Fondazione Prada

Fondazione Prada is a Milan-based institution devoted to contemporary art and culture, co-chaired by Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli since 1995. Established in 1993 as PradaMilanoArte, it has grown from a modest exhibition space into one of Italy's most significant private cultural foundations. Its permanent headquarters, opened in 2015 at Largo Isarco in southern Milan, encompasses a 19,000-square-metre complex designed by Rem Koolhaas's architecture firm OMA, transforming a former early-20th-century distillery into a multifaceted venue for art exhibition, film, performance, and public discourse. The foundation also maintains Osservatorio, a photography gallery in Milan's Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, and Ca' Corner della Regina, an exhibition space in an 18th-century palazzo on Venice's Grand Canal.

The Fondazione Prada was founded in 1993 by Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli, the owners of the Milanese fashion house Prada, initially operating under the name PradaMilanoArte. From 1993 to 2010, the foundation organised 24 solo exhibitions in Milan conceived as dialogues with internationally acclaimed contemporary artists. During this period, it also developed a rich interdisciplinary programme including film festivals such as the Tribeca Film Festival at Fondazione Prada (2004), Italian Kings of the Bs: Secret History of Italian Cinema, 1949-1976 (2004), Secret History of Asian Cinema (2005), and Secret History of Russian Cinema (2007), as well as philosophy talks and architecture and design projects. Between 2005 and 2009, on the occasion of the Venice Biennale, the foundation presented solo exhibitions by Francesco Vezzoli (2005), Thomas Demand (2007), and John Wesley (2009) at the Giorgio Cini Foundation in Venice. Special international projects included Carsten Höller's Double Club in London (2008), OMA's Prada Transformer in Seoul (2009), and Francesco Vezzoli's 24h Museum at the Palais d'Iéna in Paris (2012). In 2011, the foundation opened Ca' Corner della Regina in Venice, and in 2016 launched Osservatorio in Milan. The permanent Milan venue at Largo Isarco opened on 9 May 2015, with the Torre building completed in 2018.

The Fondazione Prada's collection and programming span contemporary art, cinema, photography, philosophy, dance, and architecture. The foundation does not adhere to a single collecting philosophy but rather pursues projects through direct dialogue with artists, resulting in a holdings profile shaped by major monographic exhibitions and site-specific commissions. Its thematic exhibitions have explored concepts such as the hidden or reverse side of artworks (Recto Verso, 2015), while its collection displays have been organised around dialogues between Miuccia Prada and curators such as Germano Celant and Nicholas Cullinan. The photography-focused Osservatorio, inaugurated in December 2016 with the exhibition Give Me Yesterday, extends the foundation's scope into visual languages and image-based practices.

The permanent collection of the Fondazione Prada includes works by numerous significant contemporary artists. The so-called Haunted House at the Largo Isarco venue permanently displays pieces from the foundation's collection, including works by Louise Bourgeois and an installation by Robert Gober. The Torre building, completed in 2018, houses the project Atlas, which brings together works from the Prada Collection across its five exhibition floors. Artists whose works have been exhibited or acquired by the foundation include Carla Accardi, John Baldessari, William Copley, Mona Hatoum, Michael Heizer, Damien Hirst, Carsten Höller, Edward Kienholz, Nancy Reddin Kienholz, Jeff Koons, Walter De Maria, and Pino Pascali. The foundation's inaugural exhibition at Largo Isarco in 2015 featured site-specific installations by Robert Gober and Thomas Demand. A notable early exhibit was a large collection of works by Edward Kienholz, including Five Car Stud, an installation that had not previously been available for public view.

The Fondazione Prada's main Milan venue at Largo Isarco occupies a former gin distillery dating from 1910, located in the Corvetto district south of Milan's city centre. Prada acquired the industrial site in 2000, and in 2008 commissioned Rem Koolhaas and his firm OMA to transform it into a museum and cultural centre, a process that took ten years. The complex comprises seven existing industrial buildings and three new structures designed by OMA project architects Chris van Duijn and Federico Pompignoli: the Podium, a silver aluminium-clad cube for temporary exhibitions; the Cinema, a mirrored auditorium whose front can fold open to create an open-air cinema; and the Torre, a 60-metre tower completed in 2018 with nine differently proportioned floors ranging from 2.8 metres to 8 metres in height, accessed by an external glass elevator and featuring varied materials including travertine, concrete, wood, and a pink onyx and limestone blend. The complex totals 19,000 square metres, with 11,000 square metres dedicated to exhibition space. The Haunted House, a four-storey 1910 building, was covered in 24-carat gold leaf (200,000 sheets, three kilograms total) applied by hand by specialists from the Florentine firm Giusto Manetti Battiloro; it displays works by Louise Bourgeois and Robert Gober. The Bar Luce on the ground floor was designed by film director Wes Anderson, evoking old Milanese cafés with pastel Formica furniture and pink terrazzo flooring. The entrance building also contains a children's area, L'Accademia dei bambini, designed by students from the École nationale supérieure d'architecture de Versailles.

The Fondazione Prada's main venue is located at Largo Isarco 2, in the Corvetto district of southern Milan, and is owned by Prada. It opened to the public on 9 May 2015, with the full complex including the Torre completed by 2018. The foundation operates two additional Italian locations: Osservatorio, a photography gallery on the fifth and sixth floors of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in central Milan, opened on 19 December 2016; and Ca' Corner della Regina in Venice, an 18th-century palazzo on the Grand Canal built between 1723 and 1728 by Domenico Rossi for the Corner family, which the foundation inaugurated in 2011 and uses for temporary exhibitions concurrent with ongoing restoration. The Venice space also houses the History Archives of the Contemporary Art Exhibition of the Biennale di Venezia. The foundation's website is http://www.fondazioneprada.org/.