# 19.05
With carla lonzi’s diary
In 2020 Cecilia Canziani, Lara Conte and Paola Ugolini, the curators of the exhibition ‘IO DICO IO’ at the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna in Rome, asked me to come up with a work in relation to the Carla Lonzi Archive. After delving into that vast wealth of material, I discovered Carla Lonzi’s first diary, which she had begun writing at the age of thirteen.
The first page of the notebook dated 1 January 1945 starts like this: ‘I really wanted to own a notebook where I could write my diary. Finally, I have one.’
I read these words as if they were the beginning of a work that ploughs the furrow of a trajectory destined to last a lifetime, a lengthy road as she attempted to construct a space to stay in and from where to state her presence in the world.
These words resounded with me and I recognised them as if they had also been written for me. They influenced my small gesture to bring together our two writings with simplicity, affinity and harmony: my diary of colours and her diary of words.
(Written in 2021)