How many lives can a forgotten object have? At PAC, the answer comes with These Fragments I Have Shored Against My Ruins, the new edition of PERFORMING PAC, the exhibition project that transforms the museum's own history into a laboratory for contemporary ideas. The exhibition begins with the reconstruction of the landmark 2001 show dedicated to Kurt Schwitters, the pioneering German artist who coined the term Merz to describe a creative practice that transformed scraps of paper, found objects, words, and everyday materials into works of art. His visionary Merzbau, an ever-evolving environment built through the accumulation and layering of disparate elements, is now regarded as one of the earliest precursors of contemporary installation art. Building on this legacy, the exhibition brings together works by Jacopo Benassi, John Bock, Gabriella Ciancimino, Roberto Cuoghi, Thomas Hirschhorn, Lucia Marcucci, and Mika Rottenberg, artists who explore transformation, layering, and the reconstruction of reality through diverse artistic practices. The exhibition also reflects on the history of the PAC itself, rebuilt after the 1993 bombing and now a place where memory and renewal coexist. It is an invitation to look at fragments, ruins, and discarded materials with fresh eyes, discovering how art can transform what remains into new possibilities.
