Prada presents at Rong Zhai – the historical residence in Shanghai recently restored – “What Was I?”, the exhibition project conceived by artist Goshka Macuga, with the support of Fondazione Prada.
“What Was I?” is a journey in the imaginary post-Anthropocene epoch, after the collapse of humankind due to the effects of technological overdevelopment. The protagonist and the only inhabitant of Prada Rong Zhai is an android, which constantly recites a monologue constructed from numerous excerpts of seminal speeches and reveals his personal art collection includes 26 works from the Prada Collection as well as 3 recent paper collages by the artist.
In Macuga’s fictional and post-apocalyptic universe, the exhibition explores the complexity of computer-like patterns and geometric shapes and creates an autonomous alphabet of forms. The android is surrounded by a constellation of works by Italian artists, who experimented in their works new ways to overcome the physical and symbolic limits of the canvas and employed unconventional materials that connected art to reality.
Prada Rong Zhai
186 North Shaan Xi Road, Jing’an District, Shanghai
From 23 March to 2 June 2019