Prada Mode's latest art installation arrives in London next month

Get ready for the 13th edition of its Prada Mode event coming to London next month. The Italian fashion house will take over the recently restored iconic King's Cross Town Hall in collaboration with artists Elmgreen & Dragset.

The October 15-19 event, which coincides with Frieze London, sees the multi-day event focused on The audiencean immersive installation of cinematic form “that is both a sculptural environment and a meditation on the viewer in the era of image overload, hyperconnectivity and attention deficit.”

An intentionally blurred film (written by Elmgreen & Dragset) will be projected in the space in a constant loop. Seemingly a repeat scene from a feature-length drama, a painter and a writer discuss their creative practices while in their apartment.

In the physical cinema environment, five of the seats in the auditorium will be occupied by hyperrealistic sculptures of moviegoers “posed in various states of attention.”

The film's narrative continues with an additional sculpture, titled The Conversation. In this work, a female figure sitting alone at a cafe table FaceTiming with one of the characters in the film. “Displayed together, the installations will deliberately obscure the line between the viewer and the seen, drawing attention to the act of looking itself.”

According to Elmgreen & Dragset: “The Audience is a work about the viewer and the redirection of visitors' gaze. As artists, we have often been interested in making exhibitions in which the audience's attention is directed in contradictory directions, spaces that would foster a degree of uncertainty and where the viewer has to actively navigate seemingly familiar environments in new ways.

“Being part of an audience in a cinema or theater implies being one among many, sharing an experience, a moment within a spatial choreography. In The Audience, that shared experience becomes visible and the audience becomes part of the narrative itself.”

Prada Mode London will also include talks, conversations, film screenings, performances and DJ sets “to further explore the idea of ​​spectatorship and open up other ways of thinking about how audiences gather, watch and respond.”

For the first two days of the event, the space will operate as a private club, followed by three days (October 17-19) open to the public.