From New York to the Congo via Marfa: branded occupation

The aim of this paper is to interrogate Prada’s occupation of space through the use of art installations and the appropriation of strategies employed in artistic practice by analysing three interventions as case studies. The first section considers the New York Prada Epicentre store (2001) designed by Rem Koolhaas and the strategies of ‘rough luxury’ employed by the architect to inject unpredictability into a commercial space. The second part and central focus of the paper is a critical analysis of Prada Marfa (2005), a public sculpture created by artists Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset. Located in the Texas desert, the art work is a replica of a Prada store that appears to be open for trade but which is permanently sealed. Prada was not directly involved in the conception or funding of the project but donated merchandise and provided information about corporate design. The paper concludes with a consideration of Carsten Höller’s installation The Double Club (2008) as a project that merges patronage with publicity to create a branded art experience. An interdisciplinary approach is used to interrogate the branded occupation of space exploring its complexities, methods, networks and connections to wider social, cultural, economic and political issues.

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