Multiple Canvases

On the occasion of the resumption of Fondazione Prada’s cinema program, the Cinema building will undergo a radical transformation. For the first time, its movable walls will be completely opened creating a hybrid environment: a projection room characterized by a constant visual osmosis between the inner space, the courtyard and the other buildings of the architectural campus conceived by Rem Koolhaas.

From 2 July to 9 October 2021, Fondazione Prada presents “Multiple Canvases” in dialogue with artists Simon Fujiwara, Peter Fischli, Goshka Macuga and Betye Saar, who are contributing to the activities at the Milan and Venice venues through their projects. This new format reinvents “Soggettiva”, one of the sections composing the usual program of Fondazione Prada’s Cinema.

“Soggettiva” has involved personalities from the art and cultural fields, such as Pedro Almodóvar, John Baldessari, Danny Boyle, Theaster Gates, Damien Hirst, Luc Tuymans and Nicolas Winding Refn, who have been invited to share with the public the films that marked their personal and intellectual education. “Multiple Canvases” is a unique review that combines works selected by four different artists looking for unexpected connections and resonances between their personal stories, secret passions and parallel interests.

The first films from the series “Multiple Canvases” are: Orphée noir (1959) by Marcel Camus (selected by Betye Saar); Bara No Soretsu – Funeral Parade of Roses (1969) by Toshio Matsumoto and Nippon Sengoshi – Madamu Onboro No Seikatsu – History of Postwar Japan as Told by a Bar Hostess (1970) by Shohei Imamura (chosen by Simon Fujiwara); Nostalgia de la luz (2010) by Patricio Guzmán and Sayat Nova / Nran Guyne – The Color of Pomegranates (1968) by Sergej Paradžanov (selected by Goshka Macuga); Winter Soldier (1972) by Winterfilm Collective (selected by Goshka Macuga); Le Tombeau d’Alexandre (1992) by Chris Marker (selected by Goshka Macuga) and Dr. Terros’s House of Horrors (1965) by Freddie Francis (selected by Peter Fischli).

As Luigi Alberto Cippini, the curator of Fondazione’s cinema program, explains “Cinema could be understood as a collective dream project, linking subjectivities and screen-materials via personal-depth and social gathering formats. ‘Multiple Canvases’ hybridizes the deeply personal visual preferences of four major international artists as a testbed for the theatrical screen of becoming a collective dream-machine.”