Since 2011, Miuccia Prada, the patron saint of clever and messy women everywhere, has used her Miu Miu line as a platform to commission short films by female filmmakers from around the world, including Janicza Bravo, Mati Diop and Haifaa Al-Mansour. In the case of Mrs. Prada, the films that air occasionally during fashion shows serve as the background for her clothes. She has always explored the chaotic life of mothers, sisters, rebels, poets and punks, without trying to ease the contradictions. This made Miu Miu a beloved person in the fashion industry. This is a rare fashion brand that experiences explosive growth during periods of slow sales.
Last year, during Art Basel Paris, Mrs. Prada decided it was time to put together all the films, and she helped Polish artist Goszka Machuga. The result was a kind of immersive performance that included a cast of 35 characters from the film, which was realized by 105 actors. It was a very unexpected hit that 11,000 people visited the Paris show during the five-day run.
The new show, entitled “Tales & Tellers,” is being performed at Terminal Warehouse, a cavernoise late 19th century building on the far west of Manhattan. And it's a completely darker take on the state of women than in Paris events. (Even so, the wardrobe by Miu Miu.)
Mrs. Prada and Machuga zoomed in to explain. The conversation was edited and condensed.
There have been no Miu Miu shows in New York in decades, but now they do. A kind of thing. Why is this?
Miuccia Prada clothing is an excuse to get the company's support in creating these projects where women are talking about themselves. This is very important. In my work, I have always embraced the complexities of women, the complexities of our lives, and the ways in which we can succeed in developing our capabilities. So it's fundamental to know what women do and think in different contexts.
Goshka Macuga All these different stories represent different social issues of women from different countries. For example, the film I feel very close to is “Nightwalk” by Małgorzata Szumowska was shot in Poland when gender issues were really suppressed by our government. It was talking about this idea of liberation in a context that was not sympathetic to differences.
That sounds like what America is like today. That's what you wanted to bring a show here?
Prada, not just America. Conservatism is everywhere in Europe. We are facing these really great problems and this moment is really scary. So that's a very important argument. That means everyone has the right to their voice.
Macuga We take it to the streets on the night in America, or New York, and try to imagine how women exist within this context. It's more threatening, it's more surreal. We see concepts of internal and externality, the idea that individuals can come together in groups and empower them. How can all these individual voices come together and make a huge impact?
Is this also a way for you to speak up?
Prada I am a representative of luxury so it's difficult to talk about politics. It is a very privileged group of people, so it is not clear to translate it in a truly democratic way. So I try to be political in my own way, but I have to be very careful about how I publish it.
Macuga artists can use languages that allow certain stories to still exist, but they may possibly exist under the umbrella of a more coded language. You're not dealing directly with anything or making a statement, but it creates the possibility that people will project a particular idea onto it.
Prada What I want is that people who come to the show feel they can express themselves. Ideas, problems, weaknesses, struggles. We basically say that it happens in relationships and empowerment constructions at a human level, or in an instantaneous relationship with others.
Why is that important now?
Macuga cannot take certain positive things that happen for the sake of women in society for granted. Governments change, political change, and the situation for women change.
The liberation of Prada women has not been concluded at all. Sometimes it appears we are retreating. There's still a lot to do.
Is that what you're trying to convey through your clothes?
Prada I try to make my contribution with the instruments I have. When making clothes, you suggest possible ways. I'm stuck to the word “convenient.” I want it to be useful. Essentially, I have the Prada Foundation, our museum. There is a fashion line. And this seems the most promising because it is simple. It is attached to it, there is more excitement, less pressure.
what do you mean?
First Prada didn't bother anyone a little when he made these little films. We showed them at the Venice Film Festival in a very serious environment. I then wanted to exhibit on feminism at the Prada Foundation, and although curators are used to curating objects and art, there is no curator of ideas, which is very difficult.
However, adding a fashion environment will bring in more people and make the idea much more popular and much more popular. Suddenly, this made everyone understand immediately. It somehow accelerated the process and we wanted to push it. This is one of the miracles of fashion.
