

che, zotica, non mi sono fatta venire in mente che

si possa abitare da due o tre o sette parti, rispondo:

si, ma viaggio....7 (sic) troppo! ti butteresti in

ginocchio, ormai; perdono! perdono! se ho fatto la

maestra e senza i blocchi logici, ma con il gesso e

la lavagna e senza audiovisivi, ormai viaggio: treno

e io? /// il mio nome, un insulto, una vergogna,

“inadatto allo spazio operativo”: i buoni si scompisciano

dal ridere, e io che faccio, rido!? è come

ridere tre volte al giorno per la stessa barzelletta,

sai il divertimento. i cattivi chiedono: dipingevi

prima? e tu allora dici di no che non facevi niente,

che “avevi altri interessi” ottimo!! ma poi, non

sai come, ti scappa: facevo la maestra; orrore!! e

i cattivi: come? insegnavi a leggere ai bambini, e

io, tutta rossa e bugiarda: ma con i blocchi logici,

li lasci due secondi perplessi perché pensano che

deve essere roba che viene dall’America, non si sa

my name, an insult, a disgrace, “unfit for active service”: the nice ones wet

themselves laughing, and what do i do, laugh!? it’s like laughing three times

a day at the same joke, what a gas. the nasty ones ask: have you painted before?

and you say no, that you didn’t do anything, that you “had other interests”

fantastic!! but then, you don’t know how, you let it out: i was a primary

school teacher; shock horror!! and the nasty ones: what? you taught children

to read, and me, crimson and lying: but using shape sets, that leaves them

puzzled for a couple of seconds because they think it must be stuff that comes

from America, you never know, better be careful about running it down.

where are you from? from Florence, but i wasn’t born there, idiotic clarification,

they still manage to forgive someone who is actually Florentine, but

someone who chooses to go there … and so you correct yourself, badly. it was

a move, yes, the school. ah! the kids’ school.

and you live only there, in Florence?

and me, like a boor, it never crossed my mind that you could live in two, three

or seven places: yes, but i travel … (sic) exaggerated! by this stage you’d fall

on your knees; forgive me! forgive me! if i’ve been a primary school teacher,

but not with shape sets, using a blackboard and chalk and no visual aids,

but now i travel: train 297 departure 6:05 arrival in Milan 10:05 departure

19:55 arrival in Florence 23:30 and to bed.

that’s it, the nasty ones stare at you, meaning: but that’s not travelling, and

me? i’m perfectly aware that it’s not travelling, travelling means going to

Rimini, in the summer, without timetables, just changing at Bologna, to go

swimming.

silent now. i get my things together in a rush and clumsily, clumsily to put it

mildly, half the stuff on the floor, slipping all over the place, you pick them up,

bunching together the 18/24 sheets and the 24/30 all of them already crumpled.

and him take care and you, even somewhat half-heartedly: drop dead.

1973 / Unpublished

come io, che non sono una bellezza; ma che ci posso

fare, mi comincio a grattare simulando un gesto

grazioso, grazioso si fa per dire: un vecchio eczema

al gomito. ma devo imparare: i golf nei negozi

si comprano, quelli piccolo con tanti straccetti

a sole 28.500 l’uno, chiaro, mica vorrai una bracciata

di stracci per quella cifra; golf tipo maglia di

sotto, quella che non si porta più e ora si porta di

sopra /// /// ancora con affettuoso metalinguaggio

e io? /// la gonna me la sono tolta da tanto, figuratevi

una gonna a pieghe, scozzese, ora sempre

pantaloni, quelli coloniali, non i coloniali di prima,

corti, quelli di adesso color carta da zucchero,

zucchero di prima stavolta, larghi, a strascico,

mai nuovi! e il rossetto? non ci voglio pensare, mi

piaceva tanto; ho fatto la prova, se mi mettevo il

rossetto mi chiedevano se dipingevo prima. associazione

di una finezza da appuntato dei carabinieri

interroga la “prefata”; che faccio? lo picchio

o gli dico che associazione per associazione poteva

farla con un’altra pane del corpo e che quella il

rossetto non ce l’ha, ma è quella che lo fa mettere.

/// e io? /// bel golf! ah si! l’ho comprato all’Upim.

i cattivi, con compiacenza: delle volte anche

lì si trovano cose favolose! e te che hai spedito via

uno che ti piaceva perché di fronte a un tuo lavoro

ha detto favoloso e, poveretto, lui non capirà mai

and me?

i haven’t worn a skirt in a long time, not to speak of a pleated tartan skirt,

now just plain trousers, chinos, not the old-style, short chinos, but the modern

ones in cornflower blue colour, old sugar this time, baggy, dragging on

the ground, never new! and lipstick? i don’t want to think about it, i really

liked wearing it; i did a test, if i wore lipstick they asked me if i had painted

before. association of ideas like that of a police officer interrogating the

“aforesaid”; what do i do? i hit him and tell him that as associations go, he

could have made one with another part of the body which doesn’t have lipstick,

but is the reason it’s worn.

and me?

nice jumper! ah yes! i bought it at Upim. the nasty ones smugly: sometimes

you can find wonderful things even there! and you who had sent one you

liked packing because in front of one of your works he had said fabulous,

and poor wretch, he can never understand like me, who am not a great beauty;

but what can i do, i begin to scratch, simulating a graceful gesture, if you

could call it graceful: an old outbreak of eczema on the elbow. but i have to

learn: you buy jumpers in the shops, those little ones with lots of rags at just

28,500 lire each, obviously, you can’t bloomin’ expect an armful of rags for

that price; a jumper like a camisole, that no-one wears any more and now

they wear them on top.

again with affectionate metalanguage


87

florence, museo del bargello …

firenze museo del bargello … /// I /// David Michelangelo Firenze Museo del Bargello una

mano dettaglio /// Michelangelo David Museo del Bargello Firenze dettaglio di una mano

/// David Michelangelo Museo del Bargello Firenze dettaglio di una mano /// Michelangelo

David Firenze Museo del Bargello una mano dettaglio /// dettaglio di una mano Museo del

Bargello Firenze Michelangelo David /// una mano dettaglio Firenze Museo del Bargello David

Michelangelo /// dettaglio di una mano Firenze Museo del Bargello Michelangelo David /// una

mano dettaglio Museo del Bargello Firenze David Michelangelo /// dettaglio di una mano Museo

del Bargello Firenze David Michelangelo /// una mano dettaglio Firenze Museo del Bargello

Michelangelo David /// dettaglio di una mano Michelangelo David Museo del Bargello Firenze

/// una mano dettaglio David Michelangelo Firenze Museo del Bargello /// dettaglio di una

mano David Michelangelo Museo del Bargello Firenze /// una mano dettaglio Michelangelo

David Firenze Museo del Bargello /// dettaglio di una mano Michelangelo David Firenze

Museo del Bargello /// una mano dettaglio David Michelangelo Museo del Bargello Firenze

I

David Michelangelo Florence Museo del Bargello a hand detail

Michelangelo David Museo del Bargello Florence detail of a hand

David Michelangelo Museo del Bargello Florence detail of a hand

Michelangelo David Florence Museo del Bargello a hand detail

detail of a hand Museo del Bargello Florence Michelangelo David

a hand detail Florence Museo del Bargello David Michelangelo

detail of a hand Florence Museo del Bargello Michelangelo David

a hand detail Museo del Bargello Florence David Michelangelo

detail of a hand Museo del Bargello Florence David Michelangelo

a hand detail Florence Museo del Bargello Michelangelo David

detail of a hand Michelangelo David Museo del Bargello Florence

a hand detail David Michelangelo Florence Museo del Bargello

detail of a hand David Michelangelo Museo del Bargello Florence

a hand detail Michelangelo David Florence Museo del Bargello

detail of a hand Michelangelo David Florence Museo del Bargello

a hand detail David Michelangelo Museo del Bargello Florence

…

1972 / Text typewritten in three parts.

fattivo in area sperimentale con ipotetici inglobamenti

per un problema più vasto al quale viene annessa in un

tale contesto una concreta rilevanza da conferirsi particolarmente

in un’area di azione fortemente contaminata

da eccessive ma giustificabili necessità in un determinismo

talora paradossale in una simbiosi di tipo affettivo

ma frustrante tale da conferirgli. /// Non ritengo

che una qualsiasi risposta possa essere di qualche interesse

in tale contesto. Rimango, comunque,sempre disponibile

per gli appassionati. /// Considero importante

l’intervento della società nella società contemporanea.

Risposta banale, ma soprattutto cretina, ma tutte queste

domande sono così sconvenienti, comunque vi pregherei

di non pubblicare le risposte di altri artisti che

assomigliano alle mie in particolare a livello di poetica.

La domanda voleva e/o doveva essere: quali sono le persone

che hanno determinato l’attuale situazione artistica

a Firenze? Sarebbe opportuno pubblicare un’opera omnia

sull’argomento, a dispense settimanali. /// Forse esistono

prospettive astratte, ma mi sembra un eccesso di ottimismo

parlare di crisi. /// Dal momento in cui qualsiasi

procedimento presuppone da un punto di vista pratico

un’esigenza di carattere concreto accettabile nell’ambito

di una prospettiva disgiunta da considerazioni parziali

in un campo cosi vasto che inevitabilmente trova

un’affermazione non del tutto pertinente e specifica tanto

che in una visione di aspetti non immediatamente rilevabili

finanche ad un’osservazione attenta di imponderabili

fenomeni che dilatano una visione talvolta resa

parziale ad un’effettiva impossibilità di verifica attinente

ad un ristretto campo di considerazioni consequenziali

e contraddittorie che determinano atteggiamenti ambigui

per un’incipiente partecipazione affinché possano

valutarsi nel tempo le singole ripercussioni derivanti da

impreviste deviazioni con degenerazioni anche se marginali

risolvibili obbiettivamente in una dinamica operativa

per un graduale miglioramento che escluda effettivamente

ogni forma di immobilismo non immediatamente

evidenziabile con alternanze di disponibilità e interdisciplinari

posizioni chiarite successivamente in un

più idoneo assestamento tale da permettere la formazione

di una solida struttura inizialmente non verificabile

in una trasformazione equilibrata tale da riscontrare

una fondatezza di principi considerato l’assenteismo nel

quale una linea delineata di improcrastinabile impegno

The question was intended to be and/or ought to have been: who are the

people who have brought about the current artistic situation in Florence?

It would be expedient to publish a collective work on the subject, in weekly

instalments.

Perhaps abstract prospects exist, but it seems to me excessively optimistic

to speak of crisis.

Considering that any procedure from a practical point of view presupposes

a requirement of a concrete character that is acceptable within the

framework of a perspective detached from partial considerations in a field

so vast that it inevitably finds a confirmation that is not entirely pertinent

and specific to the extent that in a vision of not immediately detectable aspects

even on close observation of imponderable phenomena that dilate a vision

sometimes rendered partial to an effective impossibility of verification

related to a narrow field of consequential and contradictory considerations

that determine ambiguous attitudes for an incipient participation enabling

a valuation over time of the individual repercussions deriving from unforeseen

deviations with degenerations albeit marginal that can be objectively

resolved within an operational dynamic for a gradual improvement that effectively

rules out every form of inactivity that cannot be immediately pinpointed

with alternations of availability and interdisciplinary positions subsequently

clarified in a more appropriate arrangement such as to permit the

formation of a solid structure initially not verifiable in a balanced transformation

such as to encounter a validity of principle considering the absenteeism

in which a clearly-defined line of urgent active commitment in the

experimental area with hypothetical incorporations for a larger problem annexed

to which in this context is a concrete significance to be attributed in

particular to an area of action strongly contaminated by excessive but justifiable

necessities in an at times paradoxical determinism in a symbiosis

of the emotional type but so frustrating as to confer a position on it.

I do not think that any reply can be of interest in this context. However,

I continue to be available for enthusiasts.

I consider the intervention of society in contemporary society to be important.

A predictable and above all imbecilic reply, but all these questions

are so unseemly, however I would ask you not to publish the replies of other

artists which resemble mine especially in terms of poetics.

Published in Nac, no. 1, January 1973, p. 21.

89

deer are fast, indians are fast, indians are deer

ineluttabilmente portato /// ad accettare la propria

identità sulla base dei solo predicati /// così se egli

è certo di essere un indiano allora facilmente arriva

anche /// a credere di essere un cervo basandosi

su ciò che la gente pensa degli /// indiani e dei cervi,

cioè un predicato /// la sua posizione, di opinione in

opinione, slitta sempre più indietro per quanto ///

egli si ingegni a darsi stabilità: si dice che gli indiani

sono dei primitivi /// e che i primitivi sono simili

ai bambini /// ma se questo è vero, come gli si potrà

rimproverare una forma di pensiero /// egocentrico

che formuli un giudizio di identità di predicati?

/// l’esperienza, in una società in armonia con le

leggi del cielo, /// mostra che la conclusione dei sillogismi

è giustificata solo se la premessa /// maggiore

contiene la premessa minore /// ma quando i

fiumi tramite poderose opere idrauliche, /// dovute

agli sforzi collettivi /// corrono dalla terra al cielo

/// allora può darsi che ciò che giace al di fuori

dell’area di intersezione /// dei predicati diventi irrilevante

per l’ identificazione dell’io e la /// contraddizione,

attraverso la sintesi, sia esclusa dalla

i cervi sono veloci, gli indiani sono veloci, gli

indiani sono cervi /// se mai un bell’uomo un po’

pingue vicino alla quarantina esistesse ancora, ///

e non fosse come di regola già morto, anzi spolpato

dal brulichio dei segni, /// se quest’uomo si apprestasse

come si tramanda nelle fiabe a far uso del

senso comune che fino a quel momento l’ha sorretto;

/// allora quest’uomo non potrebbe astrarre il concetto

di identità /// che da una base di soggetti identici

/// ma se quest’uomo è ridotto a una traccia ///

nero su bianco /// noi allora osserviamo che egli è

if there were a chance that a handsome, somewhat stout man of around forty

should still exist,

and were not as is generally the case already dead, or rather picked clean by the

swarming signs,

if this man were to set himself as they say in the fairy tales to make use of the

wits that had held him in good stead up to then;

well this man would not be able to abstract the concept of identity

except from a basis of identical subjects

but if this man is reduced to a trace

black on white

we can then observe how he is ineluctably led

to accept his own identity purely on the basis of predicates

and so if he is certain about being an Indian then he can easily also get to the

point of believing that he is a deer basing himself on what people think about

Indians and deer, that is a predicate

his position, from one opinion to the next, continues to slide backwards however

hard he tries to give himself stability: it’s said that Indians are primitives

and that primitives are like children

but if this is true, how can he be blamed for an egocentric

way of thinking that formulates a judgement of identity from predicates?

in a society in harmony with the laws of heaven, experience

shows that the conclusion of syllogisms is justified only when the greater

premise contains the lesser premise

but when as a result of mighty hydraulic works

due to collective efforts

the rivers run upward from earth to sky

then it may be that what lies outside the area of intersection

of the predicates becomes irrelevant for the identification of the self and,

through synthesis, the contradiction is excluded from the logic of pragmatic

language

this is what you think, dear friend

instead this is the way things are

as if it weren’t enough, it weren’t sufficient,

/// qualche variante nevrotica in più e sono a posto?

/// se io fotovivo non voglio avere idee (favole) /// se

io parlo non voglio avere idee (favole) /// posso avere

solo sovrapposizioni /// io vedo attraverso l’ellisse

della e, il cerchio della o, la circonferenza /// del

punto /// io parlo attraverso l’iride, la retina, il nervo

ottico /// e sono anche stufa /// allora mi limito

a sovrapporre, ripercorrere, scrivere, uno sopra l’

altro, /// ma le metafore sono infinite, belle, come

sono belle, le senti, le vedi /// “you, you” paradossale,

illegittimo, patetico, idiota ma si riscatta poi

logica del linguaggio /// pragmatico /// questo lo

pensi tu, caro amico /// invece le cose stanno così

/// come se non bastasse, se non fosse sufficiente,

/// evidenziare gli aspetti metaforici dell’immagine

prima ancora che li assuma: /// impossibile ‘prima’

/// esasperare la metafora, anche la tautologia

ancora una volta ha perso la sua /// sfida, potrebbe

dichiararsi ‘ Pierino’ /// un uomo con una macchina

fotografica /// un uomo con una tavolozza e un fiocco

/// sono già metafora di se stessi? /// dichiarare

di vivere in una realtà fotografica parallela alla realtà

vissuta (?!) /// è come volersi giustificare, privilegiare

una realtà non fotografica, /// la realtà, qui

e ora, è solo fotovissuta e parlata /// e se io fotovivo

allora ho gli occhi sporchi, le mani sporche, il cervello

/// se io parlo ho la lingua sporca e la vita ///

se vogliamo fare una linea da Altamira in poi /// se

continuo ad accaparrare, appropriarmi, diversificare

poi, anche attraverso /// grandangolari estremi,

mi affatico inutilmente, mi annoio continuamente,

/// mi ripeto inevitabilmente e sto male /// dichiaro

di essere il cronista di me stesso e degli altri con

to highlight the metaphorical aspects of an image even before it assumes

them:

impossible ‘before’

to intensify the metaphor, once again even tautology has lost its

challenge, he could proclaim himself ‘Little Johnny’

a man with a camera

a man with a palette and a floppy cravat

are they already metaphors of themselves?

declare that he lives in a photographic reality parallel to lived reality (?!)

it’s like wanting to justify yourself, favouring a non-photographic reality,

here and now, reality is only photolived and spoken

and if i photolive then i have dirty eyes, dirty hands, brain

if i speak i have a dirty tongue and life

if we want to draw a line from Altamira on

and then if i continue to grasp, seize and diversify, even through

extreme wide-angle shots, i weary myself in vain, i bore myself continually,

i inevitably repeat myself and i suffer

i say that i’m the reporter of myself and others with

some extra neurotic variant and that makes it okay?

if i photolive i don’t want to have ideas (fairy tales)

if i speak i don’t want to have ideas (fairy tales)

i can only have superimpositions

i see through the ellipse of the e, the circle of the o, the circumference of the

full stop,

i speak through the iris, the retina, the optic nerve

and i’m also sick and tired

so i restrict myself to overlaying, retracing, writing, one over the other,

but the metaphors are infinite, beautiful, how beautiful they are, you feel

them, you see them

“you, you” paradoxical, illegitimate, pathetic, idiotic, but in the end redeemed

Text printed on the invitation to the namesake solo show at the Christian Stein gallery in Turin in March 1973

91

deer are fast, indians are fast, indians are deer

avere idee: favole /// posso avere solo sovrapposizioni

/// io vedo attraverso l’ellisse della e, il cerchio

della o, la circonferenza del punto, /// io parlo

attraverso l’iride, la retina, il nervo ottico /// e sono

anche stufa /// che cosa? /// una crudeltà come volontà

nuova, unica /// al di fuori di questa forza si

può tanto e dolorose /// come dire /// “i cervi sono

veloci, gli indiani /// sono veloci, gli indiani sono

cervi” /// o perdersi nel narcisismo della tautologia

my work points up a doubly photographic reality, attempting to redeem

photography to itself by wanting to render the “original” doubly absent

and materialising its challenge to metaphor, challenge already lost, but in

a patent manner,

indeed i don’t narrate, i restrict myself to retracing, drawing the outlines

using the only possible sign: calligraphy as an alienating and partial instant

that already declares itself historic, despite being always unique

“you, you” attempts to obstruct the mental process, making the asymptote

of alienation immediately clear, “you” means that “i”, i have no alternatives,

i am saved

in my own hysteria

in making living other than me microscopic

to alienante e parziale che si preannuncia già come

storico, ma pur sempre unico /// “you, you” tenta

di inceppare il processo mentale rendere subito

chiara l’asintote dell’alienazione “you” significa

che “io”, io non ho alternative, mi salvo /// nella

mia stessa isteria /// nel rendere microscopico il

vivere l’altro da me /// nell’essermi esempio di alienazione

/// ma non di perversione /// non il parziale

/// la denuncia ai miei stereotipi /// non voglio

in my being an example of alienation

but not of perversion

not the partial

the charge against my stereotypes

i don’t want to have ideas: fairy tales

i can only have superimpositions

i see through the ellipse of the e, the circle of the o, the circumference of

the full stop,

i speak through the iris, the retina, the optic nerve

and i’m also sick and tired

“i cervi sono veloci, gli indiani sono veloci,

gli indiani sono cervi” /// il mio lavoro evidenzia

una realtà doppiamente fotografica, tentando

di riscattare la fotografia a sé stessa nel voler rendere

“l’originale” doppiamente assente e materializzandone

la sfida alla metafora, sfida già persa,

ma in maniera dichiarata, /// infatti non racconto,

mi limito a ripercorrere, disegnare i contorni

con l’unico segno possibile: la calligrafia momen-

what?

a cruelty like new, unique will

beyond this strength we can do so much and painful

as if to say

“deer are fast, Indians

are fast, Indians are deer”

or lose yourself in the narcissism of tautology

The text of this unpublished typescript was proposed at the time of the solo show at the Seconda Scala art gallery

in Rome in February 1973.

rimento-esautoramento. ///Le immagini, del resto,

già ripercorse, divenute testo, si liberano da successive

descrizioni nei termini di metalinguaggio

attraverso una evidente accentuazione della metafora.

/// Queste immagini meccaniche sono assunte

da me come eventi, cioè reali: non una città ma

la sua immagine meccanica è la città stessa; non

il David di Michelangelo, ma la sua fotografia è il

David stesso. Questo è il senso autentico dell’informazione,

non il nonsenso del linguaggio articolato”.

[…] “I propose once again an attempt at annihilation of articulate language,

now assumed in my latest works in its dimension of metalanguage and disguised

in its eternally reductive function.

Articulate language is the mechanical image.

The mechanical image is the metaphor of an event

but at present information has made it truer that

an event is a metaphor of the mechanical image.

But alphabetic metalanguage attempts to summarise both the event and

the mechanical image and turn them into metaphors, as a global pretence

and thus mystifying information. My attempt consists in having dilated this

dimension within a hyperbolically asemantic text – the language of hands –

and of having alienated this text by redesigning the images, materially no

fore sia l’evento che l’immagine meccanica, quale

globale finzione e mistificando così l’informazione.

Il mio tentativo consiste nell’aver dilatato in un

testo iperbolicamente asemantico – il linguaggio

delle mani - questa dimensione e nell’aver alienato

questo testo ridisegnando le immagini, proprio

materialmente, rendendo concreta una situazione

reale. /// E’ questo testo un pretenzioso discorso

globale riportato a segno, tolto dal luogo delegato

delle linee parallele e costretto a subire il suo esau-

less, thus rendering a real situation concrete.

This text is a pretentious global discourse brought back to the sign,

wrested from the deputed site of parallel lines and constrained to undergo

its exhaustion-deposition.

The images, moreover, already retraced, become text, free themselves

from successive descriptions in the terms of metalangage through an evident

accentuation of the metaphor.

These mechanical images are assumed by me as like events, that is, real:

not a city, but its mechanical image is the actual city; not Michelangelo’s

David but a photo of it is the actual David. This is the authentic sense of information,

not the nonsense of articulate language.”

“Ancora una volta ripropongo un tentativo di annientamento

del linguaggio articolato, ora assunto

nei miei ultimi lavori nella sua dimensione di metalinguaggio

e mascherato nella sua funzione di

eterno riduttore. /// Il linguaggio articolato e l’immagine

meccanica. /// L’immagine meccanica è la

metafora di un evento /// ma attualmente l’informazione

ha reso più vero che /// un evento è metafora

dell’immagine meccanica. /// Ma il metalinguaggio

alfabetico tenta di riassumere e rendere meta-

Text published in D. Palazzoli, “Ketty La Rocca: tornare a parlare con le mani” in Data, year IV, no. 12,

summer 1974, pp. 94 – 95

93

un luogo privilegiato dove si svolgono azioni quotidiane /// la falsa coscienza del linguaggio

alimenta la paranoia universale /// espropria di significato ogni gesto alternativo /// appiattisce

ogni rilievo del comportamento /// minaccia ogni sentimento estraneo /// come un nastro sul

quale forzosamente scorrono sensi paralleli /// per gridare “aiuto!” devo dire “aiuto!” in altre

parole! /// in questa azione che chiamerei coniugazione /// io sono esempio a me stessa e agli

altri di un totale asservimento /// al linguaggio, alle sue più allettanti infrastrutture, /// mi

costringo ad esprimermi attraverso un raffinato esempio /// gli altri che partecipano all’azione

coniugano sia un dramma /// reale che il mio dramma interiore, il mio rapporto con il mezzo: ///

accattivante ma sterile: il linguaggio non determina libertà seppure illusorie, /// ma prolifica

contagiosamente, crea vittime che coniugano /// la loro stessa condizione e la definiscono: “tu”.

A special place where daily actions unfold

the false consciousness of language that fuels universal paranoia

deprives any alternative gesture of meaning

flattens any prominence of behaviour

threatens any extraneous sentiment

like a conveyor belt along which parallel meanings are forced to run

to cry “help!” I have to say “help!”

in other words!

In this action that I would call conjugation

I am an example to myself and to others of a total enslavement

to language, to its most enticing infrastructures,

I force myself to speak through a refined example

the others that take part in the action combine both a real

drama and my interior drama, my relation with the medium:

captivating but sterile: language does not determine even

illusory

freedom, but proliferates contagiously, creates victims that conjugate

their very own condition and define it “you”.

Published in Data, year V, no. 16 / 17, June/August 1975, pp. 68 / 69.

Text conceived on the occasion of the performance Le mie parole, e tu? at the Galleria Nuovi Strumenti

in Brescia in March 1975 and at the Galleria La Tartaruga in Rome in April 1975.

my images

le mie immagini /// la fine di un’immagine

/// o l’immagine di una fine /// oppure

/// l’illusione di un’immagine o ///

l’immagine di un’illusione /// oppure ///

la fine dell’illusione di un’immagine o

/// la fine dell’immagine di un’illusione

the end of an image

or the image of an end

or

the illusion of an image or

the image of an illusion

or

the end of the illusion of an image

or

the end of the image of an illusion

gli stereotipi di conoscenze che mi sono stati appiccicati

finché, per me, diventano un’altra cosa, diventano

«quella» immagine al di fuori e al di sopra di qualsiasi

lettura corale. /// Il David, per esempio, non esiste più,

quello vero è quello delle cartoline o quello più raffinato

delle fotografie per turisti o dei libri i storia dell’arte,

eppure per questo che è così misterioso e se io voglio

un David tutto per me posso solo rifarmelo, ricostruirlo

per i miei ricordi, su misura sul mio modo di

essere, di sentire, di vivere. Una salutare rigenerazione

che ogni immagine rivive facendo riaffiorare una specie

di proprio inconscio e riabilitando in senso autentico

perché individuale la traccia che può lasciare di sé.

noia che è fuori di lì: eravamo già annoiati entrando,

non riusciamo più a distinguere. Le immagini sono ricordi,

i ricordi si accavallano, i ricordi inediti non esistono.

I cinquanta milioni di immagini di un film ci

hanno espropriato completamente. E io che posso fare,

lasciarmi coinvolgere, fabbricarne di più belle o di più

interessanti o con maggiori giustificazioni o con insoliti

mezzi tecnici, è assurdo, una follia inutile, una paranoia

universale. C’è già tanto da vedere, da capire, da

leggere e una volta tanto da vivere. Ecco proprio da vivere,

ognuno a suo modo. Io prendo delle immagini già

fatte, già viste da tanta gente e per tanto tempo, rese

insulse da descrizioni assembleari e le rivivo con tutti

Un mio caro amico mi diceva che un qualsiasi film ha

circa cinquanta milioni di immagini: è l’inflazione del

secolo! Un’inflazione cha ha volgarizzato il senso di tutte

le immagini del passato. Chi, ancora, ama le immagini,

diciamo pure, alcune particolari immagini, al di

fuori della pigrizia culturale, e ce n’è tanta, vuol dire

che ha una mente così selettiva e ha un tale bagaglio

culturale da essere quasi un mostro, ma un mostro insignificante,

per quanto mi riguarda, come tutti i mostri.

/// La nostra più o meno interessante passeggiata

agli Uffizi ha quasi sempre l’ambizione di farci presumere

una astuzia di veggenti antenati di noi stessi,

riuscendo talvolta a renderci sopportabile la noia, una

A dear friend of mine told me that any film contains around fifty million images:

it’s the inflation of the century! An inflation that has debased the meaning

of all the images of the past. Anyone who still loves images, or rather let’s

say some particular images, beyond the cultural laziness, and there’s plenty

of that, must have such a selective mind and such cultural baggage as to

be almost a prodigy, but an insignificant prodigy, as far as I’m concerned,

like all prodigies.

Our more or less interesting stroll to the Uffizi almost always aspires to

make us presume a guile belonging to forebear soothsayers, sometimes succeeding

in making the boredom bearable to us, a boredom that is outside it:

we were already bored when we went in, we no longer manage to distinguish.

The images are memories, the memories pile up. Original memories don’t exist.

The fifty million images of a film have completely dispossessed us. And

what can I do, let myself get involved, fabricate others that are more beautiful

or more interesting, or with greater justifications or exploiting unusual

technical methods, it’s absurd, a pointless folly, a universal paranoia. There’s

already so much to see, to understand, to read, and every so often to live. Yes,

to actually live, everyone in his or her own way. I take images that are readymade,

already seen by so many people and for so long, rendered vacuous by

consensual descriptions, and I relive them with all the knowledge stereotypes

that have been thrust upon me until, for me, they become something

else, they become “that” image, over and above any choral reading.

David, for instance, no longer exists, the real one is that of the postcards,

or the more refined one of the photos for tourists or for art history books, and

yet this is why it is so mysterious and if I want a David all of my own I can

only remake it for me, reconstruct it for my memories, made to measure to

my way of being, feeling, living. A salutary regeneration that every image

relives bringing to the surface a species of its own unconscious and rehabilitating

the trace that it can leave of itself in a sense that is authentic because

it is individual.

Published in Ketty La Rocca, solo show, Galleria Documenta, Turin, February 1975

95

“you you”

“you you”, 1972–72 /// Il mio lavoro tenta di riscattare l’immagine a /// sè stessa / materializzandone la sfida alle

me- /// tafora, sfida già persa, ma in maniera dichia- /// rata. / infatti io non racconto, mi limito a ri- /// percorrere,

disegnare, scrivere i contorni con /// l’unico segno possibile: la calligrafia / la cal- /// ligrafia, momento alienante

e parziale che si /// preannuncia già coem storico, ma pur sempre /// unico, il mio unico gesto là / “you you” ten-

/// di inceppare il processo visivo e mentale / /// e di ridurre il linguaggio a semplice “bit” /// d’informazione / e

rendere subito chiara l’asin- /// tote dell’alienazione / “you” significa anche /// io, io non ho alternative, mi salvo

nella mia /// stessa isteria, con l’irripetibile del mio scriver- /// mi a mano / nel rendere microscopiche il vi- ///

vere l’altro da me / nell’essermi esempio di /// alienazione / ma non di perversione / pertan- /// to il mio lavoro non

è la sede dei miei af- /// fetti / non è parziale, quindi / ma la denun- /// cia fatta au miei stereotipi / non è calda ///

placenta per avvolgermi / ma crudeltà come /// volontà nuova e unica / al di fuori di questa /// forza si può tanto /

come dire / “i cervi sono /// cervi” / e perdersi nel narcisismo della paralogia.

My work attempts to redeem the image to

itself / materialising its challenge to metaphor,

a challenge already lost, but in a patent manner

/ indeed i don’t narrate, i restrict myself to retracing,

drawing, writing the contours using

the only possible sign: calligraphy / calligraphy,

an alienating and partial instant that

already declares itself historic, despite being always

unique, my only gesture there / “you you” tends

to obstruct the visual and mental process /

and to reduce language to mere “bits”

of information / and making the asymptote of alien

-ation immediately clear / “you” also means

i, i have no alternatives, i am saved in my

own hysteria, with my unrepeatable writing myself

by hand / in making living other than me microscopic

/ in my being an example of

alienation / but not of perversion / hence

my work is not the seat of my sentiments

/ it is not partial, therefore / but the charge

made against my stereotypes / it is not the warm

placenta to enwrap me / but cruelty like

new and unique will / beyond this

strength we can do so much / as if to say / “deer are

fast, Indians are fast, Indians are

deer” / and lose oneself in the narcissism of paralogy.

Text published in Lea Vergine, The body as a language (Body Art and Performance),

Prearo Editore, Milano 1974

(non è tempo per le donne, di dichiarazioni: hanno troppo da fare /// e poi dovrebbero

usare un linguaggio che non è il loro, dentro un /// linguaggio che è loro estraneo

quanto ostile /// pertanto posso solo dire con un’inconsueta intimità, come spazio ///

generoso /// e desolato, ma libero, che, codice alla mano:) per quanto mi riguarda, ///

ho tutti i difetti delle donne senza averne le qualità: un femminile /// negativo, come

altre, /// espropriata di tutto escluso di quelle cose che non fanno gola a nessuno, /// e

sono tante, anche se un po’ da rimettere in ordine, /// le mani, per esempio, troppo tardi

(sic) per le abilità femminili, /// troppo povere e incapaci per continuare ad accaparrare,

/// è preferibile ricamare con le parole e accellerare (sic) la paranoia /// universale,

/// e al primo degli imbecilli che crede di scoprire l’america (sic) “sarà per /// un ///

matrimonio andato male”, si, infatti, è proprio per questo /// non riuscirà mai a capire.

1

[for women this is not a time for statements: they have too much to do

and then they have to use a language that isn’t theirs, within a

language that is as alien to them as it is hostile

therefore all i can say with an unusual intimacy, like a space that is generous

and desolate, but free, is that, rules to hand:] as far as i’m concerned,

i have all the defects of women without having their qualities: a negative

feminine, like others,

dispossessed of everything except the things that no-one wants,

and there are plenty of them, even if they need to be put in order somewhat,

hands, for instance, too late for female skills,

too poor and incapable to continue to grab,

it’s better to embroider with words and accelerate the universal paranoia,

and to the first imbecile who thinks he has discovered America “probably

on account of a marriage turned sour,” 1 yes, indeed, precisely for this reason

he will never be able to understand.

1974. In brackets is the unpublished text taken from The Ketty La Rocca Estate, in which two versions were found.

There are two copies of the typescript in The Ketty La Rocca Estate; in one of these, presumably the earlier one, we read

“probably on account of the marriage turned sour,” corrected in the second version to the more impersonal form “probably

on account of a marriage turned sour,” as cited also in the catalogue published by Galleria Carini.

97

„e venne la proposta di abolire del tutto la parola”, no, questo è un testo

che ho scritto qualche anno fa, non pubblicato, come molti altri del resto.

/// Dunque, non venne la proposta di tagliarmi le mani e così ho deciso

di fotografarle, ma non erano le stesse e ci hanno detto sopra le cose più

maliziose. Ho deciso così di farlo io direttamente, con più stile, scusate,

e con meno malizia: parlarle da sola. /// Inutile! Allora le ho avvilite con

una macchina che copia, meno vere, ma più mie., non ancora del tutto

però. Ho deciso: ne riprendo possesso, e già a raccontarmele come un

ricordo, una traccia a penna, così come potrebbero far tutti e di tutte

le immagini. Sul serio, dato che, non venne la proposta di tagliarmi le

mani, allora vi do un quadro, l’unico ancora possibile. /// Ecco un quadro.

“and the proposal was made to abolish words entirely”, no, this is a text that I

wrote some years ago, unpublished, as indeed were many others.

So, the proposal was not made to cut off my hands and so I decided to photograph

them, but they weren’t the same and people said the most malicious

things about them. And so I decided to do it myself directly, with more style, begging

your pardon, and with less malice: speak to them alone.

To no avail! Well then I mortified them with a machine that copies, less real,

but more mine, but not yet entirely so. I decided: I shall take possession of them

again, and already telling myself about them like a memory, a stroke of the pen,

just like everyone could do and with all images. Seriously, given that, the proposal

was not made to cut off my hands, well then I’ll give you a painting, the

only one still possible.

Here is a painting.

Unpublished text originating from the Cavellini Archive, conceived on the occasion of the performance Le mie parole, e tu? at

the Galleria Nuovi Strumenti in Brescia in March 1975

72/ 73

74/ 75

Ketty La Rocca

1973 / Photographer: Carlo Poggiali

1967 / Coloured tissue papers, typewriting, Performance,

Libreria Feltrinelli, Florence, 22× 22 cm and 22 × 16 cm

76

Dal momento in cui

1972 / Typewriting and handwriting on paper (5 parts),

19× 29 cm, 17 × 23 cm, 11 × 17 cm, 9 × 14 cm, 7 × 11.5 cm

77

Dal momento in cui

1971 / Typewriting and handwriting on paper (2 parts),

27.5× 18 cm

All works / photographs: The Ketty La Rocca Estate

99

GESTURES

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129

100/ 101

Ketty La Rocca, undated photograph

102/ 103

Appendice per una supplica

1971 / Print, flyer (back and front) for an exhibition invitation, 31 × 17 cm

104/ 105

Dichiarazione d’artista

1971 / Emulsified canvas, 56 × 94.5 cm

106/ 107

Appendice per una supplica

1971 / Emulsified canvas, 61 × 97.7 cm

108 – 113

Appendice per una supplica (stills)

1972 / Video, silent, b/w, 9.30 min

114 – 117

In Principio Erat

1975 / Artist book

Edited by Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund

118/ 119

Le mie parole e tu?

1971 / 4 photographs, b/w and ink on aluminium, each 50 × 60 cm

120

Le mie parole e tu?

1971/1972 / 6 b/w photographs and ink on aluminium, each 50 × 60 cm

© Courtesy of sammlung verbund, Vienna

121

Le mie parole

1973 / Handwriting on photograph, 24 × 30 cm

Private collection

122/ 123

Le mie parole

1973 / Handwriting and paint on photograph, 18 × 24 cm

Private collection

124/ 125

Le mie parole

1973 / Paint on photograph, 17.8 × 23.5 cm

126 – 129

Le mie parole e tu?

1975 / Performance Galleria Nuovi Strumenti, Brescia

All works / Photographs – where not otherwise specified:

The Ketty La Rocca Estate

META– LANGUAGE

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133

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201

133

134/ 135

136 – 139

140 – 145

146 – 151

152 – 155

156 – 159

160 – 165

166 – 171

172 – 177

178 – 182

Il mio lavoro

each 36 cm The Ketty La Rocca Estate

1973 / Photograph and handwriting on paper,

2 parts, each 13× 18 cm, private collection

David

1970 / Lithograph on paper, 48 × 70 cm,

edition 90/100

Palazzo Medici Riccardi

1974 / Photograph and ink on paper, 3 parts,

each 24.8× 19 cm

Fontana


27.5× 100 cm, Collezione Patrizia Gori

Nudo di donna

1974 / Stamped postcard and ink on paper,

5 parts, each 21.5× 16.5 cm

Viale Filippo Strozzi


each 20× 24 cm

Moshe Dayan


each 14.5× 10 cm

Golda Meir


each 14.5× 10 cm

Fidel


each 10,2× 14,3 cm

Il Monello

1975 / Playbill and ink on paper, 5 parts,

each 33× 46.5 cm

Via col vento

1975 / Playbill and ink on paper, 4 parts,

52×

184 – 187

188 – 191

192/ 193

194/ 195

196

197

198 – 201

Photo 13

1973 / Magazine cover and ink on paper, 3 parts,

each 33.3× 23.8 cm

Le mie parole e tu?


each 23.8× 16.8 cm, Collezione Fabio Gori

Provini

1974 / Contact sheet and ink on paper, 4 parts,

42× 47.5 cm

Provini

1974 / Contact sheet and ink on paper mounted

on board, 4 parts, 42× 47.5 cm

Provini performance

1974 / Contact sheet and ink on paper mounted

on board, 44× 23 cm

Self Portrait

1971 / Photograph and drawing on acrylic glass,

2 parts overlapped, 30× 24 cm, private collection

Craniologia

1974 / Photograph and ink on paper mounted on

board, 3 parts, each 54× 23 cm

All works – where not otherwise specified:

203

RADIOGRAPHS

205

207

209

211

204

Craniologia

1973 / X–ray and ink on acrylic glass, 2 parts overlapped,

70× 50 cm

205

Craniologia

1973 / X–ray and ink on acrylic glass, 2 parts overlapped,

70× 50 cm

Collezione Galleria degli Uffizi, Corridorio Vasariano,

Florence

206

Craniologia

1973 / Silk screen on paper, 68 × 48 cm

207

Craniologia

1973 / Ink on X–ray and photograph, 70 × 50 cm

Edition: 2/5, sammlung verbund, Vienna

208

Craniologia

1973 / X–ray on acrylic glass, 70 × 50 cm

209

Craniologia

1973 / Photograph printed on acrylic glass, lightbox,

70× 50 × 15 cm

210

Craniologia

1973 / Ink on x–ray, 70 × 50 cm

211

Ketty La Rocca, undated photograph

All works / photographs – where not otherwise specified:

The Ketty La Rocca Estate

213

BIOGRAPHY

ketty la rocca

born 1938 in La Spezia, Italy; died 1976 in Florence, Italy

solo exhibitions:

2017

2016

2014

2011

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

1999

1998

1995

1994

1992

1990

1989

1987

1978

1977

1976

1975

1974

1973

1971

1970

La Virreina Centre de la Imatge, Barcelona, es

Wilkinson Gallery, London, uk

Galerie Kadel Willborn, Düsseldorf, de

Wilkinson Gallery, London, uk

Galleria Martano, Turin, it

Galleria Milano, Milan, it

Galleria Emi Fontana, Milan, it

American Academy, Rome, it

Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck, at

Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna, at

Italian Institute of Culture, Los Angeles, us

Omaggio a Ketty La Rocca, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, it

Omaggio a Ketty La Rocca, Museo di Arte Contemporanea e del Novecento,

Monsummano Terme, it

Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di La Spezia, it

Galleria Il Gabbiano, La Spezia, it

Ketty La Rocca, Works on paper 1965 – 1974, Esso Gallery, New York, us

Galerie Kienzle & Gmeiner, Berlin, de

Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, de

Galleria Emi Fontana, Milan, it

Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva, ch

Galleria Matteo Remolino, Turin, it

Ketty La Rocca. Silent Movies, Galleria Alice, Rome, it

Retrospettiva, Galleria Carini, Modena, it

Retrospettiva, Multimedia, Brescia, it

xxxviii Biennal, Venice, it

Retrospettiva, Museo del Castello dei Conti Guidi, Vinci, it

Retrospettiva, Intra – Galleria Corsini, Milan, it

Galleria Schema, Florence, it

Galleria Documenta, Turin, it

Galleria Diagramma, Milan, it

Galleria Christian Stein, Turin, it

I cervi sono veloci, gli indiani sono veloci, gli indiani sono cervi,

Galleria Seconda Scala, Rome, it

Accumulazioni, Galleria Flori, Florence, it

Galleria San Fedele, Milan, it

Novilunio, Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara, it

Galleria Duemila, Bologna, it

215

performances:

1975

1972

1968

1967

Le mie parole, e tu?, Galleria Nuovi Strumenti, Brescia, it

Le mie parole, e tu?, Galleria La Tartaruga, Rome, it

Le mie parole, e tu?, Università di Architettura, Florence, it

Per esempio, Galleria L’uomo e l’arte, Milan, it

Teatro in cinque minuti, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, it

La vita è un’altra cosa, Florence, it

Poesia e non, Circolo Garcia Lorca, Florence, it

Poesia e non, Feltrinelli, Florence, it

Volantini sulla strada, Florence, it

group exhibitions:

2016

2015

2013

2011

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

Eva Kotátková & Ketty La Rocca, Museum Haus Esters, Krefeld, de

Vol(l)to di Donna, Camera dei Deputati, Palazzo Montecitorio, Rome, it

The great mother, Palazzo Reale, Milano, it

Feministische Avantgarde der 1970er Jahre, Hamburger Kunsthalle, de

Nach dem frühen Tod, Staatliche Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden, de

Villa Romana 1905 – 2013, Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik

Deutschland, Bonn, de

Der zweite Blick. Sammlung in Bewegung, Museum Ostwall, Dortmund, de

The body as protest, Albertina, Vienna, at

Supplica per un’appendice, Villa Romana, Florence, it

Sulla Parola, Fabbriche Chiaremontane, Agrigento, it

Spaces of the self – la femminilità nella video arte italiana, Centro culturale

Montehermoso, Vitoria Gasteiz, es

Fine Line, Georg Kargl Fine Arts & Georg Kargl Box, Vienna, at

Autoritratte, Sale delle Reali Poste, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, it

Libro-oggetto italian artist books 1969 – 2010, Santa Monica Museum of Art,

California, us

Donna – l’avanguardia femminista negli anni 70, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte

Moderna, Rome, it

L’arte è una parola, Galleria Il Ponte, Florence, it

26 gasoline stations e altri libri d’artista, Museo Regionale di Messina, it

Italics: Italian Art between tradition and Revolution 1968 – 2008, Museum of

Contemporary Art, Chicago, us

Rebelle – Arte e femminismo 1969 – 2009, Museum voor moderne kunst, Arnhem, nl

Love Letters: ampliamento e allestimento della nuova collezione del

macro, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Roma (macro), Rome, it

1988 Vent’anni prima, vent’anni dopo, Centro Pecci Prato, it

wack! Art and the feminist revolution, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, ca

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

Italics: Italian Art between Tradition and Revolution 1968 – 2008, Palazzo Grassi,

Venice, it

Artisti, Parole, Immagini dal 1974 al 1989. Villa Remmert, Cirié, Turin, it

L’Arte, gli artisti e il ’68. Fondazione Noesi per l’Arte Contemporanea, Martina

Franca, it

wack! Art and the feminist revolution, moma ps1, New York, us

wack! Art and the feminist revolution, National Museum of Women in art,

Washington d.c., us

Ossessioni, Sabrina Raffaghello Arte Contemporanea, Alessandria, it

Ketty La Rocca & Bernard Heidsieck – In Situ, Fabienne Le Clerc, Paris, fr

wack! Art and the feminist revolution, The Museum of Contemporary Art,

Los Angeles, us

Oggetto libero. Il libro d’artista in Italia tra produzione e conservazione, Archivio

di Stato di Firenze, Florence, it

La parola nell’arte. Ricerche d’avanguardia nel Novecento. Dal Futurismo ad oggi

attraverso le Collezioni del Mart, Mart Rovereto, Trento, it

Al Limite, Settimana della Fotografia Europea, Reggio Emilia, it

La scoperta del corpo elettronico. Arte e Video negli anni ’70, Galleria Civica

d’Arte Contemporanea Filippo Scroppo, Torre Pellice, Turin, it

Looking at words, Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, us

Per-Turbamenti, Artiste italiane tra gli anni Sessanta e Settanta, Galleria d’arte

contemporanea, San Donato Milanese, Milan, it

Beredte Hände – Die Bedeutung von Gesten in der Kunst vom 16. Jahrhundert bis zur

Gegenwart, Residenzgalerie Salzburg, at

Attraversare Genova, Villa Croce Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Genoa, it

Portraits, Esso Gallery, New York, us

20 artiste in Italia nel ventesimo secolo, Palazzo Mediceo di Seravezza,

Seravezza / Lucca, it

Zona people 1974 – 1985, Zona, Florence, it

Museo d’arte moderna e contemporanea, Geneva, ch

Imperfect Marriages, Galleria Emi Fontana, Milan, it

Arte in Fotomedia, Galleria Milano, Milan, it

In Portraiture irrelevance is ugliness, Galerie Reinhard Hauff, Stuttgart, de

Tessere d’Arte, nuove acquisizioni, Centro Pecci, Prato, it

Continuità. Arte in Toscana 1968 – 1989, Palazzo Fabroni, Pistoia, it

Parole, parole, parole, Galleria Civica di Arte Contemporanea e Castello del

Buonconsiglio, Trento, it

Vis à vis, autoritrarsi d’artista, Museo d’Arte Provincia di Nuoro, Nuoro, it

La fotografia negli anni settanta. Fra concetto e comportamento, Galleria

Martano, Turin, and Galleria Martini e Ronchetti, Genoa, it

L’elemento verbale nell’arte Contemporanea, Galleria Milano, Milan, it

La parola come immagine e come segno. Firenze: storia di una rivoluzione colta

(1960 – 1980), Centro Culturale Gino Barratta, Mantua, it

217

1999

1998

1987

1996

1995

1994

1993

1989

1988

1986

1979

1978

1977

1976

1975


(1960 – 1980), Palazzina delle Arti, La Spezia, it


(1960 – 1980), Villa Renatico Martini, Monsummano Terme, it

Disidentico, Maschile, Femminile e altro, Palazzo Branciforte, Palermo, it

La Coscienza Luccicante, Palazzo di Esposizioni, Rome, it

Tra scrittura ed immagine. Segno, icona, linguaggi, Villa Gori, Stiava / Massarosa, it

Uni idea dell’arte – arte e vita, Galleria Paolo Vitolo, Milan, it

Foto Text – Text Foto, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Winterthur, ch

Modèles Corrigés, Collège Marcel Duchamp, Chateauroux, fr

Auf den Leib geschrieben, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, at

L’Espace de l’Ecriture, Italian Institute of Culture, Paris, fr

Lo spazio della Scrittura, Museo Epper, Ascona, it

Shape your body, Galleria La Giarina, Verona, it

San Paolo Biennial, br

Linguaggio – immagine, Archivio di Nuova Scrittura, Milano, it

Far Libro. Libri e pagine d’artista in Italia, Casermetta del Forte Belvedere,

Florence, it

Carta per Carta, Associazione duna, Narni, it

L’ideogramma universale, Galleria Il Segno, Turin, it

From Page to Space, Columbia University, New York, us

Testuale, Rotonda della Besana, Milan, it

10 operatrici per una scrittura poetica Studio Santandrea, Milan, it

Poesia visiva 1963 – 1979, Sala d’Armi di Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, it

Materializzazione del Linguaggio, Venice Biennial, Venice, it

Poesia Visiva 5: verso un concetto globale, Studio Sant’Andrea, Milan, it

Le forme della scrittura, Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Bologne, it

Magma, Museo di Castelvecchio, Verona, it

1960 – 1977, arte in Italia, Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna, Turin it

La scrittura, Galleria Seconda Scala, Rome; Studio Sant’Andrea, Milan;

Unimedia, Genoa, it

Magma, Galleria Michaud, Florence, it

Magma, Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara, it

Magma, Museo Castelvecchio, Verona, it

Fotomedia, Helsinki Museum, Helsinki, fi

Arte contemporanea ipotesi e ricerca, Studio Inquadratura 33, Florence, it

You You, Galleria Il Canale, Venice, it

Artecronaca, Centro museografico-promozionale d’arte contemporanea,

Biblioteca comunale, Castello dei Conti Guidi, Vinci, it

Il Mistero svelato l.h.o.o.q., Galleria Il Milione, Milan, it

Fotomedia, Rotonda della Besana, Milan, it

Frauen Kunst – Neue Tendenzen, Galerie Krinzinger, Innsbruck, at

Scrivere e parlare, Galleria La Tartaruga, Rome, it

1974

1973

1972

1971

1970

1969

1968

1967

1966

Magma, Castello Oldofredi, Iseo / Brescia, it

Fotomedia, Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund, it

Andata e ritorno, Galleria Schema, Florence, it

Fotomedia, Kunstverein Hamburg, Hamburg, de

Fotomedia, Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruch, at

Coazione a Mostrare, Palazzo Comunale, Erbusco / Brescia, it

Italy Two Around, Philadelphia Art Museum, Philadelphia, us

Medium Photography, Museum Leverkusen, Leverkusen, de

Combattimento per una immagine, Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna, Turin, it

Arte contemporanea, Centro 6, Bari, it

La ricerca estetica dal 60 al 70, x. Quadriennale d’Arte, Rome, it

Arte e fotografia, Galleria Christian Stein, Turin, it

Performances in videotape, Studio 970 2, Varese, it

Photography Into Art, Camden Art Center, London, uk

Circuito chiuso-aperto, Palazzo Comunale, Acireale, it

I denti del drago, Galleria L’uomo e L’arte, Milan, it

Il libro come spazio di ricerca, xxxv Biennal, Venice, it

Performance e videotape, xxxv Biennal, Venice, it

4 Artisti a Ferrara, Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara, it

Galleria I Tigli, Florence, it

Poesia visiva-selezione internazionale 1969 – 71, Studio Santandrea, Archivio

Denza, Milan, it

Italiaanse Visuele poezie – Italian Visual Poetry, Vecu, Antwerpen, be

La poesia degli anni 70, Museo del Castello, Brescia, it

Firenze – Zagabria, Centro Techne, Florence, it

Rassegna, Centro San Fedele, Milan, it

Biennale Arte e critica, Palazzo dei Musei, Modena, it

Le presenze alfabetiche e lo spazio parlato, Palazzo dei Musei, Modena, it

Per una poesia totale, Studio Arte Visive, Rome, it

La poesia degli anni 70, Centro Techne, Florence, it

Gruppo 70, Palazzo Ghibellino, Empoli, it

Comunicazioni visive, Massafra, it

La poesia nella civilità delle macchine, Circolo Italsider, Taranto, it

Rassegna Nazionale di poesia visiva, Circolo Italsider, Taranto, it

Arte contemporanea, ipotesi e ricerca, Palazzo Ghibellino, Empoli, it

Rassegna di poesia nuove tecniche visive in Italia, Club Turati, Milan, it

Parole e immagine, Galleria la Soffitta, Florence, it

Parole sui muri, Fiumalbo, Modena, it

Pittori del gruppo 70 e poesie visive, Accociazione Artisti Legnanesi, Legnano, it

219

artist’s books:

1975

1974

1971 – 1972

1971

In principio erat, Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund, de

Senza titolo

Libro a mano

In principio erat, Edition Centro Di, Florence, it

(introduction: Gillo Dorfles)

museum collections:

Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund, de

Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, us

Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, it

zkm, Center of Art and Media, Karlsruhe, de

Galleria Civica D’Arte Moderna (gam), Turin, it

Centro Arte Moderna e Contemporanea della Spezia, La Spezia, it

Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto (mart), Rovereto, it

Museo D’arte Contemporanea Roma (macro), Rome, it

Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna (gnam), Rome, it

Centre Pompidou, Paris, fr

books on ketty la rocca:

2015

2012

2008

2005

2001

1999

1998

1989

Francesca Gallo, Raffaella Perna (eds), Ketty La Rocca. Nuovi studi, Postemedia,

Milan

Sally Schonfeldt, The Ketty La Rocca Research Diary, mimeo, Berlin

Ketty La Rocca, Supplica per un’appendice, Texte 1962 – 1976, Villa Romana, Archive

Books, Berlin

Elena Del Becaro, Intermedialità al femminile: l’opera di Ketty La Rocca, Electa

Mondadori, Milan

Lucilla Saccà, Ketty La Rocca, i suoi scritti, Martano Editore, Turin

Lucilla Saccà (ed.), Omaggio a Ketty La Rocca, Pacini Editore, Rome

Renato Barilli, “Riflessioni su Ketty”, in Lucilla Saccà (ed.), Omaggio a Ketty La

Rocca, Pacini Editore, Rome, pp. 10 – 11

Lara Vinca Masini, “Per Ketty 25 anni dopo”, in Lucilla Saccà (ed.), Omaggio a Ketty

La Rocca, Pacini Editore, Rome, pp. 12 – 17

Lucilla Saccà, “La vita è una’ altra cosa”, in Lucilla Saccà (ed.), Omaggio a Ketty La

Rocca, Pacini Editore, Rome, pp. 18 – 26

Elda Belsito (ed.), Ketty La Rocca, J, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio della Spezia

Michelangelo Vasta, Emi Fontana (eds), Ketty La Rocca, cd-Rom, Lukas & Sternberg

Lara Vinca Masini, Ketty La Rocca, Galleria Carini, Florence

catalogues and miscellaneous:

2016

2015

2012

2009

2008

2007

2006

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1996

1995

1993

1991

1989

The Ketty La Rocca Research Centre, Sally Schonfeldt, Istituto Svizzero, Rome

Feministische Avantgarde. Kunst der 1970er – Jahre Werke aus der sammlung

verbund, Prestel Verlag, Munich

Body as Protest, Hatje Cantz, Stuttgart

Donna: Avanguardia Femminista negli anni ’70 dalla, Sammlung Verbund di

Vienna, Electa Mondadori, Milan

Rebelle. Art & Feminism 1969 – 2009, mmka, Arnhem

Italics. Arte italiana fra tradizione e rivoluzione 1968 – 2008, Electa Mondadori, Milan

Wack! Art and the Feminist Revolution, ed. by Cornelia Butler, Lisa Gabrielle Mark,

moca, Los Angeles and The mit Press, Cambridge

Deutsche Bank Collection Italy, Silvana Editoriale, Milan

La parola nell’arte. Ricerche d’avanguardia nel ’900. Dal futurismo a oggi

attraverso le collezioni del Mart, Edizioni Skira, Milan

La scoperta del corpo elettronico – Arte e Video negli anni 70, Silvana Editoriale

Presenze femminili nell’arte del secondo novecento, Centro Di

Attraversare Genova: Percorsi e linguaggi internazionali del contemporaneo, Anni

’60 –’70, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Villa Croce, Genoa

Beredte Hände – Bedeutung von Gesten in der Kunst des 16. Jahrhunderts bis zur

Gegenwart, ed. Gabriele Groschner, Residenzgalerie Salzburg, Salzburg

Ketty La Rocca, ed. Silvia Eiblmayr, Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck

Continuità. Arte in Toscana 1968 / 1989, Palazzo Fabroni, Pistoia, m&m Editore

Vis à vis, autoritrarsi d’artista, man, Nuoro

La fotografia negli anni settanta. Fra concetto e comportamento, Galleria Martano,

Turin and Galleria Martini e Ronchetti, Genoa

Ketty La Rocca, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio, La Spezia

Lucilla Saccà (ed.), La poesia come immagine e come segno. Firenze: storia di una

rivoluzione colta 1960 – 1980, Pacini Editore, Rome

Carlo Sisi (ed.) Motivi e figure nell’arte toscana del xx secolo, Pacini Editore, Rome

Giorgio Zanchetti (ed.), Text-Image. Musée des Beaux Arts, Chaux-de Fonds

(ch), mart, Trento and Museion, Bolzano

Valeria Bruni, Correnti Alternate, Un itinerario dal ’47 al ’60, Centro d’Arte

Spaziotempo

Luciano Caramel, Arte in Italia negli anni 70, Charta, Milan

Lea Vergine, L’arte in trincea, Lessico delle tendenze artistiche 1960 – 1990, Skira

Auf den Leib geschrieben, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna

Massimo Minini, Arte in scena, La performace in Italia 1965 – 1980,

Danila Montanari Editore, Ravenna

Adriano Altamira, (ed.), Linguaggio-immagine, Archivio di Nuova Scrittura, Milan

Luisa Passerini, Storie di donne e femministe, Rosenberg e Sellier

Lara Vinca Masini, Arte Contemporanea, La linea dell’unicità, Vol.ii, Giunti,

Florence Archivio della Grazia di Nuova Scrittura, Milan

221

1984

1983

1979

1978

1977

1976

1974

1973

1972

1971

1970

1968

1967

1966

Eugenio Miccini, Poesia e no, 1964 – 1984, Campanotto Editore, Udine

Mauro Pratesi, Giovanna Uzzani, La Toscana, L’Arte Italian del Novecento,

Marsilio, Venice

I 20 anni della Galleria d’Arte 2000, ed. Galleria d’arte 2000, Bologna

Lessico politico delle donne, Arti visive, Vol. vi, ed. Gulliver

Luciano Ori (ed.), La Poesia visiva 1963. 1979, Valecchi, Florence

Renato Barilli, “Ketty La Rocca”, in: Informale, oggetto, comportamento, Feltrinelli,

Milan

Luciano Caramel, Flavio Cavoli, Maurizio Fagiolo, Parola, Premio Silvestro

Lega, Modigliana

Keren Peterson, J. J. Wilson, Donne artiste, Savelli, Rome

Lamberto Pignotti (ed.), Marchio e femmina, Vallecchi, Florence

Luigi Carluccio, “Ketty La Rocca 1938 – 1976”, in xxxviii Venice Biennial,

Dalla Natura all’Arte alla Natura, Electa, Milan

Künstlerinnen International, ngbk Berlin

La scrittura, Galleria Seconda Scala, Rome; Studio Santandrea, Milan;

Galleria Unimedia, Genoa

Adriano Altamira, Ketty La Rocca, Le immagini, il linguaggio, il segno,

Galleria Corsini, Florence

Roberta Lubich, Arte d’avantguardia e mass media: la poesia visiva,Techne, Florence

Gillo Dorfles, Vittorio Fagone, Poesiva visiva. Verso un concetto globale. Isgrò, La

Rocca, Vaccari, Studio Santandrea, Milan

Lea Vergine, Dall’informale alla Body Art, Dieci Voci dell’arte contemporanea:

1960 – 1970, Cooperativa Editoriale Studio Forma

Lea Vergine, Il corpo come linguaggio, La Body Art e Storie simili, Milan / Skira 2000

Luigi Carlucci, Daniela Palazzoli (ed.), Combattimento per un’ immagine,

Ed. Comune di Torino

x Quadriennale di Roma, De Luca

Italy Two, Art around‚ 70, Museum of Philadelphia Civic Centre

Medium Fotografie, Fotoarbeiten bildender Künstler von 1910 – 1973, Städtisches

Museum Leverkusen

Daniela Palazzoli, I denti del drago, Edizioni l’Uomo e l’Arte

Renato Barilli, Daniela Palazzoli, Il libro come luogo di ricerca, Gerry Schum,

Video-Nastri, xxxvi Venice Biennial

Eugenio Miccini, Poesia visiva, poesia politica, poesia pubblica, Techne, Florence

Renato Barilli, Didascalie, Comune di Ferrara

Renato Barilli, Ketty La Rocca, Galleria d’Arte 2000, Bologna

Achille Bonito Oliva, Ketty La Rocca, Le presenze alfabetiche e lo spazio parlatao,

Ed. Comune di Modena

Claudio Parmiggiani, Adriano Spatola (ed.), Parole sui muri, Geiger, Turin

Camillo (ed.), Parole e immagine, mostra nazionale di Poesia Visiva, Colonnata /

Sesto Fiorentino

Il mito ci sommerge, E. Sampietro, Bologna

about the authors

Angelika Stepken

is a curator and writer, based in Florence and Berlin. Since 2006 she has been director

of Villa Romana, Florence, a non profit residency for contemporary artistic

production and international exchange. Among her recent publications: “On One

Side of the Same Water – Artistic Practice between Tirana and Tangiers” (Berlin,

2012) and „Unmapping the Renaissance“, (Vienna, 2016).

She is a curator of the IfA international travelling exhibition “Future Perfect”,

on tour worldwide since 2013. In 2012 she organized the exhibition supplica per

un’appendice: Ketty La Rocca, Jacopo Miliani, Anna Möller, Henrik Olesen, Eske

Schlüters – a dedication to Ketty La Rocca, which helped to rediscover her work

for a younger generation of artists and curators.

Emi Fontana

is a curator, writer and cultural producer. She founded Galleria Emi Fontana,

Milano, Italy (1992 – 2011). In 2000 she relocated to Los Angeles, where she is the

founder and artistic director of West of Rome Public Art, an organization to promote

alternative strategies for exhibiting contemporary art in unorthodox ways

and venues.

For many years, she has been working with the most influential artists of our

times, like Adrian Piper, Cindy Sherman, Barbara Kruger, Mike Kelley, Olafur

Eliasson, Rirkrit Tiravanija and many others. Since the early nineties Emi Fontana

has been involved in the work of Ketty La Rocca, organizing exhibitions of her work

in Europe and usa, working in close collaboration with The Ketty La Rocca Estate.

Emi Fontana lives and works in Los Angeles where she is currently working

on two books and teaches yoga and meditation.

Pier Luigi Tazzi

born in Colonnata, Firenze, in 1941, is an art critic and curator, living in Capalle,

Firenze, and in NongPrue, ChonBuri. He has been president of the Fondazione

Lanfranco Baldi, Pelago, since 1998. As curator, he has participated in major exhibitions

such as: La Biennale di Venezia 1988; documenta ix, Kassel 1992;

Wounds, Moderna Museet, Stockholm 1997; Watou Poëziezomer 2001; Arte

All’Arte 6, Volterra, Colle di Val d’Elsa, Montalcino, etc, 2001; Happiness, Mori Art

Museum, Tokyo 2003; Rites de passage, Schunck, Heerlen 2009; Aichi Triennale

2010, Nagoya. His last publication as scientific director has been Abdel Abdessemd,

Koenig Books, London 2016.

223

imprint

Ketty La Rocca, You – works and writings 1964 – 1976

With the kind support of :

Editor: Angelika Stepken

Authors: Emi Fontana, Pier Luigi Tazzi, Angelika Stepken

Translators: Andrea Scrima (Stepken), Stephen Piccolo

(Tazzi), Aelmuire Helen Cleary (Ketty La Rocca)

Stiftung Kunstfonds

Bonn

Villa Romana, Florence (www.villaromana.org)

Copyediting: Simon Cowper, Andrea Scrima,

Aelmuire Helen Cleary

Thanks to The Ketty La Rocca Estate for their trust and

incredible support.

Photographs: Claudia Cataldi, The Ketty La Rocca

Estate, Moca Los Angeles, Galleria degli Uffizi Florence,

Sammlung Verbund Vienna, Gori Collection

Design: fliegende Teilchen, Berlin

Print: Druckhaus Köthen

Published by: Revolver Publishing, Berlin

Thanks to Lucilla Saccà whose Italian publications on

Ketty La Rocca prepared the ground for this monograph.

Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche

Nationalbibliothek. The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek

lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;

detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at

(dnb.d-nb.de.)

isbn : 978–3–95763–370-5

© 2017 Revolver Publishing, authors and photographers.

Ketty La Rocca is an artist whose works have been shown frequently

over the past decades in important international exhibitions,

yet despite this, she’s had to be rediscovered again

and again. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s she was a prominent

figure on the vibrant Italian art scene. She belonged to

the first generation of women artists who confidently asserted

their “otherness” in response to the male gaze, called for

subjectivity in their artistic works, and allowed the body and

its gestures to “speak” for themselves. During her lifetime,

Ketty La Rocca showed in renowned galleries; in 1972, she took

part in two sections of the Venice Biennale. But her work was

only granted the short time span of a decade’s production,

during which, restless and strong-willed, “alone” and unique,

she underwent a rapid artistic development with enormous

energy and intelligence. Initially, inspired by the experimental

visual poetry of the mid-sixties, Ketty La Rocca critically

investigated questions of communication in the age of mass

media. She soon began addressing herself in her work as both

an artist and a woman in a desire to find “another” language

to express difference and the non-identical. She worked with

collage, photography, video, text, drawing, and performance

to develop a language of gestures and appropriated imagery

of disempowerment. She investigated the difference between

sign and body, metaphor and reality, power and alienation and

searched for expression in the gaps between these differences.

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