From 3 July to 13 September 2026, the PAC in Milan presents the latest edition of PERFORMING PAC, entitled These fragments I have shored against my ruins.
Taking as its starting point the ‘historical flashback’ of the 2001 exhibition dedicated to Kurt Schwitters, the project links Schwitters’s poetics of assemblage, fragmentation and stratification with the work of seven contemporary artists: Jacopo Benassi, John Bock, Gabriella Ciancimino, Roberto Cuoghi, Thomas Hirschhorn, Lucia Marcucci e Mika Rottenberg.
The exhibition takes on a profound symbolic significance on the thirtieth anniversary of the reconstruction of the PAC (1996–2026) following the 1993 mafia massacre, celebrating the idea of ‘building from the rubble’ – a theme also explored through the Project Room dedicated to Ignazio Gardella – and transforming the space into a living organism that moves, remembers and recounts its history in a dynamic way.
Five works by Kurt Schwitters are on display – the four extraordinary collages Mz 253 Herz, 1921; Für Glaserherz (!Anna Blume?), 1921; The Museum of Modern Art, 1929; King, 1947, and the relief Grasmere, 1942-45 - that were included in 2001 as part of a larger section dedicated to the Milanese collections.
Alongside the artworks were archival documents, photographs of the installation and a unique visitors’ book recording the various reactions and comments of visitors to the Merzbau, the ‘cathedral of erotic misery’ – his life’s work.
The exhibition at the PAC continues with the works and collages of Lucia Marcucci (Florence, 1933) – a member of Gruppo 70 and a pioneer of Visual Poetry in Italy – created between 1964 and 1974, alongside some more recent works. By pasting together slogans, photographs, clippings from magazines and advertisements, the artist creates provocative and ironic collages that denounce the commodification of the female image and reveal the contradictions and ambiguities of the mass media.
The exhibition features a series of 17 cardboard posters I-nfluencer-poster, 2021 by Thomas Hirschhorn (Bern, 1970), whose hashtags highlight issues that have always been close to the artist’s heart: #Public Space, #Precariousness, #Less is Less. More is More, #Waste, #Engagement, #Beauty, #Energy=Yes! Quality=No!, #Universality, #Resilience, #Form, #Equality, #Monument, #Weapon, #Collage, #Love, #Fan, #Failure and Success.
Roberto Cuoghi (Modena, 1973) is exhibiting a number of recent and previously unseen paintings from the Pepsis series, occupying the entire gallery space on the first floor of the PAC. Although conceived as a single system, the installation presents the works as a non-coherent whole, in which the viewer must find their way by letting their instincts guide them.
The German artist John Bock (Gribbohm, 1965) reinterprets and updates the work Mien-Gribbhom-Wien-Milano, owned by the Museo del Novecento, which was acquired for the exhibition La forma del mondo/la fine del mondo held at the PAC in Milan in 2000.
The Garden of the Chimera is a site-specific work of quantum bioenergetic art created by Gabriella Ciancinimo (Palermo, 1978) for the PAC.
Mika Rottenberg (Buenos Aires, 1976), with her video installation Cosmic Generator, 2017, creates elaborate visual narratives to explore the allure and magic – but also the despair – of our hyper-capitalist and commodified reality, laying bare and analysing work, globalisation, the production of value, and the way in which our relationships with the world and with one another are increasingly monetised.
Jacopo Benassi (La Spezia, 1970) has created the installation Studio manifesta, 2026 specifically for the PAC, through which he presents his studio not merely as a room, but as a mental and operational, artistic and political ecosystem. His works are mounted on wheels and move independently: they are not hung or fixed in place, and reject static contemplation. The studio as a living organism and an extension of the artist’s body.
Program of performances
↳ 2 July, 7 pm
John Bock, Mien-Gribbhom-Wien-Milan
↳ 7 July, 7 pm
Jacopo Benassi, Studio manifesta
↳ 14 July, 7 pm
Kurt Schwitters, Ursonate
performance by Renato Taddeo
↳ 10 settembre, ore 19
Annamaria Ajmone and Laura Agnusdei
Bleah!, A tribute to Lucia Marcucci
PERFORMING PAC. These fragments I have shored against my ruins
curated by Silvia Bignami, Iolanda Ratti, Diego Sileo
3 July – 13 September 2026
via Palestro 14 – Milan
T. 02 88446359
pacmilano.it
Tuesday to Sunday open 10 am - 7:30 pm
Thursday 10 am -10:30 pm
Closed on Mondays
27 July 10 am -10:30 am | 15 August 10 am - 7:30 pm
Tickets: full price € 8 / special reduced from € 6,50 to € 4