Multiple Canvases

Fondazione Prada presents the new edition of “Multiple Canvases”, a film selection conceived by artists, curators and protagonists from the world of culture and science contributing to the current activities at the Milan and Venice venues. The film program scheduled for July and September results from a dialogue with the artists Elmgreen & Dragset and the scientific board of “Human Brains”. The screenings take place every Friday and Saturday from 1 to 30 July and from 2 September to 1 October 2022 at Fondazione Prada’s Cinema in Milan.

During the summertime screening program, the movable walls of the Cinema building will be completely open, creating a hybrid environment: a projection room characterized by constant visual osmosis between the inner space, the courtyard and the other structures of the architectural compound designed by Rem Koolhaas. The audience will be able to live an unprecedented perception condition and a unique movie viewing experience.

“Multiple Canvases” creates a dialogue between the themes explored in Elmgreen & Dragset’s exhibition “Useless Bodies?” and the topics investigated in “Human Brains”, the multidisciplinary project devoted to neurosciences, such as the role and value of the human body in society today and the brain, a unique organ for the complexity of its functions. “Useless Bodies?” and “Human Brains” raise questions and offer reflections that bring the human being understood as the union of thought and body back to the centre of intellectual inquiry.

The cinema program runs from 1 to 30 July with the screenings of 10 films selected by Elmgreen & Dragset and related to their exhibition “Useless Bodies?” on view at the Milan venue until 22 August 2022. It includes: If… (United Kingdom, 1968) by Lindsay Anderson, The Exterminating Angel (Mexico, 1962) by Luis Buñuel, Being John Malkovich (USA, 1999) by Spike Jonze, Autumn Sonata (Sweden, 1978) by Ingmar Bergman, Western (Germany, 2017) by Valeska Grisebach, Claire’s Knee (France, 1970) by Éric Rohmer, Fear eats the soul (Germany, 1974) by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 120 BPM – Beats per Minute (France, 2017) by Robin Campillo, Burning (South Korea/Japan, 2018) by Lee Chang-dong and Son of Saul (Hungary, 2015) by László Nemes.

As stated by the artists, “Many films we have chosen for this cinema program have some sort of surreal quality to them, films that allow themselves to include a certain degree of absurdity and go beyond normal logical or linear storytelling. We are drawn to films that build on their scenography to develop narrative and create entrancing universes. In our own transformations of exhibition venues, where the entire space becomes the artwork, our approach is almost as if we, too, were creating a film set. As viewers, we often wish that we could step into these worlds, that they would become 3-dimensional and invite us to be part of the story, contributing to the narratives in interactive ways. This yearning is partly why we often create our exhibitions as if they were participatory movies, constructing worlds where stories are hinted at or are waiting to unfold.”