The Prada building of Marfa, Texas is a form of fictional architecture; a no man's land. Designed by Michael Elmgreen, it sits in the middle of nowhere off of a lonely highway. The work was built in 2005 and labeled "pop architectural land art project." The building is considered a permanent installation that will never go under repairs. Therefore, ideally the project will eventually degrade back to the ground it came from. However, three days after the project was finalized, the exterior was vandalized and the inside rampaged and looted. So, the building went under repairs after only a few days.
The building is designed after a real Prada store, equipped with minimalistic window displays and the actual Prada logo. The facade is made up of a nonfunctional door and hand-picked display of the Fall 2005 collectionby Miuccia Prada herself. The sculpture is a perplexing display due to its (non)functioning purpose and obscure location. However, due to these peculiar aspects, it is no doubt a landmark and a project to be recognized.
This cutting embodies the solidarity of the sculpture in its context. No one could miss the building as they cruise down Route 90, because there are no distractions around it. I also wanted to explore how the building would degrade over the years in the same cutting. So while taking it apart, I documented the process of pulling the model back into the site and the breaking of connections.
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