We visited Milan's Prada Foundation museum, where the boundaries between contemporary art, luxury and Instagram aesthetics are blurred. Can capital and avant-garde be under the same roof?
At the Prada Foundation, Milanese the temple of contemporary art, visitors are constantly "hunting for ideal shots" for social networks. Prada doesn't sell bags here, but a culture aimed at people used to concept stores and 25-euro aperitifs.
Even in Milan, a city that looks like part of a carefully edited movie set, the Prada Foundation manages to stand out. She simultaneously fascinates and tires with her pretentiousness. Among the brilliant exhibitions and monumental architecture, the cultural experience here is hardly distinguishable from "selfie tourism".
The foundation was founded in 1993 by Miuccia Prada and her husband Patricio Bertelli, out of pure love for art.
At first, exhibitions were temporary and moved to different cities. The first muzej opens in Venice in 2011. Four years later, in the buildings of the former distillery, a location in Milan opens.
The architect who led the project, Rem Koolhaas, says that this place defines the tension between its opposites - "new, old, horizontal, vertical, wide, narrow, white, black, open, closed".
And indeed it is so.
Seven renovated brewery buildings and three new ones are changing the concrete landscape of the outskirts of Milan.
The most recognizable symbol of the Foundation is Haunted House – a four-story building completely covered with 24-karat gold leaf. Next to her rises a white one Tower, the highest tower of the complex, where each floor is dedicated to a different exhibition.
It is here. arhitektura art in itself, not just its frame.
In addition to the permanent installations, visitors can visit numerous guest exhibitions at the Foundation.
Currently set Over, under and between British-Palestinian artist Mona Hatoum and Dash by the Chinese artist Cao Fei. The first "looks at the unrest of our time and the fragility of our survival", and the second is a multimedia project that talks about the agricultural revolution.
If you ask visitors, chances are they won't know how to repeat this to you.
Although there is a crowd at the entrance to the hall with a grid of glass beads by the artist Hatoum, the pile of flyers by the door, explaining her vision, has hardly been touched. Instead – a photo queue under the net.
The situation is similar on all settings. Queues are formed only in places where you can get a good shot. The rest of the museum is practically deserted.
There is information on the Internet that photography was prohibited at some exhibitions, in order to protect the artists and their works. That doesn't seem to be the case anymore. Everywhere we went, someone was using a phone or camera.
On the top floor Tower, one of the most visited exhibitions was installed - Synchronous system Carsten Holler. The concept is that you walk through a completely darkened winding tunnel, holding onto the railing at its edges with one hand. After getting fairly dizzy from this passage, you end up in a pink room with spinning mushrooms hanging from the ceiling.
Even here, where the experience should be completely immersive and immediate, visitors don't let go of their phones.
When they get tired of art, the visitors en masse sit down at the bar Luce, designed by Wes Anderson. Expect pastel colors, perfect symmetry and retro furniture – just like in his films. But expect by far the biggest crowds at the Foundation. No one misses a photo of him eating Italian pastries next to pinball machines and a jukebox.
If we take into account that Instagram has three billion active users, and TikTok a little less than two, and that on the first platform every day about 95 million photos are posted, and on the second about 30 million videos - this kind of behavior in the museum is not strange.
Even UNESCO has warned against "selfie tourism", travelers who visit destinations primarily to take photos and share images on networks.
Unlike the traditional family photos taken in front of locations such as the cathedral in Milan, this trend implies that tourists choose destinations to visit simply because they are "aesthetic". The focus has shifted from creating memories, to creating like-friendly content.
The result is crowds and a superficial experience of historical and cultural monuments.
Miuccia Prada has repeatedly emphasized that the Foundation is not a platform for brand and fashion, but a space for deep reflection on the world through art.
Prada is not afraid of "difficult" topics. Exhibitions often explore political, economic and philosophical ideas, including human suffering and pain.
Sometimes they hire artists who critically reflect on the consumer society, which seems paradoxical considering that Prada's brand is a symbol of luxury and consumerism.
At one of the exhibitions in The tower, there is a photo on which it is written: "Private banks, politicians, the global elite and the mass media lie to you, laugh at you, steal from you, brainwash you and destroy you and your family."
Is it hypocritical that Prada, which sells bags for 5 thousand euros each, deals with such issues?
Even if we ignore the regular prices of their products, it is difficult to separate the brand from the idea of "a global elite that steals from the common man".
For Pimer's sake, last summer (2025) thousands of local artisans from India, who make traditional leather footwear by hand, accused Prada of plagiarizing their designs.
Prada later credited the artisans of Maharashtra for the Kolhapuri sandals. However, in order for that to happen, it was necessary to stir up the world public.
The Foundation does offer serious, thoughtful and often brilliant exhibitions. But it's hard to shake the impression that the entire space is adapted to the cultural quasi-elite, who can afford to think about capitalism from a luxury brand museum.
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