Clemen Parrocchetti
Un orlo a giorno per il mio diario (A hemstitch a day for my diary)
ChertLüdde, Berlin
11 September – 31 October 2026

ChertLüdde presents Un orlo a giorno per il mio diario (A hemstitch a day for my diary), the second exhibition by Clemen Parrocchetti (Milan, 1923–2016) at the gallery.

A rebellious and nonconformist artist, Parrocchetti experienced 1968 as a turning point for creative and political change. It was precisely during those years of intense feminist struggles that the artist used the tools and methods of domestic labor to take a stand on the movement’s most controversial issues, including the subjugation of women, emancipation within the household, recognition of domestic work, abortion rights, divorce, the denunciation of domestic violence, and the defense of sexual liberation.

The tension between the domestic and the public sphere is the focus of the exhibition, which leaps from inside to outside the home, through anger, frustration, and the daily journey toward emancipation. With the same sharp, relentless cadence with which she made her artworks, Clemen Parrocchetti writes in a diary entry from the late 1970s:

My anger – women’s anger – subordination – emancipation – struggle – rebellion – hope and liberation? A diary written day by day by a little girl full of energy, small, lively and optimistic – a bow in her black hair – disappointment and consolation at her birth in the homes of gentlemen, first the women, then the men – it is a great celebration for the birth of her little brother; the little girl’s life bleeds from the wound: the certainty, the conviction that she is worth less.¹

At the center of the exhibition is a sculpture from the series Le Barriere  (The Barriers), 1978, originally created as part of a collective work by the Feminist Gruppo Immagine of Varese (Cibaldi, Gandini, Parrocchetti, Secol, and Sironi), which Parrocchetti joined in 1978 and with whom she participated in the Venice Biennale that same year.

Le Barriere consists of an inverted triangle structure conceived as a display frame to house the artists’ works and to encapsulate their strong political significance. In this particular version, Parrocchetti incorporates objects and forms characteristic of her artistic vocabulary, such as mouths and vaginas, alongside sewing accessories such as spools, which symbolize masculine power, and tatting shuttles, which, by contrast, embody femininity.

The work marks an important development in Parrocchetti’s use of the triangle as a political symbol. At the time, the inverted triangle had become widely associated with anti-fascism and left-wing resistance, derived from the system used to identify political prisoners in Nazi concentration camps. In the 1970s, the symbol was subsequently adopted by the feminist movement, where it came to affirm the political nature of the female body. Although the triangle had already appeared in Parrocchetti’s earlier works, Le Barriere and her involvement with the Gruppo Immagine and their activism intensified its political connotations, making the symbol increasingly explicit and prominent within her practice thereafter.

Elaborating on her personal conceptual vision of the work, Parrocchetti also went on to write:

Barriers: passing through spools shuttles and buttons passing through red and black mouths passing through rings and bridal veils passing through ribbons of femininity passing through beauty wealth security passing through tender children’s hands passing through a man in love who is kind passing through devout childhood medals passing through an inverted triangle… passing through understanding for all passing through loneliness passing through emancipation passing through the collective passing through the pleasure of being together… passing through the difficulty of being together passing  through me, you : to free myself ²

Deeply emotive, the text reveals Parrocchetti’s commitment to life and family alongside her engagement with social and political spheres, portraying this commitment as a journey of total dedication and involvement that ultimately culminates in the rediscovery of her own freedom.

‘Several works displayed on the gallery walls resonate with these ideas. Created through her meticulous practice of embroidery and stitching, as well as through the assemblage of household objects and decorations, they evoke the female body and its objectification. The large-scale tapestry Telaio infranto (Il cuore della vita) [Broken Frame (The Heart of Life)], from 1978, for example, is made of embroidered jute, fabric-covered foam, and various objects that enrich its narrative, extending these concerns into the realm of political symbolism.

In the middle of the work is a red triangle embroidered in thread, its loose, widely spaced stitches evoking drops of blood. Above it, enclosed within two embroidery hoops resembling wedding rings, is a plastic doll with five babies sewn beneath her, corresponding to the number of children Parrocchetti had. Five fabric butterflies rise above the composition, suggesting a sense of movement and release. Along the periphery, Parrocchetti introduces figures embodying patriarchal power alongside abstract representations of organs, a fetus, electronic circuits, and other details that invite reflection on control, dependence, and entrapment within the domestic sphere.

The two paintings from 1975, No alla fallocrazia (No to phallocracy) and Verso una libertà anche se minacciata (Toward a freedom even if threatened), also date from the same period. In another diary entry written a few years before these paintings, Parrocchetti reflects on the development of her artistic practice:

This is the reason behind my painting today: the depiction of the violation of the individual by the outside world – a defenseless creature forced, willingly or unwillingly, to be crucified on a Christmas tower, to listen to the sound of a music box that transmits its own agonizing sob, a sound that must rebel. It is in this sense that my passion for painting seeks to take a moral stance centered on the human being who rebels against all forms of oppression and for whom, therefore, hope likely remains the only alternative.³

In both paintings, the colors are limited to reds, pinks, blues, and grays. The palette is lighter, while the technique is more direct, geometric, and freer than in her earlier paintings. This move toward a clearer, more simplified composition reflects Parrocchetti’s growing awareness of and involvement in political struggle, as seen in the titles.

On view is also one of the few works explicitly referencing a public figure who embodied the political upheaval of the era; this assemblage contains a newspaper-clipping portraying Ulrike Meinhof, the German journalist and co-founder of the Rote Armee Fraktion. It was especially Meinhof’s death in Stammheim Prison in 1976 – officially ruled a suicide – that sparked heated debates not only about her persona but also about the harshness of prison conditions, creating an aura of revolutionary martyrdom around her, an echo that resonated deeply in circles close to Parrocchetti.

Alongside this, Parrocchetti’s speech given at the historic feminist art conference ‘Donna Arte Società (Woman, Art, and Society)’ in Milan (1978) provides further analysis of the conceptual framework that drives her artistic practice and evolving ethics, marking 1978 another pivotal moment in her political and artistic growth.

Through the rediscovery of Clemen Parrocchetti’s work in recent years, renewed attention has been brought to her art and writing. Focusing on just ten years of a practice spanning five decades, the exhibition offers new insight into the symbolism that runs throughout her work, while her writing provides perspectives into the ideas and experiences that shaped it.

Embracing diverse techniques and approaches, the sculptures on display enter a close dialogue with her personal and public life, reflecting her developments as both a woman and an artist, continually negotiating the demands of family, social expectations, and creative expression. In this sense, Un orlo a giorno per il mio diario (A hemstitch a day for my diary) encapsulates the intimate yet political dimension of her work, showing how, stitch by stitch, the act of recording a life can shape a unique legacy for generations to come.

Notes

1. Clemen Parrocchetti, Diary Entry, Late 1970s
2. Clemen Parrocchetti, extract from the Mezzo Cielo exhibition catalog at the Galleria d’arte Porta Ticinese, Milan, 1978
3. Clemen Parrocchetti, Diary Entry, 1963

Artist Biography

Clemen Parrocchetti (1923–2016, Milan, Italy) was a groundbreaking figure of the Italian landscape of feminist art in Italy in the 1970s. She operated in the most heated years of the movement, devoting her creativity to the service of women’s fight for equal rights.

Parrocchetti trained in painting at the Brera Academy, graduating in 1956. In the 1960s, her style evolved from existentialist realism to an abstract and surreal language. During the feminist movement of the early 1970s, she radically transformed her practice by incorporating textiles and household objects, especially through embroidery, finding her grammar in the materials of domestic labor—needles, spools, bobbins, cooking utensils, medicaments and textiles. In 1978, she joined the Gruppo Immagine of Varese, participating in the Venice Biennale that same year, with collaborations continuing through the 1980s.

Most recently, Parrocchetti’s work has been presented in institutional exhibitions at MOCAK – Museum of Contemporary Art, Krakow (2026); Museo del Novecento – Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Florence (2025), FRAC Lorraine, Metz (2025); LAAC – Contemporary Art and Action Museum, Dunkirk (2025); MAMbo – Museo d’Arte Moderna, Bologna (2025) and Ar/Ge Kunst, Bolzano (2024). Her work will be on view until 20th of September, 2026 at MAXXI – National Museum of 21st Century Art, Rome (2026).

In 2026, the monograph Clemen Parrocchetti was published by Dario Cimorelli Editore, edited by Marco Scotini.