Ketty La Rocca moved to Florence immediately after the Second World War. A marriage, a son (born in 1960), lessons in electronic music, a temporary job at a radiology institute, and disease (diagnosed in 1965) leading to her premature death, each marked her short life. K. La Rocca’s original brand of poetry – challenging, full of humour, and highly talented was first brought to the public’s attention on the occasion of her participation in the activities of the visual poets who organised avant-garde events in Florence (the Gruppo 70 and magazine Tèchne). Her extremely dense body of work – especially given her short life – includes writings, collaged compositions, and performance pieces (Le mie parole e tu, 1975).

In times of global communication, she used all available means of expression (graphic design, advertisement, photography, reprints, and even x-rays of her own skull) for ideological and demystifying purposes. Her style catches the eye through its use of black and white, parody, and clashing visuals, writing, and contexts, as does her provocative and dissenting way of using gestures, objects, and bodies to express and uncover, among other things, the unsatisfying condition of women and the myths – made up by consumer society and the media – that surround it.