Prada Frames 2023: Milan programme announced

Discover the Wallpaper* guide to Salone del Mobile 2023 and Milan Design Week

Prada and Formafantasma announced Prada Frames 2023, the second edition of their successful collaborative symposium, which they debuted at Fuorisalone 2022. The multidisciplinary series of talks, hosted by Prada and curated by Formafantasma's Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin, had a pit stop  in Hong Kong (21 – 22 March) before returning to Milan during Milan Design Week 2023 (17 – 19 April).

Prada Frames 2023: Milan programme announced

Once again addressing the complex relationship between the environment and design, Prada Frames 2023 will follow a theme of ‘Materials in Flux’, based on the work of British anthropologist Tim Ingold, who views materials 'as interconnected, endlessly changing living entities'. The theme also links to Formafantasma's ongoing research into materials that are traditional to the design industry, analysing all aspects of their extraction, processing and use. 

'Under a shared ecological lens and with a transdisciplinary approach, the symposium will investigate the dynamics that govern waste infrastructures and their value systems, aiming to unpack the complex relationship between matter and ecosystems,' reads a note introducing the two events. 

The Hong Kong edition took place at the Herzog & de Meuron-designed M+ in West Kowloon. Curated by the museum, the two-day event was inaugurated with a lecture by architect Jacques Herzog, with further sessions led by Ute Meta Bauer, LAAB Architects, Lisa Reihana, Charles Lim and Formafantasma.

The Milan programme, meanwhile, will take place at Teatro Filodrammatici, an Art Nouveau building in the heart of the city, designed in 1904 by architects Laveni and Avati with distinctive 1960s interiors by Luigi Caccia Dominioni.

The event kicks off on 17 April with two sessions titled 'Conceptualizing' and 'Contextualizing', the former exploring waste as matter and the latter presented as a discussion on the 'relationships between ‘superabundance’, landfills and repurposing practices.'

On 18 April, two talks on 'Designing' and 'Valuating' will respectively involve design schools such as ECAL and Design Academy Eindhoven (where Trimarchi and Farresin lead the Geo Design programme) and look into material cycles. Finally, on 19 April, two sessions on 'Governing' and 'Re-Inhabiting' will look into e-waste geographies as well as wasteland and interspecies alliances.

The programme will include contributions by Tim Ingold, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Elizabeth Povinelli, Beatriz Colomina, Mark Wigley, Sophie Chao, Veena Sahajwalla and Justin McGuirk.  

The project is part of Prada's ongoing mission to foster a reflection on the ethical and aesthetic implications of the design industry, themes that are central to the brand’s practice. Increasingly, Prada has been exploring the potential of of low-impact production paired with original creativity, by using innovative recycled materials among other innovations.

‘Education and culture are essential instruments that help us not only comprehend ourselves and the world we live in, but also urge us to explore the unknown,’ said Miuccia Prada on the occasion of the 2022 Prada Frames. ‘Conversations have always been at the core of Prada’s approach and investigation of the world, so Prada Frames with Formafantasma was a very natural step in this direction.’ 

Admission to Prada Frames is free, subject to registration at prada.com from 6 April.

Prada Frames Milan, 17 – 19 March 2023
Teatro Filodrammatici
Piazza Paolo Ferrari, 6
formafantasma.com