Carlo Benvenuto's Photographs and Murano Glass in Modena's Anatomical Theatre

Carlo Benvenuto (born 1966 in Stresa) presents site-specific works in the newly restored Anatomical Theatre of Modena, part of the Gare de Moi project curated by Chiara Ianeselli. The exhibition, the fourth in a series following editions in Amsterdam, Bologna, and Padua, features photographs placed on historic dissection tables, hung in the theatre's sub-gradinate, and laid on the floor, alongside Murano glass sculptures that resemble water-filled glasses scattered throughout the cavea. Benvenuto describes the works as contemporary still lifes destined for the anatomical theatre, emphasizing that art is for contemplation, so no explanatory texts are provided. The theatre, built between 1773 and 1775 adjacent to the Sant'Agostino hospital, was damaged by the 2012 earthquake and decades of neglect before its recent restoration. It hosted its first dissection on January 23, 1775, and its last in 1985. Adjacent rooms once housed an Obstetric Museum with rare terracotta pieces, still awaiting reopening. Elena Corradini, the project's scientific consultant, writes that Benvenuto's works arise from the idea of deferring natural decay to preserve things unchanged in color and form, denying organic laws and fixing them in a state of false life and illusory eternity.