Palazzo Medici Riccardi pays tribute to Clemen Parrocchetti (Milan 1923 – 2016), a 20th-century artist who explored the complexity of the female sphere, of emotional relationships and sexuality, challenging the dominant vision of a patriarchal culture.

The exhibition, promoted by the Metropolitan City of Florence, is based on a project by Museo Novecento and organized by the MUS.E Foundation in collaboration with the Clemen Parrocchetti Archive. It is the first large-scale exhibition of her work within an Italian museum institution, aiming to introduce the public to an artist still little known, close to the Italian feminist movement and author of an original, provocative, and authentic language.

Ironia Ribelle, curated by Marco Scotini and Stefania Rispoli, with the artistic direction of Sergio Risaliti, brings together around one hundred works—including paintings, drawings, sculptures, tapestries, documents, and archival materials—and restores the image of a nonconformist artist who was able to unite aesthetic research with political militancy.

By intertwining biography, activism, and visual language, the exhibition reconstructs the image of a courageous and autonomous practice, capable of transforming needle, thread, and fabric into tools of rebellion and of voicing—then as now—a desire for freedom and emancipation.