Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea

The Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea, commonly known as PAC, is a municipal museum of contemporary art in Milan, Italy. Located on via Palestro, it stands adjacent to the Galleria d'Arte Moderna and faces the Giardini Pubblici Indro Montanelli. Since its inauguration in 1954, PAC has served as one of Italy's principal venues for the exhibition of contemporary art, distinguished by its innovative architecture and its resilience through destruction and reconstruction.

The origins of PAC date to 1947, when the Municipality of Milan, seeking a new exhibition space for contemporary art, turned to the site of Villa Belgioiosa, which had been destroyed by bombing in 1943. While the villa itself was repurposed for the Modern Art Gallery, a separate pavilion devoted exclusively to contemporary art was commissioned. The design by architect Ignazio Gardella was preliminarily selected in March 1948, and the pavilion was constructed between 1951 and 1953, opening in 1954. The initiative was driven by Superintendent Fernanda Wittgens. Under the direction of Mercedes Garberi, PAC closed in 1973 for extensive renovation, modernization, and compliance with conservation standards regarding ventilation, lighting, and security, reopening in 1979. On 27 July 1993, the building was almost completely destroyed by fire in the bombing known as the Via Palestro massacre, at a time when Italy was heavily engaged in combating organized crime. The Milan city council, under assessor Philippe Daverio, decided to rebuild the pavilion identical to the original. The restoration was completed in 1996 by Jacopo Gardella, son of the original architect, and PAC resumed its activities with an exhibition dedicated to Leo Castelli.

PAC does not maintain a permanent collection in the traditional sense; rather, it functions primarily as an exhibition space. Over the past three decades, it has organized solo presentations of major international artists spanning diverse media and generations. These have included pioneering figures of performance and body art such as Marina Abramovic, conceptual and installation artists including Christian Boltanski, Chen Zhen, and Jannis Kounellis, painters such as Lucio Fontana and Robert Motherwell, photographers such as Cindy Sherman and Jeff Wall, and multimedia artists including Laurie Anderson, Tony Oursler, and Zhang Huan. The program has also encompassed socially engaged practitioners such as Regina José Galindo and Yinka Shonibare, as well as Italian artists such as Alberto Garutti and Pino Pascali. This curatorial breadth reflects PAC's role as a platform for contemporary artistic practices rather than a repository of fixed holdings.

As an exhibition pavilion rather than a collecting institution, PAC's notable 'holdings' consist of the temporary works and installations it has presented. One work of particular historical resonance connected to the venue is Maurizio Cattelan's Lullaby (1994), a blue bag containing debris the artist collected from PAC after the 1993 bombing. This sculpture, presented at the Laure Genillard Gallery in London, is now part of the collection of Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin. The piece stands as a material trace of the pavilion's traumatic history and its subsequent renewal.

The Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea is located at via Palestro in Milan, positioned next to the Galleria d'Arte Moderna and across from the Giardini Pubblici Indro Montanelli. It is owned and operated by the Municipality of Milan. The pavilion continues to function as a vital exhibition space for contemporary art, accessible to the public through its program of temporary exhibitions. Further information on current exhibitions, opening hours, and access is available through the official website at https://www.pacmilano.it/.