Prada Opens an Unexpectedly Rural Nightclub in London — The Cut: New York Magazine’s Fashion Blog
My friend just sent me a link to this article about the Prada Foundation’s new nightclub accompanied by instructions to visit and report back. We’ll see.
Carsten Höller, (who was responsible for the massive windy slides at the Tate Modern), conceived the space, which looks, upon first glance at these photos, sort of like Kahunaville. It’s not exactly my bag, but neither is over-the-top pretension, so I appreciate that when presented with the ostensibly limited options for nightclub themes, they chose the more laid-back route. (The social and political implications of their tagline—“A bar, restaurant and dance club where the Congo meets the west; A bar, restaurant and dance club where the west meets the Congo.”— are fodder for another post entirely, one that I’m probably not really qualified to author.)
But more questionable than the design aesthetic (or the tagline), is the idea of a foundation running a nightclub…right? I’m well aware of earned-income and the other legal loopholes that allow non-profits to turn a profit. I’m also aware that a lot of modern and contemporary art museums transmogrify into pseudo-nightclubs on Friday evenings, and so, realistically, something like this was bound to happen eventually. I’m not even sure I’m necessarily opposed to the idea, because, let’s be honest—Miuccia Prada seems like she probably knows how to throw a pretty good party, and I can’t be too hard on a girl whose been so supportive of the arts. It’s just that—in an admittedly sort of geeky way—I’m really curious to know how they pulled this off—and how the rotating dance floor fits into the foundation’s mission.
