Outside the System: Feminist Counter-Narratives at Thaddaeus Ropac Milan

The gallery’s second exhibition – on view until February 28th – presents an Austrian-Italian dialogue between two pioneers of visionary feminist conceptual art from the 1960s: Valie Export and Ketty La Rocca. This unprecedented pairing demonstrates how both artists used their bodies as tools to challenge the patriarchal function of language through photography, video, sculpture, and performance. Although the artists never met and developed their practices in different contexts – Export in Vienna and La Rocca in Florence – the exhibition illustrates how they forged distinct linguistic forms “outside of the system dominated by men,” as Export once noted.

This exquisite exhibition runs parallel to a special presentation by Anselm Kiefer in the Sala delle Cariatidi at the nearby Palazzo Reale. Under the title Le Alchemiste, Kiefer has painted roughly forty women marginalized by history for their experimental scientific interests. While Kiefer – who is also represented by Ropac – does not label his work as “feminist” (“I am half woman myself. I don’t need to be feminist,” he remarked in occasion of the opening), his monumental tribute to forgotten female alchemists shares a profound affinity with the work of Export and La Rocca. Together, these exhibitions reflect on feminine memory and the female strength, ambition, and spirit so often obscured by history.