Visitors are welcomed by portraits taken at the Einaudi Bookshop, where Cerati encountered some of the leading figures in post-war Italian culture. From here, her gaze opens onto Milan and its transformations. From post-war reconstruction to the years of protest, Cerati follows the city’s changing fabric and the tensions running through it. Neighbourhoods in flux coexist with centres of cultural life, while the rituals of the bourgeoisie are observed with understated irony.

From the Living Theatre to Eduardo De Filippo, theatre becomes a field of enquiry into gesture and representation. In Morire di classe, created with Gianni Berengo Gardin in the context of Franco and Franca Basaglia’s work, photography brings the realities of psychiatric institutions into view and helps place them at the heart of public debate.

The exhibition also explores the female body and the condition of women, while Cerati’s work on architecture and landscape moves towards greater formal freedom. Monumental images and immersive environments shape the visitor’s journey, revealing a multifaceted author who sustained an ongoing dialogue between image and word.