VALIE EXPORT and Ketty La Rocca A comparison deeply rooted in the present
By Rischa Paterlini
The exhibition ‘Body Sign’, a solo show by two artists, VALIE EXPORT (Linz, 1940) and Ketty La Rocca (1938-76), curated by Andrea Maurer and Alberto Salvadori, is hosted at the Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery in Milan until 28 February 2026. In its apparent simplicity, it is a project constructed with rigour and restraint: a selection of historical works, all vintage, in which quality deliberately prevails over quantity. A wide-ranging exhibition that favours clarity of comparison and precision of relationships. The exhibition conveys the historical and conceptual density of the two artists' research without emphasis, but with a care that invites slow and conscious observation. Starting from these premises, “Body Sign” opens up to a further level of interpretation thanks to the dialogue with its curators, Andrea Maurer and Alberto Salvadori. Together, they reflect on the genesis of the exhibition project, on the resonances between the two practices and their relevance today, conveying the sense of a comparison that is never purely historical, but deeply rooted in the present.
Alberto Salvadori, what was the spark, the initial point of contact that led you to conceive this exhibition, which brings these two artists together for the first time?
The spark came from reflecting on VALIE EXPORT as an almost unique figure in the Viennese context: an artist who made language and the body a central artistic practice, radically addressing important issues within the context of a culture and identity that we can define as feminist. These themes resonate strongly in the work of Ketty La Rocca, who is also constantly engaged with the body and language. These are artists who have never had a single medium of expression: they have used language, the body, photography, video and performance. I have always been fascinated by the fact that one of the fundamental themes of Conceptual Art is the dematerialisation of the object. Instead, both artists work on the conceptual dimension through a strong tactile component, such as the use of the hands, and a sculptural and living dimension, such as that of the body. There is another fundamental aspect: both artists worked in both the private and public spheres. VALIE EXPORT created numerous performances in public spaces in Vienna, as did Ketty La Rocca. In La Rocca's case, this stemmed from the political use of language as a conceptual tool, which was then transferred to works such as Engagement in 1967. There are many passages that made us think about how these two artists worked in parallel, in a very similar, almost mirror-like way.
