Exhibition "Pino Musi. Continuum"

The Teatro dell’architettura Mendrisio (TAM) of the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) presents, from 8 May to 20 December 2026, three new exhibitions promoted by the Academy of Architecture: “Architectural Construction in Ticino, 1939–1996. Materiality and Tectonics”, “Pino Musi. Continuum” and the installation “Sleipnir and the Labyrinth of Doors” by students enrolled in the Design studio Forte at the Academy of Architecture.

"Pino Musi. Continuum"
Exhibition promoted by the Academy of Architecture of the Università della Svizzera italiana,
Curated by Michael Jakob

The exhibition "Pino Musi. Continuum" presents a selection of the photographer’s works and invites visitors to explore the different facets of his investigation of space through a display conceived specifically for the Teatro dell'architettura Mendrisio.
As the curator writes: “It seems reductive to describe Pino Musi simply as a ‘photographer’, even though photography is the medium that defines his practice. Ultimately, his work is an activity of the mind, mediated by the gaze: an intellectual exercise that bends technical rigour to the need to reveal the world in a new light, transforming the act of seeing into a form of knowledge.”

The exhibition

"Pino Musi. Continuum" is a site-specific project conceived in dialogue with the circular form of the Teatro dell’architettura. The sequence of works unfolds through long image scrolls, along which the six main sections of the exhibition are articulated, allowing visitors to trace their own interpretive path through the possible connections between the different facets of the artist’s work:

Origin paradoxically reveals that it is the ruin – the often-unrecognizable form of buildings exposed to the ravages of nature – that brings us back to their origins. On closer inspection, photography itself becomes an archaeological activity: it excavates, identifies, reorganizes, and reconstructs.
Metonymy investigates the original meaning of dwelling – the essence of architecture – which does not coincide with the mere occupation of land.
Hyperbole reflects the fact that we are also surrounded by a kind of mad architecture, one that concerns not only form but the design gesture itself, as if the author intended to build against: against those who will live in it, visit it, and experience it.
In the section Surface, the filmic low profile of the façades of twentieth-century buildings evokes the aesthetic of the surface theorized by Nietzsche: the price to be paid when everything appears to be subject to the diktat of beautiful form.
Transition reminds us that the true, deeper meaning of every building lies in the possibility of experiencing it, and therefore of moving through it.
Incompleteness conceives the building as an incomplete, unresolved work. Here, the rhythm and flow of the photographic sequence evoke a kind of polyphonic listening, a counterpoint reminiscent of musical notation.

Outside the main sections, the intellectual experience is extended by a group of three large-format works on the recent restoration of Notre-Dame in Paris. In this case, a monumental work, part of the collective memory, reveals itself with unprecedented vigour, presenting a true moment of revelation.
The exhibition also features a series of display cases presenting a selection of notable publications by Pino Musi. The artist approaches the photography book as an autonomous creative work, an inquiry that emphasizes interdisciplinary collaboration and exchange. In this context, he directs photography toward diverse expressive forms, finding his preferred means of communication in the creation of artist’s books and bookmaking.

Biographies

Pino Musi is a photographer and visual artist based in Paris. He began practicing photography at the age of 14, teaching himself the black-and-white technique. His interest in the darkroom and continuous attendance of avant-garde theatre, until the late 1980s, influenced his experiments on both a linguistic and a conceptual level. Equally important were his encounters with the theatre director Jerzy Grotowski and the Swiss architect Mario Botta, with whom he collaborated for many years.
Musi’s work is interwoven with several disciplines, such as anthropology, architecture, archeology, and industry. Musi favours photography’s encounter and interdisciplinary work with and openness towards other forms of expression, as well as collaborations with other artists. His current research is part of a coherent project and is best expressed in the art of bookmaking, particularly in the creation of artists’ books. His most recent publications include: Polyphōnia (2025); Phytostopia (2025); Sottotraccia (2019); Border Soundscapes (2019); Grecia. Le radici della civiltà europea (2019); Acre (2017).
From 2011 to 2017 Musi held a teaching position for the Fondazione Moderna Arti Visive’s Master’s degree course on the contemporary image. He has shown his work in many galleries and European institutions. Pino Musi’s photographic works can be found in both private and public collections, among which the Fondazione Rolla in Canton Ticino, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin, Fondazione Modena Arti Visive, Fondazione di Sardegna in Cagliari, Fondazione Biscozzi / Rimbaud di Lecce, FRAC (Fonds régional d’art contemporain) Bretagne in Rennes in France, Fondazione MAST in Bologna, Collezione Art Vontobel in Zurich, and Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal.

Michael Jakob is a comparatist and teaches theory, history of the landscape, and aesthetics at the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio, and theory of the landscape and history of landscape architecture at Milan Polytechnic. For Edizioni Tararà he directs the series “di monte in monte” (from mountain to mountain), which deals with the theme of the mountain in a philosophical, literary, and artistic key. His recent publications in Italian include the following essays: L’architettura del paesaggio (2020); La capanna di Unabomber (2020); La finta montagna (2022); Le origini tecnologiche del paesaggio (2022); Rara Herbaria (2023); and the novel La scomparsa di Leda (2024). For the Accademia dei Lincei, Palazzo Corsini (Rome), and the Morgan Library (New York) he curated the exhibition “Rara Herbaria” / “Seeds of Knowledge”. He is also the author and producer of documentary films, the most recent of which is Arduino Cantafora. Il tempo sospeso (2026). He is currently working on a diachronic study of the perception “di sotto in su” (from below upwards), which follows the volume Leçons de vertige (2024), soon to be published in Italy as well.

Publication

The exhibition catalogue is published by Mendrisio Academy Press and Silvana Editoriale. In addition to the photographs by Pino Musi on view in the exhibition and an essay by the curator, Michael Jakob, it also features texts on Musi’s work by historians and architects.

• Calendar and Opening hours

8 May – 20 December 2026

Thursday – Friday
2:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Saturday – Sunday
10:00 am – 6:00 pm
Monday – Wednesday
Closed (open for groups and classes by reservation)

Summer closure: 13 July – 23 August 2026
For public holidays and special openings, consult the website: www.tam.usi.ch

• Open Days and Guided Tours

On the occasion of the exhibitions, the Teatro dell’architettura Mendrisio will regularly host free-admission open days, guided tours, and other special events. More information will be available later on the website www.tam.usi.ch.

Free Open Days
Sunday 10 May, 10.00–18.00, as part of International Museum Day, with a guided tour
Sunday 7 June 2026, 10.00–18.00
Sunday 5 July 2026, 10.00–18.00
Sunday 6 September 2026, 10.00–18.00
Sunday 4 October 2026, 10.00–18.00, MAM Network Day with a special event
Sunday 1 November 2026, 10.00–18.00
Sunday 6 December 2026, 10.00–18.00

Free guided tours (in Italian) of the exhibitions
In collaboration with students of the Academy of Architecture:
Saturday 6 June 2026, 11.00 am
Saturday 5 September 2026, 11.00 am
Saturday 3 October 2026, 11.00 am
Saturday 31 October 2026, 11.00 am
Saturday 5 December 2026, 11.00 am
On these dates, the guided tour is free, while entrance to the exhibition is subject to ticket purchase.

Guided tours with the exhibition curators
Dates will be announced soon through the TAM newsletter.

Group guided tours (ITA, ENG, GER, FR) available upon reservation, even outside regular opening hours.
For information and bookings, please write to: [email protected]