Yahoo Lifestyle Prada Mode Touches Down in Abu Dhabi
MILAN — Prada Mode is headed to Abu Dhabi.
The 11th iteration of the architectural and cultural activation will take place on Feb. 11 and 12 at the MiZa district in the United Arab Emirates’ city’s Mina Zayed neighborhood and will be open to the public the two following days.
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Prada Mode Abu Dhabi will be developed in collaboration with multidisciplinary artist Theaster Gates, with whom the Italian luxury brands has already collaborated twice on earlier versions of the event.
The company said that the 2025 event centers on “a reaffirmation of the minimal and analogue amidst the contemporary cultural dominance of technology and AI.”
The MiZa district, a creative and cultural hub established in Abu Dhabi in the ‘70s, is to be reconfigured with an architectural installation hinged on the “circle within a square” concept featuring a tall cylinder structure dividing the area into two spaces.
Acoustic music sets fostering contemplation will animate the interior of the cylinder, while the external area will be characterized by live performances and DJ sets. The two-day musical programming will be co-curated by Gates and NTS, the latter a space for radio and creative projects founded by Femi Adeyemi.
The musical activations will be flanked by a cultural program developed by art consultant, cultural strategist and editor Myrna Ayad and hinged on conversations and performances focused on regional female talents to highlight the contribution of Arab women to culture.
The two-day event will also offer culinary experiences provided by chef Salam Daqqaq, highlighting the cuisine of different communities living in Abu Dhabi and the UAE.
“This space is a reflection on the spiritual possibilities of quietude, the power of gathering, the contiguity between the aesthetic of the past and their relevance for the future, and reverence for Arab women,” said Gates. “As we increasingly exist in a world where computer-generated possibilities govern our reality, my concept for Prada Mode Abu Dhabi is an homage to our interiority, the human hand, and our spiritual contributions to the rich cultural histories of this region.”
Gates, whose practice is rooted in conceptual formalism, sculpture, space theory, land art, and performance, collaborated with Prada Mode in 2018 and 2019, for the Miami and London editions, respectively.
Last year, Prada Mode traveled to Los Angeles, presenting the third edition of The Double Club, a project by Carsten Höller, in collaboration with Luna Luna at the Luna Luna Studio.
In 2023 Prada Mode took place in association with the Tokyo metropolitan government and the Teien Art Museum, one of Japan’s main institutions. It was hosted and curated by award-winning architect and longtime Prada collaborator Kazuyo Sejima, the director of the Teien Art Museum.
The inaugural Prada Mode was staged during Art Basel Miami Beach in 2018. The following year the format touched down at Art Basel Hong Kong and Frieze London, while in 2020 Prada brought the members’ club to Paris and to Shanghai, where the brand invited producer, director and writer Jia Zhangke to transform the Prada Rong Zhai villa with a site-specific installation called “Miàn” based on his cinematic work.
In 2021, the COVID-19-disrupted edition in Moscow was held in December, while in February 2022 the format touched down in Los Angeles during Frieze featuring a collaboration with artist Martine Syms.
In November 2022, Prada Mode headed to Dubai with a reprise of Damien Hirst’s “Pharmacy” installation at the ICD Brookfield Place, a skyscraper designed by Foster + Partners in the heart of the city’s International Financial Centre.
Past iterations featured works and installations by several artists, directors and photographers, such as Jamie Diamond, Kate Crawford, Trevor Paglen, Lee Sook-Kyung, Kim Jee-Woon, Yeon Sang-ho and Jeong Dahee, in addition to Gates, Zhangke, Hirst, Sejima, and Syms, among others.
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