The private Prada travel social club has travelled to Dubai this Autumn to host their 8th Prada Mode experience. For the 9th and 10th of November, the ICD Brookfield Place was transformed into a Damien Hirst immersive exhibition. The ICD Brookfield is a landmark building symbolizing the mixture of lifestyle and business in the heart of Dubai’s International Financial Centre, and therefore a very fitting location choice from Prada
The two-day event featured spin painting workshops, talks and complimentary dining. Both days rounded up with a party featuring DJ sets from Sanasesh, Habibi Funk and DJ Plead. If that wasn’t a good enough reason to travel to the ICD, then the Damien Hirst installation certainly was.
Members of the club were able to experience the continuation of Damien Hirst’s ‘Pharmacy’ installation which was featured at Prada Mode Moscow 2021. The ‘Pharmacy’ installation’s origins are rooted in New York in 1992, followed by the Notting Hill 1998 restaurant. Staff uniforms for the restaurant were even designed by Miuccia Prada herself, foreshadowing much?
If you were expecting to see Hirst’s famous use of bright colours and butterfly motifs at the ‘Pharmacy’ restaurant in Dubai, you would not have been disappointed. Hirst filled the space effectively with his creative expression of colour and pattern. Viewing a restaurant as a location which can captivate the action of breathing, talking, and eating as a form of art inspired Hirst with his project. The restaurant, as the name suggests, featured pharmaceutical products, however, were shown in the artist’s creative flair. Large sculptures of medicine bottles, prescription cabinet-lined walls, and classic David Hirst artworks were on display as members of the exclusive club ate lavishly and incorporated themselves into the art.
For those of us who were unable to attend the art immersive exhibition in Dubai, we are lucky to be living in the digital age which offers us a chance to virtually experience the work of Damien Hirst. Travel through the restaurant and outside terrace digitally at your leisure on Prada’s website to experience the Hirst x Prada creation.
Words by Erin Wilson
Header Image: Prada and Damien Hirst
