MILAN — Prada Frames is going on a metaphorical journey during Milan Design Week.
The fourth iteration of the symposium exploring the complex relationship between the natural environment and design is focusing on mobility and infrastructures allowing it, seen as dynamic systems shaping movement of people, goods, data and power.
Titled “In Transit,” the three-day event — conceived by Milan and Rotterdam, Netherlands-based design studio Formafantasma and backed by Prada — is to be held April 6 to 8 ahead of the official kickoff of Salone del Mobile and Milan Design Week, which run April 8 to 13.
“Our idea is always to bring to Milan Design Week a reflection on subjects adjacent to design that are barely visible…to tackle the elephants in the room” that are equally crucial, said Simone Farresin, one half of the Formafantasma duo. “Prada Frames is an opportunity to discuss contemporary times, and change is inevitably part of that. In this case it’s about infrastructural shifts triggered by [the emergence] of AI, data centers and migration fluxes, which are all linked to the idea of movement,” he offered.
Prada and the design studio earmarked a fitting location for the event, which is to be held at Milan’s Central Train Station inside the so-called “Padiglione Reale,” or Royal Pavilion in English, a hall once reserved for Italian royalty and heads of state waiting to depart.
Prada Frames attendees will also have the rare opportunity to sit aboard the “Arlecchino” train for some of the conversations that will be part of the symposium. A vehicle designed by Gio Ponti and Giulio Minoletti in 1950 that is equipped with sophisticated midcentury interiors defined by glass partitions, adjustable armchairs and panoramic lounges, it was recently restored by the FS Italiane Foundation and is visible only a few times a year, Farresin said.
“Taking people to a place that’s linked to the topics we’re exploring allows us to frame the usual in-depth and contemporary reflections inside a more traditional design dimension,” he offered.
Formafantasma’s other half, Andrea Trimarchi, said the agenda includes intimate talks introduced by British design critic and author Alice Rawsthorn OBE, held inside the pavilion, which will be flanked by readings by speakers aboard the Arlecchino train.
The latter “are going to be the poetic, lighter side of the event,” Trimarchi said. Farresin added that the train, one of the least known of Gio Ponti’s projects, further telegraphs the late Italian designer’s radical design ethos.
The Gio Ponti-designed Arlecchino train.
Courtesy of Prada
Tackling the subjects of movement, mobility and related infrastructures has opened up to a plethora of intertwined themes.
The symposium is to examine the impact of digital revolutions and global distribution networks on daily life; the disruptive nature of infrastructural advancements — from the internet to large-scale logistics systems — as well as advancements in procurement and distribution; the discrepancies between goods versus human mobility, the latter “subject as it is to geopolitical biases and legal constraints,” Prada said, as well as the inherent contradictions of today’s hypermobility.
The expansive theme required that speakers from across disciplines were involved, including architects, scholars, designers, filmmakers and even astrophysicists.
The roster includes, among others, Kate Crawford, a leading scholar of artificial intelligence and a Prada favorite, who mounted an exhibition at Fondazione Prada Osservatorio in Milan in 2019; Elias and Yousef Anastas from Palestinian architectural and engineering practice AAU Anastas; French architect and urban designer Charlotte Malterre-Barthes; Jesse LeCavalier, a designer, writer and educator whose work explores the architectural and urban implications of contemporary logistics; Marta Foresti, founder and chief executive officer of Lago Collective, a research and creative collective on migration, culture and the arts; German filmmaker Hito Steyerl; Samia Henni, historian and curator; London-based designer, artist and filmmaker of Armenian and Algerian descent Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stépanian; Italian director Giacomo Abbruzzese; astrophysicist Ersilia Vaudo; travel writer Nick Hunt; Tung-Hui Hu, a poet and scholar of digital media; Italian architect and designer Paola Antonelli; author Nicola Twilley; cultural anthropologist Bettina Stoetzer; Vinca Kruk and Daniel van der Velden from Amsterdam-based research and design studio Metahaven, as well as architect and researcher Marina Otero Verzier.
“We looked at different kinds of infrastructures, from digital to global and logistics-related ones, as well as to the way authorities handle them, for example dictating the migratory fluxes,” Trimarchi explained.
Attendance of Prada Frames is free of charge and based on preregistration on the company’s website.
Formafantasma’s Simone Farresin and Andrea Trimarchi aboard the Arlecchino train.
Courtesy of Prada
The Prada Frames project kicked off in 2022, based on the luxury brand’s and Miuccia Prada’s desire to offer meaningful content during Milan Design Week. The designer and the company’s link with design and architecture, as well as patronage of the arts, is best exemplified by the Fondazione Prada art space, established in 1993, which has locations in Milan and Venice.
The previous three editions of Prada Frames, held in 2022, 2023 and 2024, hinged respectively on the interconnections between the forest ecosystems and the wood industry; how design and science can spur change and the notion of waste as an ever-evolving material, and on the home as a private space seen through a cultural lens.
Founded in 2009, the award-winning Formafantasma bills itself as a research-based design studio investigating the ecological, historical, political and social forces shaping the discipline of design today. It has worked with several companies across industries including, among others, Flos, Cassina, Rubelli, Bitossi, Bulgari, Hermès, Lexus, Samsung and Maison Matisse.
