In 2018 Fondazione Prada undertook a multidisciplinary project for the study of scientific themes in depth. These reflections engendered “Human Brains,” a program of exhibitions, debates online and publishing activities. The project is the result of a complex research conducted in collaboration with a scientific board chaired by Giancarlo Comi until 2024.
“During the 25 year-long activity of Fondazione Prada, I have always wished to work on relevant cultural ideas. This specific project devoted to neuroscience is maybe our most important so far: for a visual art institution such as the Fondazione Prada, dealing with science is a true challenge, as it will have to give voice and shape to the ideas of the researchers. This dialogue that starts now to embody the project ‘Human Brains’ underlines the importance of cooperation, in order to give value and disseminate meaningful studies and practices for our present.” stated Miuccia Prada, President and Director of Fondazione Prada.
The “Human Brains” initiative is centered on the brain, a unique organ for the complexity of its functions, which are fundamental to characterize human beings. The scope of the investigation is survey different fields: from neurobiology to philosophy, from psychology to neurochemistry, from linguistics to artificial intelligence and robots. The brain is analyzed from an anatomical-functional point of view, while also focusing on the brain aging processes and on neurodegenerative diseases.
Fondazione Prada’s interest in the current state of the sciences is an expansion of its intellectual inquiry, but one that continues to address fundamental issues of today. Historically, science and culture have been inseparable, and in constant dialogue with each other. The advent of our “technological age” has produced new frontiers of invention, and new social, cultural and political questions for humanity. Culture evolves with these profound shifts in scientific knowledge. And so too, our understanding of what it means to be a human during increasingly uncertain times.
An open project in constant evolution, “Human Brains” aims to experiment new collaboration and dialogue methods among scientists and scholars thus testing innovative communication formats addressed to a heterogeneous and international public.
The first chapter of the project was the online conference “Culture and Consciousness.” Held in 2020, it focused on the study of consciousness, the brain’s highest and most complex function. The second stage, titled “Conversations,” was based on a series of online talks given by international scientists, philosophers, and researchers between 2021 and 2022. The third phase, the exhibition “It Begins with an Idea,” was presented in Venice in 2022. It focused on the history of brain studies, characterized by rigor, innovation, and discoveries, but also by mistakes and uncertainties. The fourth part, “Preserving the Brain,” was focused on the treatment and prevention of neurodegenerative diseases. It was held in two iterations: in Milan in 2022–2023 and in Shanghai in 2024–2025. “Preserving the Brain” included 2 scientific conferences and 2 exhibitions dedicated to the public, both organized in collaboration with 15 renowned neuroscience institutes from international universities and 6 Italian patient organizations and associations. A book, published by Fondazione Prada and designed by 2×4, documents the first four phases of the project.
From 2018 to 2022, the scientific committee was composed of: Jubin Abutalebi, Massimo Cacciari, Viviana Kasam, Udo Kittelmann, Letizia Leocani, Andrea Moro, Daniela Perani