MORE PRADA ART: Miuccia Prada is furthering her commitment to Fondazione Prada by revealing that she is formally taking on the role of director of the cultural institution that she established alongside her husband Patrizio Bertelli in 1993.
Already president of Fondazione Prada, which operates three outposts in Milan and Venice, Prada said: “Right from the start, through the Fondazione’s activities I aspired to investigate human culture in all its variety and complexity. Over these 30 years, I have wondered in different ways how artistic and intellectual research can impact people’s lives. Searching for increasingly topical answers to this question is the fundamental objective I have set myself with the foundation.”
After relinquishing her role as co-chief executive officer of the Prada Group, which she shared with Bertelli, as part of her company’s succession plan that saw Andrea Guerra join the Italian luxury firm in the role of group CEO, Prada is restating her personal commitment to Fondazione Prada’s present and future projects, after de facto leading it for the past 30 years.
The institution concurrently unveiled the creation of a steering committee tasked with identifying “research areas to develop multidisciplinary projects that can impact the contemporary cultural debate and indicate possible lines for experimentation and education.”
Comprising professionals across different disciplines, the committee will work in tandem with Prada, as well as general manager Cristian Valsecchi and head of programs Chiara Costa.
The committee includes Giuliana Bruno, Emmet Blakeney Gleason professor of visual and environmental studies at Harvard University; Giancarlo Comi, honorary professor of neurology at the Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele in Milan; Theaster Gates, artist, activist and professor at the University of Chicago in the Department of Visual Arts; Alejandro González Iñárritu, film director, screenwriter and film producer, and Salvatore Settis, archaeologist, art historian and professor emeritus at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, Italy.
A view of Fondazione Prada’s Milan outpost in Largo Isarco.
Alessandro Saletta and Piercarlo Quecchia/Courtesy of Fondazione Prada
Fondazione Prada counts three permanent locations overall including a stately multicomplex venue on Largo Isarco, in southeastern Milan, opened in 2015 and completed in 2018 with the addition of the Torre [tower], and the Osservatorio [observatory] inside the city’s Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. The third location is headquartered in Venice at Ca’ Corner della Regina.