As you cross the gate of Fondazione Prada new venue for the first time you can feel it: Milan has finally its all new Mecca and not just for art.
Located in Largo Isarco neighborhoods, in a former distillery (Società Italiana Spiriti) dated back to 1910, the new venue is a place out of time where all sorts of people can experience something they like. It can be art (classic or contemporary, sculpture or painting), architecture, movies, books, drinks and pastries, the Fondazione is open and ready to give all that to you.
With the smell of paint still strong we started our tour in the renovated site by Rem Koolhaas and his OMA team.
Adding three new structures – a large exhibition pavilion, a cinema and a tower (still under construction) – to the seven already existing buildings the resulting complex “is not a preservation project and not a new architecture” explained the dutch architect, and added: “Two conditions that are usually kept separate here confront each other in a state of permanent interaction – offering an ensemble of fragments that will not congeal into a single image, or allow any part to dominate the others”. Indeed, it is not so easy to distinguish the new from the old.
// Non appena si varca la soglia della nuova Fondazione Prada per la prima volta lo si avverte subito: Milano ha finalmente la sua nuova mecca ma non soltanto per l’arte.
Situata nel quartiere di Largo Isarco, in una ex distilleria (Società Italiana Spiriti) datata 1910, la nuova sede è un luogo senza tempo dove tutti, senza differenze, possono trovarvi qualcosa di interessante. Può essere l’arte (classica o contemporanea, scultura o pittura), l’architettura, il cinema, i libri, i drink e/o i dolci, dal 9 Maggio la Fondazione ha aperto i battenti ed è pronta a donarvi tutto questo.
Con l’odore della vernice fresca ancora forte ha inizio la nostra visita all’interno del sito rinnovato da Rem Koolhaas e dal suo team di OMA.
Aggiungendo tre nuove strutture – un’ampia struttura espositiva, un cinema e una torre (ancora in costruzione) – ai già esistenti sette edifici il complesso risultante “non è un’opera di conservazione e nemmeno l’ideazione di una nuova architettura” ha spiegato l’architetto olandese che ha poi aggiunto: “Queste due dimensioni coesistono, pur rimanendo distinte, e si confrontano reciprocamente in un processo di continua interazione, quasi fossero frammenti destinati a non formare mai un’immagine unica e definita, in cui un elemento prevale sugli altri”. Infatti, non è poi così semplice distinguere il nuovo dal vecchio.
All pics © invasioni.
Haunted house (left) and library (right).
Haunted house.
Ticket office.
Inside the Podium building: the ‘Serial Classic’ exhibition curated by Salvatore Settis.
Inside the Podium building: the ‘Serial Classic’ exhibition curated by Salvatore Settis.
Inside the Podium building: the ‘Serial Classic’ exhibition curated by Salvatore Settis.
Inside the Podium building: the ‘Serial Classic’ exhibition curated by Salvatore Settis.
Inside the Podium building: the ‘Serial Classic’ exhibition continues upstairs.
Inside the Podium building: the ‘Serial Classic’ exhibition curated by Salvatore Settis.
Inside the Podium building: the ‘Serial Classic’ exhibition curated by Salvatore Settis.
View from the ticket office over the exit.
The foyer of the Podium building.
The foyer of the Podium building.
Inside the Haunted House.
Views from Haunted House over the Podium.
Haunted House balcony.
Haunted House // First floor: Cell (Clothes) (1996) by Louise Bourgeois.
Haunted House // Second Floor: Arms & Legs Wallpaper (1995-2015) by Robert Gober.
Haunted House // Second Floor: Untitled (2009-2010) – the anchor – by Robert Gober.
The Galleria Sud hosts ‘An Introduction’: an intense exhibition project emerged from a dialogue between Miuccia Prada and Germano Celant.
An Introduction: Solitario by Pino Pascali.
An Introduction: Die Nornen / The Norns (1976) by Edward & Nancy Reddin Kienholz.
An Introduction: the ‘quadreria’, a gallery of artworks that indicates the wide-ranging oscillation of attention for art’s manifestations.
Within the ‘Deposito’, surprise endings with vehicles of diverse natures indicates a convergence between art and life, within which a dialectic between autonomy and function, artifact and product is implemented. Here shown: Bel Air Trilogy: Circle Rod, Square Rod, Triangle Rod (2000-2011) by Walter De Maria.
Deposito: Disgrace (Rolls Royce Corniche) (2006) by Elmgreen & Dragset.
The new Cinema (left) and the Podium (right).
View over the Podium.
The Cinema hosts a project titled ‘Roman Polanski: My Inspirations’.
Inside the Cinema.
Inside the Cinema.
Exhibition ‘In Part’ is staged in the Nord Gallery. It explores the idea of the fragmented body through several artists’ work.
Exhibition ‘In Part’ is staged in the Nord Gallery. It explores the idea of the fragmented body through several artists’ work.
In Part: FC1 (Fire Color 1) (1962) by Yves Klein.
In Part: Venus Restaurée (1936/71) by Man Ray.
In Part: Intervallo (1984) by Giulio Paolini.
View over the Cisterna, the Cinema on the right.
An underground space of the Cinema houses Thomas Demand’s permanent installation Processo Grottesco (2006-07). Here the public can explore the different phases that led to the realization of Demand’s famous photograph ‘Grotto’.
An underground space of the Cinema houses Thomas Demand’s permanent installation Processo Grottesco (2006-07). Here the public can explore the different phases that led to the realization of Demand’s famous photograph ‘Grotto’.
The back of the Cinema.
The spaces of the Cisterna – a preexisting building made up of three adjacent vertical structures which once contained enormous cisterns used to produce distillates – host “Trittico”, a dynamic display strategy devised by the Thought Council. Three carefully selected works from the Collezione Prada will hereon be installed at a time, periodically rotating. The first selection includes three works that all develop minimalistic geometries by associating objects and elements of nature with the shape of the cube.
Trittico: ‘Case II’ (1968) by Eva Hesse.
Trittico: ‘Lost Love’ (2000) by Damien Hirst.
Trittico: ‘1 metro cubo di terra’ (1967) by Pino Pascali.
Bar Luce
Designed by film director Wes Anderson, Bar Luce recreates the atmosphere of a typical Milanese cafè.
‘I tried to make it a bar I would want to spend my own non-fictional afternoons in’ said the director.
View from the Bar towards the toilet.
The interior design, the seats, formica furniture, floor, veneered wood wall panels and the range of colors employed are reminiscent of Italian popular culture and aesthetics from the 1950s and 1960s.
And back to the entrance.
“New, old, horizontal, vertical, wide, narrow, white, black, open, enclosed, all these contrasts establish the range of oppositions that define the new Fondazione” – Rem Koolhaas.
// “Vecchio e nuovo, orizzontale e verticale, ampio e stretto, bianco e nero, aperto e chiuso: questi contrasti stabiliscono la varietà di opposizioni che descrive la natura della nuova Fondazione” – Rem Koolhaas.
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