Fondazione Prada, a cultural institution created in 1993 by Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli, operates in the belief that art and study are useful and necessary to understand the changes unfolding in the world through new and engaging perspectives.
As President and Director Miuccia Prada stated, “Right from the start, through the Fondazione’s activities I aspired to investigate human culture in all its variety and complexity. Over these thirty years, I have wondered in different ways how artistic and intellectual research can impact people’s lives. Searching for increasingly topical answers to this question is the fundamental objective I have set myself with the foundation.”
In its first two decades, Fondazione commissioned utopian projects and monographs in Italy and abroad to renowned international figures, as well as established and emerging artists. Since 2002, it has undertaken research studies of subjects which had previously been unexplored, through conferences of philosophical nature, exhibitions about architecture and initiatives focused on cinema.
A vast network of collaborations with artists, curators, scientists, scholars, filmmakers, architects, musicians, and intellectuals, offering an extensive cultural program within its three Italian venues, two in Milan and one in Venice, opened respectively in 2015 and 2011, as well as Shanghai and Tokyo since 2018, establishes a dialogue with an international and plural audience.
In 2011, Fondazione Prada’s exhibition space in Venice, the 18th-century palazzo Ca’ Corner della Regina, was inaugurated after a building restoration aimed at preserving its artistic and architectural heritage. Every year, on the occasion of the Art and Architecture Biennales, Fondazione Prada presents research exhibitions and experimental projects at this location.
The Milan venue was opened in 2015 and designed by architecture firm OMA studio, led by Rem Koolhaas. Its articulation reflects the multidisciplinary vocation of the Fondazione, establishing its role as a laboratory of ideas, a space where the coexistence of disciplines and languages generates resonances and unpredictable cultural intersections. Its program includes art and archaeological exhibitions, scientific projects and conferences, musical events, dance performances and educational activities. Permanent installations and site-specific interventions by contemporary artists trace the history and identity of the Fondazione, enhancing its cultural offering.
Since 2016, Osservatorio, Fondazione Prada’s an exhibition space located inside Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan, has been dedicated to the exploration of visual languages and research on the intersections and connections between technologies and cultural expressions.
Over the past two decades, Fondazione Prada has supported numerous initiatives within cinema, exploring the links between moving images and the visual arts. With its weekly screening program, the Fondazione aims at enhancing the broad spectrum of film creation, both contemporary and past, in all its richness and diversity. In 2023, Fondazione Prada’s movie theater at the Milan venue was renamed Cinema Godard, to strengthen the bond with the Franco-Swiss filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard, who in 2019 conceived and realized for the Fondazione only two permanent installations open to the public: “Le Studio d’Orphée” and “Accent-soeur”.
The ‘Human Brains’ project is the result of an in-depth research process, undertaken in 2018 in the neuroscience sector, with the support of a scientific committee. The project is driven by a strong deep interest to understand the human brain, the complexity of its functions, and its centrality in human history. For a cultural institution such as the Fondazione, ‘Human Brains’ represents a challenge, as it helps to give voice to the ideas of researchers that have a concrete impact on the lives of every individual.
Since 2018, Fondazione Prada has further expanded its reach by also presenting its activities in two international centers in China and Japan. Prada Rong Zhai in Shanghai, Prada Aoyama in Tokyo regularly host a series of projects such as research exhibitions, monographs, artistic commissions and public meetings with scholars and personalities from the world of culture, presented by Prada with the support of the Fondazione.
In 2023, a Steering Committee was established to work closely with the President and Director Miuccia Prada and the Fondazione’s staff. Its main task is to identify the most stimulating research areas to develop multidisciplinary projects that can impact on the contemporary cultural debate. Each member of the committee contributes to an intense theoretical discussion stemming from their individual expertise and background: from education and visual studies to science, from social practices to cinema, visual languages, and dialogues between cultures.
Fondazione Prada fosters participation and inclusivity by embracing a multiplicity of identities, sensibilities and paradigms raised by communities and individuals. Particular attention is paid to youth and their development through a series of projects conceived for children and students, as well as educational and exhibition activities created in collaboration with Italian and international schools, universities, and research centres in the fields of visual arts, science and humanities.
Founders
Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli
President and Director
Miuccia Prada
Steering Committee
Giuliana Bruno
Kate Crawford
Theaster Gates
Alejandro González Iñárritu
Salvatore Settis
General Manager
Cristian Valsecchi
Head of Programs
Chiara Costa