Io dico Io - I say I is the title of the exhibition that opens on March 23 at the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art , curated by Cecilia Canziani, Lara Conte and Paola Ugolini. Freely drawn from Carla Lonzi, Io dico Io - I say I arises from the need to speak and speak in the first person, to affirm one's own subjectivity, composing a single multitude, a multiplicity of selves that resonate with consonances and dissonances. Conceived as an open investigation into the present, Io dico Io - I say I pulverizes schematisms and preordained statutes, tracing a non-linear path: a narrative that sediments stories, gazes, imaginaries. A selfie, a self-portrait, an adventure.

The exhibition brings together Italian artists of different generations who in different historical and social contexts have told their adventure in search of authenticity, returning their way of living in the world through a constellation of visions. Self-representation, the gaze that questions roles, writing as a practice and self-narration, the body as a measure, limit, trespassing, resistance to homologation are just some of the themes around which the exhibition builds a layered path, overturning points of view, creating new visions and narratives.

I say I - I say I escapes any retrospective glance and stays in the present; he does not invent new words , but looks deeply into what we have - feminism - by presenting different and singular ways of embodying them. From the Central Hall, the driving and radiating nucleus, the exhibition branches out along the path of Time is Out of Joint, weaving other stories on its plot. It occupies the rooms and the liminal areas of the museum and is linked to the path which, from 23 April, presents the materials of the Carla Lonzi Archive to the public for the first time. Here, the exhibition activates the legacy of Lonzi, a crucial figure in Italian art criticism and feminism, and also invites us to reflect on the transmission of his radical thought.