Wes Anderson Designs a Bar for Prada's New Art Space

The filmmaker and longtime collaborator has created a bar, inspired by classic Italian cafes, for the opening of Fondazione Prada's new Milan venue in May.

Oscar-nominated director Wes Anderson continues his love affair with Italian fashion powerhouse Prada. His short film, Castello Cavalcanti, starred Jason Schwartzman as a brash car race driver, mixing his inimitable style with the brand’s experimental esthetic. His ad campaign for Candy L’Eau fragrance with Roman Coppola starred Lea Seydoux as a colorful coquette in the middle of a playful love triangle.

Now, he's taking his design eye a step further by creating the bar inside the upcoming Fondazione Prada, the brand’s new permanent art space which aims to fill in the missing gap in Milan’s sparse contemporary art heritage. The bar will be recreated in the style of a classic Milan café, but with all the intimate details and attention of a Wes Anderson film.

Roman Polanski will also present the inspirations behind his films in a new documentary and series of film screenings for the Fondazione Prada opening. The center will have a revolving exhibition of projects from noted curators, writers, artists and filmmakers. In addition to select classics from the Prada collection, Robert Gober and Thomas Demand will create site-specific installations corresponding to the new space for the May debut.

Architect Rem Koolhaas designed the new art space, combining preexisting buildings, including a distillery from the 1900s, with three new structures for over 118,000 total square feet of exhibition space. The new venue will open to the public May 9, just in time for the 20 million visitors expected in town for the Expo Milano 2015.

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