Prada Marfa - Valentine, TX
Posted by: 
linkys
N 30° 36.210 W 104° 31.107
13R E 546161 N 3385759
It may look like a Prada store, right down to the merchandise in the window, but the door is sealed tight because it is actually a sculpture.
Waymark Code: WM7W30
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 12/11/2009
Views: 11
Driving along a desolate stretch of US Hwy 90 what looks like a building standing alongside the road comes into view. Stopping for a look you see a white building about the size of a taco stand with display windows in front, shoes and handbags on a rack, but with a door that doesn't open. Then you see the flies and other insects that have died and whose remains dot the inside. Reading the sign you realize this is another of the unique sculptures by the German artists, Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset.
The inside displays accessories from Miuccia Prada’s fall 2005 collection, while the outside is built from the local building material, adobe. Many of the people who pass by this artistic creation probably ask themselves why, why anyone would do this. The reason we have it to enjoy is because Elmgreen and Dragset asked themselves, not why, but rather why not.
The artists Elmgreen and Dragset states:
“As one drives toward the artwork it will appear to be a large minimalist sculpture, as one gets closer it will look like a luxury boutique where a display of Fall 2005 high-heel Prada shoes and bags will be seen through the store front windows... blends into the exciting historical structures of the area in which it will be placed.... As we purposefully will not preserve Prada Marfa, it will eventually become a ruin so that even in a future decayed state it will remain relevant to the time in which it was made....” Link to quote.
Shoes
Handbags