Last week the Prada Marfa installation in the remote Texan desert town of Valentine hit the news when it was grafittied with $20,000 worth of TOMS paraphernalia. Never heard of Prada Marfa? It’s an essential stop-off on most fashion road trips, with the A-list seal of approval (thanks Queen Bey). And if you’d like to sound oh-so knowledgeable about it in the pub this evening, here’s your-need-to-know...
So it’s a Prada store? In the desert?
No, it's a replica of a Prada store, which is in no way affiliated with Miuccia's fashion house – although, she did give permission for the Prada logo to be used, as she's a champion of contemporary art. Built in 2005 by two contemporary Scandi artists Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset – who specialise in 'site-specific' art installations (they recently built one in the V&A's former Textiles Galleries) – it cost $80,00 and was was funded by New York's Art Production Fund and Ballroom Marfa, a Texan contemporary arts hub – hence the ‘Marfa’ part of the name. Modelled on a luxury boutique, the idea was that it would gradually degrade into nature. It’s open 365 days a year.
So is it a satire?
Strictly speaking, yes – ‘It was meant to be a criticism of the luxury goods industry,’ says Michael – but given that Prada actually donated all the shoes and bags in 2005, they don’t seem to have been that offended. (Although, c’mon, it's pretty good advertising.) But the stock hasn’t changed in nine years.
And it’s become a major tourist attraction, right?
It’s 35 miles from pretty much anywhere, but it still gets a lot of attention. Beyonce visited in 2012 – and performed a star jump in front of it – which kinda gives it the A-List seal of approval.
But hold on – it doesn't look like it’s done much degrading. Bar the vandalism, it looks pretty well kept.
It is. Since it was erected, the idea has been modified. Degradation of the installation would, apparently, be a safety hazard, as well as an eyesore, so in conjunction with local artists it was decided that Prada Marfa would remain a public art project. Cleaners enter the ‘store’ through a secret back door and a volunteer project cleans up the litter along the stretch of highway around the installation.
And then it was daubed with shoe company TOMS branding.
A Henri Matisse quote was scrawled across the building, ‘Creative Takes Courage’, with pamphlets stating that, ‘TOMS Marfa will bring greater inspiration to consumer Americans to give all they have to developing nations that suffer disease starvation and corruption.’ The vandal’s point is made pretty clearly: it would be much better for the American people to see the artistic celebration of an affordable brand known for its charitable endeavours (for every pair of TOMS espadrilles sold, one pair is donated to an African child), than a homage to a luxury fashion house.
So who did it? TOMS?
Not TOMS, no – though it’s someone who clearly really loves them. When we contacted TOMS founder Blake Mycoskie for a quote we were told that, ‘TOMS is in no way affiliated with this incident. We celebrate community and so were disheartened to see the vandalism of the Prada Marfa installation and the impact it has had on the community.’ The grafitti was supposedly the work of a local stealth artist 9211977 (catchy name, no?) – though, that only stems from local news speculation.
What about the artists themselves – do they care?
‘Baffled,’ would be the most appropriate response. ‘It is crazy that we have come to a point in our culture where some individuals in their insane egomania, eager to obtain a bit of attention, start attacking other artists’ works,’ say Michael and Ingar. ‘We saw it recently when a work by Ai Weiwei was smashed in Florida and now with the attack on Prada Marfa. Unlike movements such as Occupy Wall Street, these acts of vandalism have nothing to do with political activism — they are only symptoms of some disturbed minds’ personal vanity. To believe that you can fight something like social inequality by overpainting a sculptural work in the Texan dessert with toxic blue paint is pretty off the target.’
Sounds like they’ll be OK. What about the store, though? This isn’t the only problem they’ve got, right?
In terms of the vandalism, they'll have a big ole insurance package. Although, Ballroom Marfa have stated that they’re heartbroken that ‘a site previously recognized [sic] as an example of sustainable earth artchitecture is now coated in blue toxic paint’, they should be fine.
But toxicity aside, a long-term dispute between Ballroom Marfa and the Texas Department of Transporation rumbles on. The department state that Prada Marfa is ‘an illegal outside advertisement’. I’m not sure why it took them quite so long to figure out that the Prada branding is the most overwhelming thing about the installation, but I do hope they don’t shut it down – mainly because I’m already planning to take a Texan road trip. If it’s good enough for Bey...
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Pictures: Marshall Astor, Will Milne
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.