Reaching Symbiosis

Inujima Life Garden. Image courtesy of Prada.

Hundreds of visitors gathered on colorful chairs and large pillows in Osaka, Japan’s Umekita Park for the opening day of Prada Mode Osaka, a collaborative program between the Italian fashion house and Japanese architect Kazuyo Sejima, who previously curated Prada Mode Tokyo in 2023. The inaugural day featured conversations between accomplished architects Tadao Ando, Liu Jiakun, and Ryue Nishizawa, as well as a craft workshop, curated by artist Tomoko Kimata, inviting participants to create flower brooches and ornaments from scraps of Prada fabrics, using the Japanese fabric-folding technique of tsumami-zaiku. Musicians Nik Bartsch, Reggie Watts, and C.A.R. performed under a large, covered outdoor space designed by Sejima’s architecture firm SANAA. A private dinner in honor of Sejima’s work, followed by a D.J. set by Yuta Suzuki and Aoki Takamasa, took place in the evening.

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At the heart of the programming is an exhibition of model buildings, videos, and musical arrangements (on display through June 15) that highlight Sejima’s ongoing work with the "Art House Project" on the neighboring island of Inujima. Last week, the Pritzker Prize-winning architect and Prada invited visitors on a three-day trip to the small island, where they unveiled a permanent pavilion in the Inujima Life Garden.

Kazuyo Sejima. Image courtesy of Prada.

‍Inujima’s work on the island underscores the sense of community integral to Prada Mode. The Italian house has been cultivating conversations that tie in local significance since it began its cultural club in 2018, when it evolved from artist Carsten Höller’s Prada Double Club, originally a nightlife experience. Since then, the series has been staged in various artistic hotspots across the globe, including Miami, Hong Kong, Paris, London, and Abu Dhabi. For the latter, earlier this year Theaster Gates curated dynamic programming that highlighted the region’s culture.

Inujima Life Garden. Image courtesy of Prada.

Once home to the country's copper and quarrying industries, Sejima restored old homes and built new art galleries out of repurposed parts of old houses, aluminum, and acrylic glass, with support from the Fukutake Foundation. Seventeen years in the making, the Inujima “Art House Project” has since introduced art to the island’s local residents—there are less than 100 full-time, with an average age of 75 years—and invited a new crop of visitors to join. Now in Osaka, Prada invites visitors to take a peek behind the curtain and witness how design can make a direct and positive impact on communities.

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‍Prada Mode Osaka runs from June 8 to 15 at Umekita Park at Ofukacho, Kita Ward, Osaka, 530-0011, Japan.