Rivolta Femminile: “the event that turned my life around”
In the spring of 1970 Marta joined the Manifesto of Rivolta Femminile. Later she participated, together with Carla and other members of the movement, including Angela De Carlo, Renata Gessner, Jacqueline Vodoz, Anna Jaquinta and Maria Veglia, in the creation of the publishing house of the same name in Milan in 1971: the first Italian feminist publications. Even after her sister’s untimely death in 1982, Marta continued to run the publishing house, together with the other members of the group based in Milan, editing the posthumous publication of Carla’s works and presenting RF’s activities at various international feminist publishing fairs: London, Oslo, Montreal, Barcelona and Amsterdam. Much of her energy was devoted to presenting Carla’s work and ideas through public lectures, editorial projects and exhibitions.
Her commitment was articulated in many contributions published from the 1970s on: “Solidarietà ideologica e coscienza distinta”, in M.G. Chinese, C. Lonzi, M. Lonzi, A. Jaquinta, È già politica (1977); “Diritti della mia soggettività”, in La presenza dell’uomo nel femminismo (1978); her editing with A. Jaquinta of Carla’s poetic works (C. Lonzi, Scacco ragionato, Poesie 1958-1963), in 1985, which included her fundamental biographical presentation of Carla, and with A. De Carlo and M. Delfino of her research (C. Lonzi, Armande sono io!) in 1992; finally the monograph Diana: una femminista a Buckingham Palace (1998). All were published by Scritti di Rivolta Femminile.
But, beyond militancy, Marta Lonzi’s architectural thinking and practice were closely entwined with gender awareness, as her work shows.
“In the spring of 1970, the decisive episode finally happened, the event that turned my life around. I supported the first manifesto of Rivolta Femminile... In the early days we had very numerous meetings with gatherings also in other cities, causing a tangible and exciting sensation of the widespread support that the subject received in the souls of the most different women. Later we spontaneously divided into groups that embodied the most urgent affinities that previous individual experiences had developed in us and according to the expectations that each one, more or less consciously, invested in at that time.” (ML 1982)
