APCOM

The Prada Foundation changes and assigns to the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas the integration of the existing space in it's headquarters at Largo Isarco in Milano and the creation of new areas, in which a tower of lights and colors stands out which will show a selection of works of the Prada collection.

From an institution patron of artistic and temporary cultural events, the foundation of Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli will be transformed in the near future into a museum and exhibition space which will become permanent. "The enlargement of the project" said the curator Germano Celant during a crowded presentation to the press and the public- "is not only a physical enlargement and a need to keep the expositions permanent, but it responds to a necessity for linguistic widening, aimed at the cinema, philosophy and performances. The objective, he added, is to give life to a compound dedicated to contemporary culture".

Patrizio Bertelli wanted to insist on experimentation, one of the center focuses of Prada. This is why he chose architect Rem Koolhaas, for the works of enlargement and restructuring for the industrial area of the foundation. He is one of the greatest visionaries of modernity, and color projects are very important to him.

Tall and smiley, Koolhaas admitted to have projected as many museums as to cover 10 soccer fields. However at the same time he also noted that art museums have gone two ways: "The old industrial structures, which are interesting because their predictable characteristics don't challenge the artists intention, and the new contemporary museums which are born as containers for art, almost warehouses".

"The new Prada Foundation, Koolhaas added, will be born in an industrial complex, which however presents an unusual variety of spaces". To this new element, three new buildings will be added which the architect showed to the public and students which saluted him with the slogan "Koolhaas is better than sex". A part from the fascinating asymmetrical tower, where the works of Damien Hirst will also find room, the new structures created by the architect and his studio will also include a "box". The latter will be able to become either a "open movie theatre, an auditorium, a venue for performances, or also a control center". Furthermore there will be a bridge "which will be the most technological point of the museum. The artist added, that in this Milanese project "there is a synthesis of different time periods and different abilities". "It's an infrastructure for the Foundation, which has to be filled".

On this aspect and on the possibility of layering of responsabilities between the architect and the curator of the museum, Koolhaas was very clear. "My job, he said, is that of providing an instrument, a machine. I have to offer the curators, new possibilities. There's interaction, not competition. On this point, Celant underlined the link between the setup for expositions and architecture. "There is an exchange, the curator added, between art and architecture, which is the moment in which the Foundation has it's force.

Koolhaas did not want to get involved in the polemics which are going on in Milano on the controversial skyscrapers planned in the City Life Area but the architect underlined the difficulties to project when there is necessity to have icons. "There are great expectations for icons, he said, and of spectacular elements. What I like about this project is the possibility to not have to deal with these expectations".

Even Bertelli talks about the relationship between public and private, in particular when he referred to the museum of contemporary art which the city of Milano assigned to Daniel Libeskind. "This is an initiative which is born in a sector which has no boundaries, the more initiatives there are, the better it is for the city. I hope that these initiatives happen and mature, I would never put, who is first and who is second". Following the Prada Foundation's project and that of the city of Milano, one should come to more or less an equal level: both the Bertelli Foundation and Libeskind's museum are expected for 2011. If the timings are respected, it will be a very important date for the city.