ART-TRIBUTE:An Introduction at Fondazione Prada

The new Milan venue of Fondazione Prada is an exhibition space dedicated to contemporary art and culture. It is housed in a complex that for many years functioned as a distillery, but that has been changed into a collection of modern spaces by OMA, the architecture firm co-founded by Rem Koolhaas. To the existing buildings, OMA has added 3 new structures: an exhibition space, a multifunctional auditorium and a nine-story tower that holds Prada’s collection.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Fondazione Prada Archive

Featuring more than 70 works, the exhibition “An Introduction”, explores the quirks and curiosities which have shaped Fondazione Prada’s collection. The exhibition focuses on modern and contemporary art. The show explores different methodologies of collecting and researching. The exhibition project emerged from a dialogue between Miuccia Prada and Germano Celant, alluding to a path between institutional and personal, leading to methods of research and collecting. Here the interest for the aesthetic and political issues addressed by artists is compared to the knowledge and the practice of experimental and historic cultures, from the Renaissance to modernity, evolving from a basic, minimalist approach, to a complex museum display. The sequence of spaces and the choice of artworks, installed in relation to colors and period materials, suggest an itinerary of interests and commitment. It begins with a reflection on the self then develops with a choice of visual territories connected to the artistic events of the 1960s, from New Dada to Minimal Art. The result is a body of artworks and objects that supply information about the past, present and future of an existential adventure. They introduce an image of impassioned, committed people who have followed a route of active and radiating awareness: the reaction to the vital strength of ideas becomes the focus of a lifetime.

Info: Fondazione Prada, Largo Isarco 2, Milan, Duration: 9/5/15-1/5/16, Days & Hours: Mon & Wed-Thu 10:00-19:00, Fri-Sun 10:00-21:00, www.fondazioneprada.org