From July 3 to September 13, 2026, the PAC – Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea in Milan will present a dual exhibition program featuring the new edition of PERFORMING PAC – THESE FRAGMENTS I HAVE SHORED AGAINST MY RUINS, curated by Silvia Bignami, Iolanda Ratti, and Diego Sileo, with the Project Room “Architettura alla prova. The PAC by Ignazio Gardella,” curated by Claudio Cavallo.
PERFORMING PAC explores the practices of collage, assemblage, and installation through heterogeneous materials and layers of meaning. The initiative is part of a series of reinterpretations of a previous historic exhibition at the museum, *Kurt Schwitters: Collages, Paintings, and Sculptures 1914–1947*, presented in 2001 and curated by Karin Orchard in collaboration with Luigi Sansone, and now revived using archival materials.
The exhibition’s title is taken from the closing lines of T.S. Eliot’s *The Waste Land* (1922), a reference that evokes the theme of reconstruction from the rubble and fragmentation of Western culture. From this perspective, the project establishes a dialogue with the work of Kurt Schwitters, particularly with his additive process and his reworking of reality through found materials. Building on this legacy, the PAC has invited seven contemporary artists to engage with the ideas evoked by Schwitters’ work and its influence on subsequent artistic practices. The participating artists are Jacopo Benassi, John Bock, Gabriella Ciancimino, Roberto Cuoghi, Thomas Hirschhorn, Lucia Marcucci, and Mika Rottenberg.
The project brings together works, installations, and performative elements, creating a journey that explores different approaches to collage as a method of constructing meaning through fragments and discontinuities. The program also includes a series of public performances. A press preview is scheduled for July 2 at 11 a.m., while the opening will take place the same day at 7 p.m. Also on July 2, at the opening, John Bock will present *Mien-Gribbhom-Wien-Milano*. On July 7 at 7 p.m., Jacopo Benassi will present *Studio manifesta*. On July 14 at 7 p.m., Renato Taddeo will perform Kurt Schwitters’ *Ursonate *. The series will conclude on September 10 at 7:00 p.m. with a performance by Annamaria Ajmone alongside Laura Agnusdei, titled *Bleah!*, a tribute to Lucia Marcucci.
Alongside PERFORMING PAC is the Project Room “Architettura alla prova.” The PAC designed by Ignazio Gardella, dedicated to the architectural design of the Pavilion of Contemporary Art and to Ignazio Gardella ’s role in defining the museum space.
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| A Double Exhibition at PAC Milan: Schwitters, Collages, and the Architecture of Ignazio Gardella |
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