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PRADA RONG ZHAI
"A Kind of Language: Storyboards and Other Renderings for Cinema"

Prada presents the exhibition “A Kind of Language: Storyboards and Other Renderings for Cinema” with the support of Fondazione Prada. The project, curated by Melissa Harris, is on view from 4 November 2025 to 1 February 2026 at Prada Rong Zhai

 

PRADA RONG ZHAI

No. 186 North Shaan Xi Road Jing’an District, Shanghai

Tuesday - Sunday 10am-6pm

Initially presented at Osservatorio Fondazione Prada in Milan from 30 January to 8 September 2025, “A Kind of Language” sheds light on the creative process behind filmmaking by exploring storyboards and other materials intrinsic to this process, such as mood boards, drawings and sketches, scrapbooks, notebooks, and photographs.

This second chapter of the exhibition in Shanghai aims to broadly explore various approaches to filmmaking, highlighting the research into Asian cinema, particularly Chinese productions from the past decades. The show will feature more than five hundred items created between 1940 and 2024 by over thirty authors, including film directors, cinematographers, visual artists, graphic designers, animators, choreographers such as: Muzaffar Ali, Pedro Almodóvar, Wes Anderson, Ingmar Bergman, Martin Campbell, Charlie Chaplin, Álex de la Iglesia, Jonathan Demme, Cecil B. DeMille, Fleischer Studios, Terry Gilliam, Frant Gwo, Todd Haynes, Alfred Hitchcock, Jia Zhang-ke, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Joan Jonas, Isaac Julien, John Irving, Yang Lina, Jia Ling, Hayao Miyazaki, Christopher Nolan, Qiu Jiongjiong, Satyajit Ray, Jerome Robbins, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich, Tan Chui Mui, Agnès Varda, Walt Disney Productions, Wim Wenders, Robert Wise, and Fred Zinnemann.

Storyboards may be considered a language of their own, serving two purposes: they embody the director's creative vision through the storyboard artist's interpretation, while also addressing, at times, the technical realization of the film. These materials play a crucial role in different stages of film creation: from pre-production, where they help visualize the director’s thoughts, to production, where they guide the filming process, and even in post-production, where they assist in editing and special effects. As stated by Melissa Harris, “For most of the medium’s history, the experience of a film has been relatively unchanged—democratic, universal, and finite. We sit expectantly, preparing to be transported. While of course we bring our own lives and expectations and biases to the moment, the movies themselves remain fundamentally fixed, and as such reveal minimal information as to their process of becoming. ‘A Kind of Language’ shares myriad approaches toward this early phase of movie-making that, while rarely made available to the public, is nonetheless crucial”.

The exhibition set design, conceived by Andrea Faraguna and developed with Sub, reinterprets the concept created for the Milan project to suit the unique architecture of the residence of Prada Rong Zhai. The installation recreates the working environment of storyboard artists through display tables inspired by drafting desks, each dedicated to a specific film with its sequence of scenes that can be observed up close. Moving through the rooms of the historic residence, visitors experience a dynamic flow as if were guided through the frames of a film.

Image credits:

Storyboards conceived by Fei Xuehao for “A Kind of Language: Storyboards and Other Renderings for Cinema” at Prada Rong Zhai

A New Old Play, by Qiu Jiongjiong, 2021. Drawings by Qiu Jiongjiong © Qiu Jiongjiong and Star Galler

Joan Jonas, Reading Dante, 2008. Notes by Joan Jonas, 2008 © Joan Jonas

Exhibition views of “A Kind of Language” at Osservatorio Fondazione Prada, Milan. Photo: Piercarlo Quecchia – DSL Studio. Courtesy: Fondazione Prada

Fantasia, by Walt Disney Productions, 1940. Storyboards by Disney Studio Artist, 1940 Story sketches from The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Artwork provided courtesy of “Walt Disney Animation Research Library, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Burbank, California”

Persona, directed by Ingmar Bergman, 1966. Work diary by Ingmar Bergman, 1966 © Ingmar Bergman Foundation

Barbarian Invasion, directed by Tan Chui Mui, 2021. Storyboards by Tan Chui Mui, 2020. Courtesy of Tan Chui Mui

Staff animators, Fleischer Studios. Face of Superman studio model, June 1941. Susan and Mark Fleischer Collection

The Wandering Earth II, by Frant Gwo, 2023. Drawings by Xuehao Fei

Staff animators, Fleischer Studios. Betty Boop model sheet with notes, circa 1930s. Mahoney Family Collection

Anjuman, directed by Muzaffar Ali, 1986 sketches by Muzaffar Ali, 1985. Courtesy of Muzaffar Ali Museum & Archives of Film & Arts

The Grand Budapest Hotel, by Wes Anderson, 2014. Storyboards by Jay Clarke, animation editing by Edward Bursch with Wes Anderson, 2014. Courtesy of Wes Anderson, Copyright Searchlight Pictures

Storyboards conceived by Fei Xuehao for “A Kind of Language” at Prada Rong Zhai

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