VALIE EXPORT & KETTY LA ROCCA BODY SIGN 16 December 2025—28 February 2026 Milan Palazzo Belgioioso · Press Release · Thaddaeus Ropac · London Paris Salzburg Milan Seoul
Thaddaeus Ropac Milan presents as its second exhibition an unprecedented dialogue between VALIE EXPORT and KETTY LA ROCCA, two of the most visionary feminist conceptual artists to emerge in Europe during the 1960s. Both artists used their bodies as tools to challenge language’s patriarchal function and expose thedichotomy between its usage in public and private space. They recognised that in order to convey their ideas an expanded field of action was required and moved beyond the constraints of a single medium. Photography, video, sculpture and performance were treated by both artists as fluid and permeable. In the 1960s, our attempts to cultivate a direct and uncontrolled language in art were based upon the idea that the dominant language was a form of manipulation. The plan was to circumvent these forms of social control. [...] This was the strength of the female body: to be able to express directly and without mediation. — VALIE EXPORT Although the artists never met and develop...
