I knew it was coming. Roughly 8 hours into the drive I finally saw it. Nowhere seems less appropriate for the haute couture of Prada, but there it sat, in the distance, light spilling onto the barren highway floor. A 15×25 adobe box structure, interior lit to display the brand’s high-end handbags and shoes, but the door is always locked.
Prada Marfa is not a store but one of the most widely recognized sculptural works of the 21st century. The contrast between the expansive, arid landscape of the West Texas high desert and a store that is more commonly found on Rodeo Dr. or 5thAve. is just as bewildering as it sounds.
I love imagining the person who doesn’t know its coming. Driving down an empty stretch of Highway 90, over 100 miles of nothing trailing behind them, when right outside of Valentine, their eyes spot something before their brain can properly compute it.
Although it’s not very likely anyone would just be passing through though as Marfa, TX is far from pretty much everything. Being around 200 miles from El Paso - the closet major city - and several hundred more miles from anywhere else, it’s not the type of place you happen upon, unless you are heading to the Big Bend (which isn’t likely as the Big Bend is the most under visited National Park in the US of A). Even though Prada Marfa takes its namesake from Marfa, (which really is one of the most exceptional towns I have had the privilege of visiting and will one day have a post of its own) it is actually located some 35 miles outside of Marfa in the ridiculously small town of Valentine (Pop. 187).
Symbolizing the fate of many roadside attractions, Prada Marfa is designed with the intention of decay. As the Scandinavian artists behind Prada Marfa, Elmgreen & Dragset, put it “[W]e purposefully will not preserve Prada Marfa, it will eventually become a ruin so that even in a future decayed state it will remain relevant to the time in which it was made.”Although this is supposedly the case and the building’s history has been marred by vandalism and break-ins, when I visited Prada Marfa it was in relatively pristine condition. Sans, of course, a couple of cigarette burns in the awning and the bullet holes that clearly didn’t complete their journey through this thick, seemingly semi-bullet proof glass:
This is another funny image in my mind, of some country yokels drinking the night away, drunkenly weaving their pick-up down the 90, using Prada Marfa as target practice. Needing to pee really bad, I decided to relieve myself behind Prada Marfa only to discover that many other travelers had taken it upon themselves to make the back of the building not only their potty, but a collection of random objects creating a sort of art piece out of the art piece:
Unfortunately I did happen upon a very unpleasant discovery, a person decided to take a large #2 back there which is really just about the last thing you ever want to see and I could have really done without. Apart from the poop I can’t say enough about Marfa, TX let alone the wondrous juxtaposition created by Prada Marfa.
Prada Marfa is located: right outside Valentine, TX en route to Marfa.
See more pictures of commerce in the high desert in the Gallery.
I have never, ever heard of this, but am aghast with wonder at the entire idea.