Top fashion brand Prada’s world’s first and only Prada Transformer project, in collaboration with Rem Koolhaas’s Office for Metropolitan Architecture has rose in the surface at Gyeonghuigung Palace on April 25. For the next five months, there will be a installed shape-shifting structure on the grounds of Gyeonghuigung Palace, which will showcase multiple projects including the skirt exhibit- skirts by Miuccia Prada, film screenings and art installation. According to Alexander Reichert who is the senior architect of the transformer, Prada chose Korea to expand its market and particularly selected the 16th-century Gyeonghuigung Palace as the place of exhibition since it “dramatically juxtaposes Korean history and culture with the 21st century multi-dimensional building.”
Newly constructed transforming building on the grounds of the palace combines four sides of a tetrahedron (pyramid structure): hexagon, cross, rectangle and circle into one pavilion. The building will be flipped following each program using massive cranes.
“This figure has four identities, each being fit for different events,” said Reichert. “For instance, for the cinema, the rectangular side would be the ground and the circular side which has a projector, will be one side of the wall.”
The first sensational event, waist down ? skirts by Miuccia Prada, will be held from April 25 to May 31. More than 100 pieces of delicately designed Prada skirts that Miuccia has designed since her debut will be displayed under the theme ‘In Motion’ at the fashion show.
Along with Miuccia’s skirts, five lucky Ewha students, four senior from the department of Fashion Design (An Song-eun, Kim Jee-won, Oh Eun-young, Yu Da-som), and a student from the Design department of Ewha’s Graduate School(Kim Eun-kyung) will have their own golden opportunity to contribute skirts of their own to this fashion show.
“Contributing to this highly remarkable fashion show as a student is something you can’t easily dream of,” said An Song-eun, whose design was one of the most popular among the skirts on the display at the fashion show. “I tried to come up with a luxury vintage skirt that incorporates the traditional aspect yet constructs the skirt in a futuristic manner.”
The exhibitions are free of charge but visitors need to make reservations on-line at www.prada-transformer.com.
From June 26 to July 5, a cinema program titled “Flesh, Mind and Soul” curated by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, director of Oscar nominated Bable, in collaboration with Elvis Mitchell, a movie critic, will be staged. The film program is based on physical, intellectual and spiritual films. The schedule is yet to be finalized but will soon be distributed on the web (www.prada-transformer.com). The cinema will screen different movies each day, so be ready to view your favorites!
As its last event, an art installation by Swedish artist Nathalie Djurberg entitled “Turn into Me”, (2008-2009), curated by Germano Celant, will be presented from July 31 to August 18. According to a press release from Prada, the installation is comprised of “several three dimensional constructions inside of which provocative and ironic short animated video works will be projected onto video screens.” As Miuccia Prada states, the exhibition seeks to present the "most profound thought-provoking art projects of our times." According to Prada Korea, further cultural activities will be announced in the lead-up to the launch of the project.