We’ve seen Pop-Up Retail stores from Target, JC Penny, and Song (to name just three). And now we have POP-ART Retail storefronts. Last fall, Prada, bastions of high-end Italian couture, installed a retail storefront in Marfa, the epicenter of the West Texas badlands. It's not a store as you can't buy stuff. It's a Pop-Art store. Now that’s decidedly Godin-ish purple.
from the El Paso Times …
"Prada Marfa" looks incredibly out of place, a permanent public art sculpture in the middle of nowhere.Almost everyone in far West Texas is either scratching their heads and wondering what it's all about or talking about this strange art object in the desert that resembles a high-fashion boutique in Paris or Milan.
The artwork, a 15 1/2- by 25-foot stucco and adobe rectangular building filled with expensive hand-crafted Prada shoes and handbags, went up a couple of weeks ago on desolate ranch land on the outskirts of Valentine: population 217 and roughly a 2 1/2-hour drive southeast of El Paso.
from an ARTFORUM article …
”Behind its shatterproof, plate-glass windows were posh-looking high heels and handbags. There amidst the tumbleweeds, in the very landscape where Giant was shot, was a boutique displaying accessories from Miuccia Prada's fall 2005 collection.Was this the inevitable apotheosis of Judd-effect gentrification?
Not exactly—it was Prada Marfa, Elmgreen & Dragset's new, permanent sculpture, produced by local nonprofit Ballroom Marfa and New York-based Art Production Fund (co-founded by Doreen Remen and art maven/fashion enthusiast Yvonne Force Villareal). It's more or less a perfect, if small, replica of a typical Prada emporium—except it will always be closed.”
More:
++ Associated Press article
++ pradamarfa.com
++ google search
I think this should be called 'zombie retail.' However, it seems to be a couple zombie's short somehow. Any chance we could either get, A) a bunch of zombies milling around, or B) a dead body oriented in such a way as to suggest the deceased died just short of the oasis. This little shop has got a Godardian absurdity to it: in 'Weekend' a very fashionable woman is involved in a car crash. Splattered with blood, she stumbles about in horror, ""My Hermès handbag! My Hermès handbag!"
Posted by: xerox | March 13, 2006 at 05:33 AM
It looks gorgeous and fantastic on the picture. But it shows us how grotesque and absurd can be nowadays consumption society.
Posted by: Daria | March 14, 2006 at 04:01 PM
I have a friend who lives in Marfa. He told me that someone broke into the store and stole some shoes. One shoe from every pair to be exact! Great prank! No word yet if they have been returned.
Posted by: fightin' mad mary | March 14, 2006 at 11:28 PM
Hi B.A!, Did you know the Prada Marfa piece was quite controversial in town with the locals? And not just the cowboys, actually many of the local artists (emigrants from far away places like LA and NY) actually had some of the most negative reactions to the piece... Personally, I'm still not sure what to think of it. (Maybe it will age well.) You can go to our blog at http://www.marfa.org to find more. Or straight to here: http://www.marfa.org/2005/09/prada-marfa-wrap-your-head-around-this.html
Mark
Posted by: mark | April 21, 2006 at 06:34 PM
About the prank in the above comment. It happened sort of like that. The place was robbed and vandalized the day after the "reception". The thief did make away with ALL the shoes... however, they were all LEFTS or RIGHTS. Prada and the artists decided to stock it with all one foot, but in pairs, to deter thiefs. Imagine ebay... The prankster didn't care and the shoes have not turned up yet! Mark from http://www.marfa.org - love your site.
Posted by: marfa.org | April 21, 2006 at 06:38 PM