ReverseLab unveiled
ReverseLab has been inaugurated at the House of Detention of Milan San Vittore "Francesco Di Cataldo," a space born from the synergy between the Prison, Politecnico di Milano, and PAC Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea, made possible by the contribution of Fondazione di Comunità Milano and realized in collaboration with Forme Tentative and Philo – Philosophical Practices.
ReverseLab is a renovated and reactivated wing of the San Vittore Prison. Closed since the second half of the 1980s and left uninhabitable, it has been transformed into a permanent laboratory dedicated to artistic and cultural production, fostering dialogue between the prison and the city. ReverseLab is part of the Off Campus San Vittore initiative, a space managed by Politecnico di Milano and opened in 2022 within the prison itself.
ReverseLab opens its activities with the exhibition “THE ARTISTS ARE THE ONES WHO MAKE NOISE. Fragments from San Vittore Prison,” a site-specific artwork created by artist Maurice Pefura during a workshop held between March and June, involving both inmates and prison officers. This collaboration resulted in a unique collective artwork, assembled from thousands of expressive fragments placed on pieces of paper and other materials, covering the walls of a long corridor in the prison. In this way, the enclosed space is transformed into a new urban landscape.
The Off Campus spaces, directly managed by the university in four marginalized areas of the city, are proximity tools through which Politecnico di Milano becomes an active player within fragile contexts, creating a mechanism that brings innovation to the environments where we operate. In the case of San Vittore, inmates, officers, and staff are not mere beneficiaries of the project, but active participants who contribute to changing narratives and promoting signs of change.
Francesca Cognetti, Rector’s Delegate for the Off Campus program
The exhibition, open to the public two days a week (Saturdays and Mondays in two shifts: 14:00-15:00 and 15:00-16:00) from September 28 to October 28, 2024, aims to create an opportunity for dialogue and connection between the prison world and the outside, in order to rebuild the complex relationship between San Vittore and the citizens of Milan.