Since 2011, Miuccia Prada, the patron saint of Smart, used messy women everywhere, her Miu Miu line as a platform to have short films commissioned by female filmmakers from all over the world, including Janicza Bravo, Mati Diop and Haifaa Al-Manour. For Mrs. Prada, the films, which sometimes broadcast during her fashion shows, serve as a background for her clothes, who have always investigated the chaotic life of mothers, sisters, rebels, poets and punks without ever reconciling their contradictions. That made Miu Miu the favorite of the fashion industry, the rare fashion brand to experience explosive growth at a time when the sale is generally delayed.
Last year Mrs. Prada decided during Art Basel Paris that it was time to bring all films together, and she called in the Polish artist Goshka Macuga to help. The result was a compelling piece of kind of performance in which a cast of 35 characters from the films was involved, brought to life by 105 different actors. It was such an unexpected hit, with 11,000 people who visited the Paris show during his five -day run, that she and Mrs. Macuga decided to make it again for Frieze New York this weekend.
The new show, entitled “Tales & Tellers”, will be staged in the Terminal Warehouse, the caverneous building from the late 19th-century on the distant west side of Manhattan, most recently the home of the Tunnel Nightclub. And it is a completely darker view of the state of women than the Paris event. (Anyway, wardrobe by Miu Miu.)
Mrs. Prada and Mrs. Macuga zoomed in to explain it. The conversation has been edited and condensed.
There has been no Miu Miu show in New York in decades, but now there is. Kind of. Why this?
Miuccia Prada The clothing is an excuse to have the support of the company to make these projects where women talk about themselves, which is very important. In my work I have always embraced the complexity of women, the complexity of our lives, how we can succeed in developing our skills. It is therefore of fundamental importance to know what women do, what they think, in different contexts.
Goshka Macuga All these different stories represent different social problems for women in different countries. Such as the film that I feel very close to, “Nightwalk” from Małgorzata Szumowska, was filmed in Poland at a time when gender issues were really suppressed by our government. It spoke about this idea of liberation in a context that was not sympathetic to difference.
That sounds like the current state of America. Is that why you wanted to bring the show here?
Prada Not just America. Conservatism is everywhere in Europe. We are confronted with these really big problems, and this moment is really scary. It is therefore a very crucial argument – that everyone has the right to their voice.
Macuga We take it to the American at night, or New York, on the street and try to imagine how a woman exists in this context. It is more threatening, it is more surreal. We look at the concept inside and outside, the idea that individuals come together in a group and become empowerment. How all these individual voices can come together and have a major impact.
Is this also the way you raise your voice?
Prada It is difficult for me to talk about politics because I am a luxury representative. That is a very privileged group of people, so to translate that in a real democratic way is not clear. So I try to be political in my own way, but I have to be very careful how I make it public.
Macuga Artists can use language with which certain stories can still be present, but perhaps be present under the umbrella of a more coded language. You do not focus directly or make a statement, but you create the opportunity for people to project certain ideas.
Prada What I hope is that people who come to the show feel that they can express themselves – their ideas, their problems, their weakness, their struggle. We actually say that change or building relationships or empowerment is done at a human level, in the immediate relationships that we make with other people.
Why is that important now?
Macuga It is clear that we do not naturally accept certain positive things that happen to women in society. Governments are changing, political change and the situation of women changes.
Prada The liberation of women is not closed at all. Sometimes it seems that we are going backwards. There is still a lot of work to do.
Is that what you try to convey with clothing?
Prada I try to make my contribution with the instrument I have. When you make clothing, you propose possible ways of being present. I am fixed on the word ‘useful’. I want to try to be useful. In short, I have the Prada Foundation, our museum. I have the fashion lines. And this is something in between that seems the most promising because it is simple. There is more excitement, less pressure, connected to it.
What do you mean?
Prada First, when we made these little films, nobody gave a little. We showed them at the Film Festival of Venice, in a very serious environment. Then I wanted to make an exhibition in the Prada Foundation about feminism, but although curators are used to controlling objects and art, there are no curators for ideas, so it’s very difficult.
But adding the fashion environment attracts much more people and makes this idea become much more popular, much more spread. Suddenly everyone immediately understood. It accelerated the process in one way or another and we wanted to push it. This is one of the miracles of fashion.
