Prada Marfa
December 1st 2006 11:32
Following from yesterday's bio of Miuccia, check out the Prada Marfa by Berlin Artists Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset, located on a desolate strip of the U.S.90 highway in west Texas.
According to the website, “As one drives toward the artwork it appears to be a large minimalist sculpture; as one gets closer it looks like a luxury boutique where a display of Fall 2005 high-heel Prada shoes and bags can be seen through the store front windows. Yet, one cannot open the door, it is a sealed time capsule and will never function as a place of commerce.”
No maintenance is to be conducted on the structure: “If someone spray-paints graffiti or a cowboy decides to use it as target practice or maybe a mouse or a muskrat makes a home in it, 50 years from now it will be a ruin that is a reflection of the time it was made." The earth-friendly biodegradable adobe building will slowly break down into the landscape - after looters have taken all the accessories no doubt.
The sculpture confuses onlookers, imposing on them questions about the idea of civilisation, the relationship between art and consumerism, the temporal relevance of fashion, contexts of the urban and the rural, and the impermanence of all things material. Miuccia Prada was of course supportive of the artists and reportedly even picked out the shoes herself.
Images: www.pradamarfa.com
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Comment by Adrian
Philosophy Blog
Comment by ag
Eat French Bread
I think there were only left feet shoes so you couldn't actually score a pair, but I bet they are long gone now as it's been up for over a year...