“Atlas” is an exhibition project presenting a repertoire of works by contemporary artists, encouraging a direct confrontation and an unmediated experience with the visual arts. It is a reflection not only on the history of Fondazione Prada, characterized by environmental experimentation and in-depth historical and thematic research but also on the use of the space that hosts it, Torre.
“Atlas” is a project designed to change over time, one floor at a time, part of a process that is never finished but ready to incorporate new stimuli and interpretations. Its unstable nature becomes a paradigm for investigating how to programme an exhibition space and the meaning of a permanent display in a place dedicated to contemporary culture.
Starting on 18 September 2025, the eighth floor is renewed with Claes Oldenburg’s Mouse Museum (1965-1977) and Alex Da Corte’s Mouse Museum (Van Gogh Ear) (2022). Viewing the two “Mouse Museums” together offers a chance to reflect on the importance of both collecting and museum displays, artmaking and the self, while marveling at mass production, thus confronting different approaches to consumer culture.
“Atlas” hosts installations, paintings, tapestries and sculptures in a sequence of environments incorporating solos and confrontations, created through assonances or contrasts, between artists such as Carla Accardi (Italy, 1924-2014) and Jeff Koons (United States, 1955), Walter De Maria (United States, 1935-2013), Goshka Macuga (Poland, 1967) and Betye Saar (United States, 1926), Fischli/Weiss (Svizzera, 1952/1946), John Baldessari (United States, 1931-2020) and Carsten Höller (Belgium, 1961).
The group of exhibited artworks, realized between 1960 and 2016, represents a possible mapping of the ideas and visions that have guided the collaborations with the artists contributing to Fondazione’s activities throughout the years. “Atlas”, therefore, traces an evolving path between the personal and the institutional, open to temporary and thematic interventions, special projects and events, with possible integrations from other institutions.