Michael E. Smith at Palazzo Bentivoglio: C C and the Tension of Sculptural Absence

From 30 January to 26 April 2026, Palazzo Bentivoglio in Bologna hosts C C, the solo exhibition of Michael E. Smith, one of the most radical and influential American artists of his generation.

_2nd_Photo Michael e. Smith

Curated by Simone Menegoi and Tommaso Pasquali, the exhibition unfolds in the underground spaces of the palace, which Smith transforms into an essential, taut and deeply immersive environment. Admission is free, underscoring the project’s commitment to fostering a direct relationship between artistic research and the public.

For more than twenty years, Michael E. Smith has been redefining the boundaries of sculpture and installation through a practice that moves between minimalism and residue, presence and absence, matter and silence. His works often originate from found materials, industrial waste and salvaged objects—elements that carry traces of use, consumption and abandonment. Placed within space with surgical precision, these fragments generate installations of strong emotional impact, in which the everyday appears both fragile and threatening.

Each of Smith’s exhibitions is conceived as a unique, unrepeatable experience. Objects, architecture and light operate in unison, transforming the exhibition space into a living body charged with constant tension. Emptiness, waiting and silence become fundamental compositional tools: it is through subtraction that the artist concentrates meaning, compelling the viewer toward a heightened, almost alert mode of perception.

Michael E. Smith, ph. Carlo Favero

Raised in post-industrial Detroit, Smith translates a memory shaped by industrial decline and urban precarity into sculptural form. His works offer an uneasy reflection on the fate of objects and places, and on their relationship with human time. In C C, this research encounters a site dense with history: the underground spaces of Palazzo Bentivoglio, with their material and symbolic stratifications, become a new field of exploration.

As the curators note, after challenging the neutrality of the white cube, Smith arrives at a space where historical layering and material complexity become an unexpected and indispensable starting point. The dialogue with the site has triggered a network of intimate resonances for the artist, allowing memories tied to an unpublished family story to surface, further intensifying the exhibition’s atmosphere.

Palazzo Bentivoglio

via del Borgo di San Pietro 1, Bologna

Date

30 gennaio – 26 aprile 2026