The M9 Museum in Mestre, a well-established reference point in the Venetian landscape for 20th-century history, strengthens and makes explicit its connection to the present through the new ‘M9 Contemporaneo’ program. This exhibition project aims to create a dialogue between the museum’s historical vocation and contemporary urgencies.
The program’s launch is entrusted to two distinct yet complementary projects, which aptly convey this tension: Michelangelo Penso’s solo exhibition, ‘Risonanze invisibili’ (Invisible Resonances), and the photographic workshop ‘La serena inquietudine del territorio’ (The Serene Unease of the Territory). They offer two different approaches to contemporary art, spanning immersive installation and landscape investigation.
Michelangelo Penso’s ‘Invisible Resonances’ at M9
Curated by Leo Lecci, Penso’s exhibition is the program’s cornerstone. His three installations – ‘Cronòtopo’, ‘Magnetic Nanoparticles Genesis’, and ‘Sirtuine’ – render visible and perceptible scientific phenomena related to the infinitesimally small. Penso’s research, while exploring the well-established relationship between art and science, avoids didactic outcomes thanks to meticulous spatial construction and its immersive quality.
The spectator’s experience remains central, amplifying and completing the artwork with their presence. This is particularly evident in ‘Cronòtopo’, where visitors activate sensors that transform physical data and orbital frequencies into sound and light, becoming an integral part of the system. The reference to the VIRGO gravitational observatory suggests a conception of the artwork as a sensitive infrastructure, capable of translating the invisible into experience.
A similar logic is found in ‘Magnetic Nanoparticles Genesis’, developed in collaboration with the Italian Institute of Technology, where magnetism symbolizes imperceptible connections. ‘Sirtuine’, previously exhibited at the Palais de Tokyo, introduces an almost organic dimension, suspended between biology and abstraction. Sirtuins, proteins still little studied but effective in slowing down aging, are reinterpreted by Penso as flexible metallic circles coated with purple synthetic fibers.
‘The Serene Unease of the Territory’
Of a different tone is ‘La serena inquietudine del territorio’ (The Serene Unease of the Territory), a collective project that evolved from an online workshop into a structured exhibition. Presented on the museum’s second floor, it takes its name from the project initiated in 2016 by photographer Giovanni Cecchinato, which transformed into an interdisciplinary workshop involving photographers, writers, architects, and journalists.
The project focuses on the contemporary Venetian landscape, observed through a plurality of perspectives ranging from documentation to interpretation. Alongside analytical and almost cartographic images, more authorial approaches emerge that transfigure the real data. Together, these diverse interpretations highlight the characteristics of a territory in constant transformation.
