VALIE EXPORT and Ketty La Rocca: BODY SIGN Brilliant Things to Do This December

By Daisy Woodward 

Valie Export and Ketty La Rocca: Body Sign at Thaddaeus Ropac, Milan: 16 December, 2025 – 28 February, 2026

Valie Export and Ketty La Rocca were two of the most radical feminist conceptual artists to emerge in the 1960s. Each called upon their own body as their primary medium – in tandem with performance, sculpture, photography and/or video – to rearticulate female identity and create new visual languages outside of the pre-existing patriarchal systems. And yet, working as they did in different cities (Export in Vienna and La Rocca in Florence), the two never met. Now, an upcoming exhibition at Thaddaeus Ropac Milan brings the artists’ work into dialogue for the first time, highlighting their overlapping aims, approaches and achievements.