From 6 November 2026 to 10 January 2027, the CAMeC Project Room in La Spezia presents two works by Ketty La Rocca: Installazione con specchi (1967) and Appendice per una supplica (1972).
Fifty years after the death of Ketty La Rocca (La Spezia, 1938 – Florence, 1976), CAMeC brings together two works that explore a central concern of her artistic practice: the possibility of communicating beyond the conventions of language.
Installazione con specchi (1967) and Appendice per una supplica (1972) use different media, yet both place the body at the heart of the work. In the first, the viewer’s presence transforms the artwork itself; in the second, the artist’s hands become the focus of a silent form of communication.
From Visual Poetry to the Body
Active from the 1960s onwards, Ketty La Rocca became involved in the experimental art scene in Florence, working with Gruppo 70 and the Visual Poetry movement. Advertising, television and the messages of consumer culture provided material to be cut out, taken out of context and recombined. Through collage and unexpected juxtapositions of words and images, she challenged the codes that shape our perceptions and the social roles they help construct.
This questioning of communication remained central to her practice as she gradually moved away from collage towards installation, photography, performance and video. Her focus shifted to what lies beyond established forms of expression: gesture, personal identity, the distance between individuals, and both the difficulty and the desire to reach out to others. As her work evolved, she also increasingly explored the position of women in society and the possibility of asserting an independent voice within socially prescribed forms of communication.
Installazione con specchi (1967): The Viewer Becomes Part of the Work
Comprising twenty-three elements made of painted metal and mirrors, Installazione con specchi brings the object, exhibition space and viewer into a dynamic relationship. As visitors enter the space, they see themselves reflected in the mirrored surfaces, their movements constantly changing what they see. Rather than presenting a fixed image to be viewed from a single perspective, the work changes according to the presence and position of those moving through it.
La Rocca thus challenges the traditional role of the viewer, who no longer simply stands before the artwork but becomes part of the arrangement that determines its appearance. The installation was first presented to the public in 2001 at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome. That same year, it entered La Spezia’s civic collections through a donation by the artist’s son, Michelangelo Vasta, on the occasion of an exhibition dedicated to La Rocca in Monsummano Terme.
Appendice per una supplica (1972): Hands as a Language
Five years later, in Appendice per una supplica, La Rocca turns her attention to gesture. In this silent, black-and-white video, hands open and close, count, intertwine, meet other hands and interact with geometric shapes. Set against a dark background, these familiar everyday movements take on an unfamiliar quality: rather than illustrating spoken language, they become a form of expression in their own right.
La Rocca does not attempt to establish a new system of signs that can be easily translated into words. Instead, she explores how communication emerges through encounters between bodies, revealing just how fragile and uncertain these exchanges can be. Presented at the 36th Venice Biennale in 1972, the video is an important example of early Italian video art. The version on display at CAMeC, with a running time of 9 minutes and 30 seconds according to the lender, belongs to the Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT and is on long-term loan to the GAM in Turin.
Two Works, One Ongoing Exploration
Despite the five years between them and their different media, the two works share a common concern. In Installazione con specchi, the viewer’s body shapes the perception of space; in Appendice per una supplica, the artist’s own body seeks a way to connect with others. In both works, La Rocca challenges the idea of communication as the transmission of a fixed message, bringing it back to physical presence, movement and the possibility of human connection. Bringing these works together today, in the city where the artist was born, offers a particularly clear insight into the continuity of her artistic practice.
Visitor Information
Ketty La Rocca. Installazione con specchi. Appendice per una supplica
Dates: 6 November 2026 – 10 January 2027
Opening: Friday 6 November 2026, 5:30 pm
Venue: CAMeC – Centro d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Piazza Cesare Battisti 1, La Spezia.
Curated by: Eleonora Acerbi and Giulia Lecchini.
The exhibition is promoted and organised by the Municipality of La Spezia and Fondazione Carispezia, in collaboration with the CAMeC Technical Committee.
Special thanks to Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT and GAM – Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea for the loan of Ketty La Rocca’s video work.
