designed by italian artist francesco vezzoli with AMO (the think tank of dutch architect rem koolhaas’s OMA studio), the prada ’24 h museum’ opens tonight in paris’s historic palais d’iéna, now the seat of paris’s economic, social and environmental council. the gallery space exists for only twenty-four hours– first as a private party, then at 11pm CET as a discotheque viewable online at the ‘24 h museum‘ website, and then finally as an exhibition open to the public and school tours during the day of january 25th.
the installation is divided into three sections, each modeled after a particular type of museum space: historic, contemporary, and ‘forgotten’, all offering tribute to femininity through five-meter high, neoclassical sculptures that reference contemporary celebrities– ‘disco sculptures’ as he calls them. the classical space is framed by the curving stairway of the palace; the experimental area set in a cage surrounding the main hall, illuminated by pink neon; and the third, the ‘storage or salon de refusés’, modeled after abandoned museums and warehouses. in this way, the installation becomes a meta-museum, examining the ways in which art is presented and consumed. the ’24 h museum’ party is also reported to include amongs its events a twitter conversation between vezzoli and an unnamed celebrity.
noting the importance of context when discussing cultural concerns, vezzoli reflects: ‘artists and critics see museums as a jewel case where the mementos of our epoch should be preserved, but if you said ‘MoMA’ to the president of barclays bank, [he would] say, ‘that’s a venue for rent for ,000 if you want to hold an event.‘
