Fondazione Prada – Rotor: Ex Limbo exhibition. Ex Limbo, the project presented by Rotor at the Fondazione Prada (until June 5th) in Milan, is an investigation of the architectural and scenographic elements realized for the fashion show sets designed by Prada and OMA for more than a decade. The starting point of this project is a curiosity for the materials used, the reasons why they have been conserved, and how this was practically managed. Rotor’s work consists in bringing forth the ‘remnants’ of a world that after a moment of meaningful splendor is discarded and put in limbo, inviting a second look at the forgotten. The Prada Fogazzaro exhibition space hosts a labyrinth of elements that bear witness, simultaneously, to the amount of work involved in producing each fashion show, and to the silent existence of its materialization beyond the event: ex limbo.
Above: a group of metallic structures made of untreated steel tubes.
Above: green polyethylene foam used for benches.
Above: reflective aluminum film on aluminum frames.
The designers. Rotor, founded in 2005, is a collective of six people (Tristan Boniver, Lionel Devlieger, Maarten Gielen, Michael Ghyoot, Benjamin Lasserre, Melanie Tamm), based in Brussels, sharing a common interest in the material flows in industry and construction. On a practical level, Rotor handles the conception and realization of design and architectural projects. On a theoretical level, Rotor develops critical positions on material resources, waste, and reuse strategies through research, publications, writings and conferences. During the 12th Venice Biennale of Architecture, in the Belgian Pavilion, their exhibition “Usus/Usures” explored wear in architecture as a reaction to and signs of use.
Above: in the photograph Lionel Devlieger.