Prada Presents Prada Mode Dubai

On November 9 and 10, 2022 Prada will present the eighth iteration of Prada Mode in Dubai featuring an installation by artist Damien Hirst. A traveling social club with a focus on contemporary culture, Prada Mode provides members with a unique art experience along with music, dining, and conversations.

In Dubai, Prada Mode will feature a new edition of Pharmacy by Damien Hirst, following the iteration presented at Prada Mode Moscow in 2021. Hirst created the Pharmacy restaurant in Notting Hill, London in 1998, six years after the inaugural installation of the same name at the Cohen Gallery New York. Pharmacy was conceived as a fully functioning restaurant and bar in an installation of Hirst’s floor- to-ceiling medicine cabinets, and specially made butterfly paintings. Hirst designed furniture, architectural details such as a huge molecular model in its window, light boxes, and a wallpaper design taken from a catalogue of prescription medicine. It is fitting for this to be made especially for Prada Mode: the artist’s long-time friend Miuccia Prada designed the staff uniforms for the original restaurant.

“I’m thrilled and honoured to be invited by Miuccia Prada to recreate Pharmacy for Prada Mode in Dubai after our successful collaboration in Moscow,” said the artist. “I’m working really hard with a complicated but beautiful space, ICD Brookfield Place, to create harmony between the inside and outside of the new building. Once again, Prada have found a space that will provide the perfect place for it.

I’m so excited to be doing this! I’ve always thought great restaurants can be seen as art, and art without the evidence as we always remember great meals on great evenings with great people in great places and in this way Pharmacy is definitely a kinetic artwork, that works best filled with people and art existing and living and breathing and eating and drinking and enjoying themselves as one.”

For Prada Mode Dubai, Damien Hirst will transform a dedicated space at the landmark ICD Brookfield Place, the newest landmark building in Dubai designed by Foster + Partners. The building has become a lifestyle and business destination and home to some of the world’s leading corporations and an array of high-end restaurants and bars, representing the development of a cultural epicentre in the heart of Dubai International Financial Centre district (DIFC).

On November 9 and 10, early access to the club will be available for members to participate in morning and afternoon panels and discussions as well as nightly events, sampling specialty cocktails and dining throughout.

ABOUT DAMIEN HIRST

Damien Hirst was born in Bristol, England, and lives and works in London
and Devon, England. Collections include the Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Donnaregina, Naples, Italy; Museum Brandhorst, Munich; Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Madrid; Tate, London; Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo; Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, Scotland; National
Centre for Contemporary Arts, Moscow; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; Art Institute of Chicago; The Broad, Los Angeles; Museo Jumex, Mexico City; and 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan. Exhibitions include Cornucopia, Oceanographic Museum of Monaco (2010); Tate Modern, London (2012);
Relics, Qatar Museums Authority, Al Riwaq (2013); Signification (Hope, Immortality and Death in Paris, Now and Then), Deyrolle, Paris (2014); Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo (2015); The Last Supper, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (2016); Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable, Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana, Venice (2017); Damien Hirst at Houghton Hall: Colour Space Paintings and Outdoor Sculptures, Houghton Hall, Norfolk, England (2019); Mental Escapology, St. Moritz, Switzerland (2021); Cherry Blossoms, Fondation Cartier, Paris (2021); and Archaeology Now, Galleria Borghese, Rome (2021). Hirst received the Turner Prize in 1995.

ABOUT PRADA MODE

Prada Mode – a natural evolution of the iconic Prada Double Club by artist Carsten Höller (London 2008/2009; Miami 2017) – is a travelling private club that provides members a unique experience with a focus on contemporary culture. Imagined as a place that augments and extends significant global cultural gatherings at diverse locations worldwide, Prada Mode offers guests exclusive access to unique programs and content that complement the themes and subjects of the host event. In advance of the event, Prada Mode members receive credentials and special invitations for all current and future occurrences of the club.

The inaugural iteration, Prada Mode Miami, was held at Freehand Miami from December 4th to 6th, 2018, and served as both an exclusive destination and
a discreet, elegant retreat from the daily clamor of high-intensity cultural engagements during Art Basel: Miami Beach. A site-specific intervention by artist Theaster Gates was present throughout the club imbued with the experience of music, retreat and archival practice.

On the occasion of Art Basel: Hong Kong, Prada Mode Hong Kong took over the third floor of the Barrack Block of Tai Kwun on March 27th and 28th, 2019. Events included a special set up of the Prada Invites project and Dolls’ House, an installation by photographer Jamie Diamond, as well as conversations on actual themes.

The club’s third iteration, Prada Mode London, occupied 180 The Strand, the iconic Brutalist building in the heart of the city for October 2nd and 3rd, 2019. The dynamic program included a new installment of Theater Gates’ Black Image Corporation, and the launch of Collective Intimacy, a live programme of performances and talks created in collaboration with The Vinyl Factory and The Showroom, London.

Prada Mode Paris was held at Maxim’s in Paris on January 19th and 20th, 2020,
to align with the opening of Paris Haute Couture. The legendary 1893 Belle Époque restaurant was transformed by AI researcher and professor Kate Crawford and artist and researcher Trevor Paglen into an installation titled “Making Faces,” which included art projects and architectural modifications focusing on data gathering, surveillance and facial recognition.

Prada Mode Shanghai was held at Prada Rong Zhai, the historic villa in the heart of Shanghai, from August 31st to September 1st, 2020. Renowned director, producer, and writer Jia Zhang-Ke transformed the villa into MIÀN, a site-specific intervention inspired by the director’s cinematic work. The intervention was divided into three chapters that together “reflect[ed] the diverse faces of the world...to present human dignity which is called ‘tǐ miàn’ in Chinese.”

Prada Mode Moscow occupied the historic Levenson Mansion in Moscow on December 3 and 4, 2021. World famous artist Damien Hirst transformed the historic building with his installation, Pharmacy. The installation was conceived as a fully functioning restaurant and bar in an installation of Hirst’s floor-to- ceiling medicine cabinets, and specially made butterfly paintings. Hirst designed furniture, architectural details such as a huge molecular model in its window, light boxes, and a wallpaper design taken from a catalogue of prescription medicine.

Most recently, on February 16 and 17 2022, Prada Mode Los Angeles occupied Genghis Cohen, the iconic restaurant and music venue on historic Fairfax Avenue with an immersive installation, “HelLA World,” by the artist Martine Syms,
to coincide with Frieze Los Angeles.