Prada teamed up with Damien Hirst for its eighth edition of Prada Mode. For the Dubai edition, Hirst reprised his “Pharmacy”.
The concept consists of a social club, created for its members to enjoy art programmes, late-night music, and dining. The temporal event is currently underway at ICD Brookfield Place in the heart of Dubai International Financial Centre. Prada Mode was created by the brand to host talks and bring the worlds of art and fashion together. The event is open until Saturday, November 12.
The eighth edition of the travelling club Prada Mode Dubai is only the fourth time that the immersive installation has been mounted and exhibited. The interior space was designed by British artists Damien Hirst, who reimagined his 1992 Pharmacy when Hirst rebuilt a pharmacy shop inside an art gallery in New York.
The work explores the human fear of death and provides a commentary on how to outrun an otherwise inevitable eventuality through medical and medicinal intervention.
Reworked for Prada Mode Dubai, Hirst used cabinets of prescription medicine, filled with empty bottles – all of which were sourced in the UAE – to cover the walls of the space. Following the same process and idea of his original work, medicine is arranged in connection with the human body, starting with remedies for the head at the top, and feet lotions at the bottom.
The centre of the space is filled with a circular bar, sides covered in colourful images of pills, and the chairs resemble tablets. A giant bottle of cough syrup is placed at the centre. Installations that resemble human skeletons hang from the ceiling, some of which resemble a chandelier.
“I’m thrilled and honoured to be invited by Miuccia Prada to recreate ‘Pharmacy’ for Prada Mode in Dubai after our successful collaboration in Moscow,” Hirst said. “I’m working hard with a complicated but beautiful space, ICD Brookfield Place, to create harmony between the inside and outside of the new building. Once again, Prada has found a space that will provide the perfect place for it.”
Hirst’s Pharmacy installation will be open to the public on Nov 11 and 12. Prada held a member-only invitation days before.
