Fondazione Prada continues its observation of social changes through an international and horizontal approach that encompasses a plurality of languages and creative visions. A summary of the 2025 programming, inaugurated by the exhibition A Kind of Language: Storyboards and Other Renderings for Cinema at the Osservatorio.
Fondazione Prada is the fruit of a beautiful love story between art and business. Begun in 1993 by Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli, the Foundation believes in the power of culture both as attractive and entertaining content and as something useful and necessary for people’s wellbeing. The foundation’s first physical home—Ca’ Corner, the 18th-century palace overlooking Venice’s Grand Canal—was inaugurated in 2011 with the exhibition Fondazione Prada. Ca’ Corner Della Regina, curated by Germano Celant. In 2015, modern architecture was added to the equation with the opening of the Milan headquarters, in Largo Isarco 2, a project by the OMA studio led by architect Rem Koolhaas. In the spaces of a former distillery from the early twentieth century, measuring approximately 19,000 m², ex-industrial buildings coexist with three new structures: the Podium, the Cinema, and the Tower. Just two years later, Prada opened Osservatorio, an 800 m² project space in the heart of Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, where exhibitions dedicated to visual languages, with a special focus on photography, are regularly hosted. Since its foundation, Fondazione Prada’s programming has always been able to combine experimentation and historicity through the lens of contemporary creative languages, from art to cinema, music, and performance. Over the years, the Italian headquarters of the Foundation and its two international outposts – Tokyo and Shanghai – have hosted exhibitions of renowned historicized artists such as Gianni Piacentino (2015-16), Jannis Kounellis (2019), and Pino Pascali (2024), and artistic projects designed by exponents of the most avant-garde contemporaneity – Francesco Vezzoli, Elmgreen & Dragset, Miranda July, and Cristoph Büchel, just to mention a few.
THE 2025 PROGRAMMES OF FONDAZIONE PRADA
As every year, starting from January 2025 to early 2026, the Foundation will offer its international and diverse audience an eclectic programme that will see the involvement of a large network of artists, filmmakers, performers, curators, and scholars. Among the strengths of the Foundation is its constant commitment to raising important issues of social interest, made effective by the germinating contamination of contemporary voices, artists and thinkers of the past. As stated by Miuccia Prada, President and Director of Fondazione Prada, “Also in the months to come, our institution will try to act as an observatory on the transformations of our social and cultural landscape, involving artists and thinkers of different generations and backgrounds to help us frame urgent topics from multiple perspectives and think more profoundly”. The programme will include thematic exhibitions and solo shows dedicated to prominent art figures, special projects conceived by international film directors, musical programmes and live performances, an extensive film screening and talk series, in addition to ongoing activities within the publishing and education fields.
THE NEW EXHIBITION SEASON AT FONDAZIONE PRADA IN MILAN AND VENICE
The ongoing exhibition project For My Best Family (31 October 2024 – 26 February 2025) conceived by artist Meriem Bennani for the Milan venue, – an exploration of ways of being together in socio-political contexts represented in a public or intimate way – will give way to two shows. On the one hand Typologien (3 April – 14 July 2025), an extensive survey dedicated to 20th-century German photography, will unfold in the Podium, the central structure of the building; on the other NADA (3 April – 29 September 2025) by Belgian artist Thierry De Cordier is an exhibition project conceived for the three-part Cisterna building at the Milan venue. The intent to abolish the image of “Christ on the Cross” translates into abstract works that aim to exalt the “grandeur of nothingness”. On the occasion of the Venice Architecture Biennale (10 May – 24 November 2025), Ca’ Corner della Regina will host an ambitious exhibition project conceived once again by OMA studio. The diagram will be the protagonist of a journey from the 7th century to the present day, revealing new meanings of this universal communication mechanism that over the centuries has been synonymous with human cognitive activity. The 2025 programme will also give space to music, thanks to the creative synergies with Riccardo Muti Italian Opera Academy and Fondazione Archivio Luigi Nono. Cinema will also be showcased, thanks to a collaboration with the award-winning director Alejandro González Iñárritu, who will investigate the cinematic and cultural dimensions of Amores Perros (2000), his cult film that forms part of his Trilogy, completed by his subsequent films 21 Grams and Babel. Each month Cinema Godard, the Milanese venue’s theatre, will offer screenings of new releases and restored classics as well as masterclasses and talks to address the present through the imaginative power of cinema. The Foundation’s programme will then be expanded internationally by exhibition projects conceived for the venues in Tokyo and Shanghai, as well as by a broad public programme and illustrated publications that will accompany the exhibition activities.
A KIND OF LANGUAGE: STORYBOARDS AND OTHER RENDERINGS FOR CINEMA AT OSSERVATORIO
The first exhibition of the season opened on January 30th inside the project space of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele. As the title suggests, the project curated by Melissa Harris revolves around the storyboard tool, the graphic representation, in the form of sequences drawn in chronological order, of the shots of a comic book or a film, both real and animated. In addition to storyboards, other crucial tools in the cinematographic creative process are analyzed, such as moodboards, drawings and sketches, scrapbooks and notebooks, annotated scripts, and photographs. A Kind of Language contains storyboards for films by Pedro Almodóvar, Wes Anderson, Ingmar Bergman, Bernardo Bertolucci, Luis Buñuel, Charlie Chaplin, Tan Chui Mui, Sofia Coppola, and Walt Disney Productions, among many others. Each film is the protagonist of one of the tables that make up the exhibition itinerary, inspired by drawing desks where directors, screenwriters and set designers bring their cinematic universes to life. What makes this project particularly fascinating is the installation curated by Andrea Faraguna of the architecture studio Sub of Berlin, who, taking inspiration from the storyboard, reinterprets the work environment of storyboard artists and translates it into a spatial experience. The storyboards, sketches and moodboards on display are true works of art, rich in details and insights into the outstanding films selected by Harris. Once again Fondazione Prada has hit the mark, offering the public an original project that pushes the boundaries of art beyond the outcome. By focusing on the work that takes place behind the screen, even before the camera is turned on, A Kind of Language pays homage to an entire complex and charming industry.
LINK
- Ninety Percent of Everything: Interview with the curator Maria Pina Usai - October 2, 2026
- Christina Nakou: the fragility of matter as a metaphor for the human condition - July 3, 2026
- The Island: Hito Steyerl at Osservatorio Fondazione Prada in Milan - December 19, 2025
