Opened in 2015 (the Torre building joined in 2018), Fondazione Prada functions as the fashion house's cultural hub. The design, by Rotterdam-based Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) and led by the maverick architect Rem Koolhaas, is pretty spectacular. Built on the site of a former early 20th-century gin distillery in Largo Isarco, an industrial area in Milan, the buildings blend old and new, industry and art, for a complex and dynamic space that brilliantly communicates its place as a platform for open discourse on arts and ideas. (As a side note, for anyone interested in culture, a trip to Milan should include a visit to Fondazione Prada.)
The 600-plus images on show at "Typologien" are organized typologically rather than chronologically, with the curatorial direction inviting us to view this turbulent time in Germany's history—and the role and scope of photography—through multiple lenses. Though varied in approach, the works on show here are united by a shared intent: to classify, to order, to make sense of the world through image. The architecture certainly adds another layer of intrigue. These are clear, quiet spaces, a system of suspended walls offering geometric partitions to instigate unexpected dialogues between artists and artistic practices—and time.
The idea of "typology," a system first used in 17th and 18th-century botany to classify and study plants, found its way into German photography in the early part of the last century. And while typology is by nature a rigid, formal framework, it has somewhat allowed for surprising connections between German artists across generations, and through to the digital age.
The exhibition opens with Karl Blossfeldt (1865–1932), one of the first artists to adapt the classification system used in botanical studies to photography. His detailed plant atlas also represented a clear moment for "New Objectivity," the movement born during the Weimar Republic to promote clarity and documentation of realism, with photography seen as a medium to explore the very idea of typology.
Source: Found here
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