Prada Transformer opens in Seoul

Prada and Rem Koolhaas have unveiled Prada Transformer, a modern art installation to showcase a seriers of cross-cultural exhibitions and events in the Korean capital Seoul. One of the films exhibited is Waist Down - a unique exhibition devoted to the skirt, a medium of infinite fantasies and stories expressed from the waist down. The flamboyant panoply of ideas that can be worked into skirts is presented with the most outstanding examples from Miuccia Prada's personal collection from 1988 to the present. From season to season, the skirt persists as an inexhaustible source of inspiration for the designer. The skirt, for Miuccia Prada, is an ever-morphing means to achieve unique ends of each collection.

Waist Down is a travelling exhibition evolving with each relocation, while always situated at a venue that is not an art space. Waist Down Seoul is the fifth stop on its world tour and is for the first time sited in a space specifically designed for the exhibition that is Prada Transformer: Waist Down becomes a kaleidoscope spread over a hexagonal platform, a planetarium of giant mannequins in memorable skirts.

The inaugural exhibition was staged in 2004-2005 in the Prada Epicenter in the Aoyama district of Tokyo. The second stop was the famous Peace Hotel in Shanghai, facing both the historic Bund and the futuristic Pudong districts. In 2006 the exhibition shifted to the New York Epicenter in Soho, then to the Beverly Hills Epicenter on Rodeo Drive. Each evolution is interpretative and site-specific, blending existing activities and features of the venue as well as the culture of the host city.

Waist Down Seoul is site-specific in a new way: the exhibition includes skirts and mannequins designed by fashion students from eight design programs in Seoul. Thanks to the earnest cooperation of the faculty of the schools, Waist Down Seoul integrates internationally acclaimed fashion design with seeds of creativity fostered in the host city of Seoul. Beyond the conventional zone of the exhibition, Waist Down at the Prada Transformer becomes a dynamic intersection of global cultures and ideas.

The skirts were selected by Miuccia Prada in collaboration with AMO. The exhibition design was conceived by AMO to highlight and accentuate Prada's diverse ideas and concepts.

The exhibition runs from April 25 to May 24 at 1-126 Sinmunno-2ga, Jongno-gu, Seoul. For further info go to www.prada-transformer.com.

Image: Prada Transformer