Fondazione Prada, a cultural institution founded in 1993 by Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli, believes that art and study are useful and necessary to understand the world’s changes through new and engaging perspectives.
As President and Director Miuccia Prada states, ‘from the very beginning, through the Fondazione’s activities, I wanted to address the investigation of human culture in its variety and complexity. Over the past thirty years, I have questioned in various forms how artistic and intellectual research can affect people’s lives. Seeking ever more current answers to this question is the fundamental aim of the Fondazione.”
In its first two decades of activity, the Fondazione commissioned utopian projects and monographs in Italy and abroad from recognised international figures, and established and emerging artists. Since 2002, hitherto unexplored research paths have also been taken by presenting philosophy lectures, architecture exhibitions and cinema initiatives.
A wide-ranging network of collaborations with artists, curators, scientists, scholars, filmmakers, architects, musicians and intellectuals and an articulated program, currently extending to the three venues in Milan and Venice, opened between 2011 and 2016, and, from 2018, to other spaces in Shanghai, Tokyo and New York, provide a dialogue with an international and plural audience.
In 2011, the Venice exhibition space, the 18th-century Ca’ Corner della Regina palace, 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 in Venice.
The Milan venue was opened in 2015 and designed by the 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. The program of the Milan office 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, an exhibition space inside the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan, has been dedicated to the experimentation of visual languages and the search for potential connections between technology and other cultural expressions.
Over the past two decades, the Fondazione Prada has promoted numerous activities within cinema, exploring the links between moving images and the visual arts. With its regular program, the Fondazione aims at highlighting the broad spectrum of film creation, both contemporary and older, in all its richness and diversity. In 2023, the screening room at the Milan venue was renamed Cinema Godard to reinforce the ideal link with the Franco-Swiss filmmaker, who in 2019 conceived and realised for the Fondazione his two unique permanent installations.
The ‘Human Brains’ project is the result of an in-depth research process, undertaken in 2018 with the support of a scientific committee, in the neuroscience sector. It is guided by a strong interest in understanding 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 three international centres in China, Japan and the United States. Prada Rong Zhai in Shanghai, Prada Aoyama in Tokyo and Prada Broadway Epicenter in New York 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 President and Director Miuccia Prada and the Fondazione’s internal working group.
Its main tasks are to identify the most stimulating research areas for the development of projects capable of having an impact on the contemporary cultural debate. Each component contributes to an intense theoretical discussion from specific disciplines and fields: from education and visual studies to neuroscience, from social practices to cinema and visual languages, and dialogues between cultures.
Fondazione Prada fosters participatory and inclusive dynamics that embrace a multiplicity of identities, sensitivities and requests raised by communities and individuals. Special attention is paid to young people and their education, resulting in a series of projects for children and students and educational and exhibition activities developed with Italian and international schools, universities and research centres in the visual arts, humanities and science.
Founders
Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli
President and Director
Miuccia Prada
Steering Committee
Giuliana Bruno
Giancarlo Comi
Theaster Gates
Alejandro González Iñárritu
Salvatore Settis
General Director
Cristian Valsecchi
Head of Programs
Chiara Costa