Inaugurated on December 2 last year, M9 is the centerpiece of an urban requalification project in the City of Mestre, funded entirely by the Fondazione di Venezia. Housed in an iconic building designed by Berlin studio Sauerbruch Hutton, the 20th Century Multimedia Museum is Italy’s first museum without objects, built entirely from video, photographic and archival materials drawn from over 100 Italian sources.
Spread across eight thematic areas, M9 traces 20th-century Italy through video, interaction and immersive installations on society and politics. Karmachina, with Engineering Associates, designed two of these sections — “The Way We Were and Are” and “Res Publica” — weaving collective history with individual experience through screens, interactive tables, 360° projections, 3D audio and holograms.
From shifting demographics and migration to monarchy, war and republic, visitors travel through a century of Italian life, where public history and private memory unfold side by side.