Prada Marfa

A desert mirage or the cruelest piece of art ever?
It looks as though a tornado had picked up a Prada store and dropped it on along a desolate stretch of highway outside the small Texas town of Marfa (pop. 1,887).


A permanently installed sculpture is the work of the Berlin artists Michael Emlgreen and Ingar Dragset. The artists called the work a pop architectural land art project. The sculpture is meant to look like a Prada store, with minimalist white stucco walls and a window display housing real Prada handbags and shoes (handpicked by Muccio Prada herself). But there is no working door, leaving the viewer as a perpetual window-shopper.


The sculpture cost $80,000 and was intended to never be repaired, so it might slowly degrade back into the natural landscape. This plan was deviated from when, three days after the sculpture was completed, vandals graffitied the exterior, and broke into the building stealing six purses and 14 shoes (all for right feet). Somewhere there are one-legged fashionistas rockin’ some fabulous footwear!

(Photos via Flickr)

So. Awesomely. Cool.