What ten years ago was just a megaphone for brands is now the place to be for understanding how fashion and art relate. Fashion foundations are now more than just a container for passing on a brand’s legacy, as the design experience of the Fondazione Prada in Milan shows
by Domenico Casoria
Natural appendages of the archive and fashion foundations are now more than just containers for passing on a brand’s legacy. And if, at times, museums are still reluctant to welcome the ‘youngest daughter’ among the artistic disciplines, it is precisely fashion that has chosen to create its own spaces or make itself a place for art. This time, however, putting itself in a dominant position. Or at least a wait-and-see attitude.
Place to be
What ten years ago was just a megaphone for brands is now the place to be for understanding how fashion and art relate. In recent years, foundations have been transformed from archives in which to store clothes and sketches to containers in which to weave the link between brand and art. Fondazione Prada, which has set the standard for its structural approach, was founded as a project in 1993, chaired by Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli. It opened the doors of its Milan headquarters in May 2015 and has since become a point of reference for artists from all over the world.
The unique Prada Foundation
As soon as the Fondazione Prada opened, it was immediately apparent that the relationship between fashion and other artistic practices would change. Indeed, the foundation is neither an archive nor a museum. It is a space to address the investigation of human culture in its variety and complexity. A laboratory in which to question how artistic and intellectual research affects people’s lives. Designed by Studio OMA, led by Rem Koolhaas, it reflects precisely this multitude of stimuli. The structure (former distillery of the Società Italiana Spiriti) reflects the multidisciplinary attitude. The programme of the Milan venue – because, in the meantime, a venue in Venice has also been opened – includes art and archaeology exhibitions, scientific conferences, musical events, dance performances, and permanent and non-permanent installations.
Creating participatory dynamics
One of Fondazione Prada’s objectives is to create participatory dynamics. As in the case of For My Best Family, a site-specific work by Meriem Bennani, on view from 31 October to 24 February 2025. In the work, the artist investigates the social and cultural dimensions of living together, the most intimate and complex aspects of everyone’s identity, and the dialogue between individual and community.
The works of the Rabat-born artist dwell on the degree of contradictions that permeate contemporary life today. For the Fondazione Prada, Bennani has created the installation Sole Crushing, an orchestra of 192 flip-flops and slippers, which, animated by a pneumatic system, give life to a repetition of synchronised or disordered sounds. The other half of the work is the 3D film For Aicha, which follows the adventures of a young Moroccan filmmaker in the guise of a jackal and her relationship with her mother.
Why it is not a museum
Meriem Bennai’s arrival at the Fondazione Prada shows the direction the label wants to take. The flip-flops – much used by Bennani – are perhaps the latest legacy of the street style culture that has also conquered the catwalks of luxury brands, including Prada. This may sound strange, but it is a powerful connection linking two different cultural industries. The Fondazione Prada is not just a museum in which to display works or adorned mannequins. To all intents and purposes, it is a space to compromise and question clothes and the body: it is as far from a place wrapped up in itself as one can get today.
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