Prada presents the twelfth iteration of Prada Mode in Osaka alongside Inujima Project in collaboration with Kazuyo Sejima. The two initiatives represent Sejima’s vision for the island of Inujima, as well as Prada’s second edition of Prada Mode with the director of Kazuyo Sejima & Associates and co-founder of SANAA.
In 2008, the Fukutake Foundation, which manages the Benesse Art Site Naoshima, invited Sejima to reimagine and shape the built environment of Inujima. For Prada Mode Osaka, an exhibition curated by the architect shares this ongoing work through models, videos, and other materials at a SANAA-designed pavilion located in Umekita Park in Osaka.
Prada Mode Osaka offers a rich blend of conversations, workshops, and performances celebrating the intersection of architecture, art, and culture. The opening day included two talks with architects Tadao Ando, Liu Jiakun and Ryue Nishizawa – as well as a workshop by Tomoko Kimata that introduced participants to tsumami-zaiku, a traditional Japanese fabric-folding craft using Prada fabrics.
The day featured live music by Nik Bärtsch, Reggie Watts, and C.A.R., all curated by Craig Richards, film screenings by Bêka & Lemoine and a sound installation by composer and artist Keiichiro Shibuya. Shibuya also presented “ANDROID MARIA”, a newly created android developed with a team of leading developers, produced and presented by ATAK.
Inestable (reproduced by Kazuyo Sejima & Associates), 2025
EMBT Architects
INUJIMA PROJECT
Inujima is a small island in Japan’s Seto Inland Sea, once known for its copper refinery and quarries. As industry declined, the refinery was abandoned for nearly a century. In 2008, the Fukutake Foundation, behind Benesse Art Site Naoshima, opened the Inujima Seirensho Art Museum on the island. Architect Kazuyo Sejima and Artistic Director Yuko Hasegawa led a transformation project, creating gallery spaces, renovating old homes, and establishing gardens, workshops, and guest accommodations.
For the occasion of Prada Mode Osaka and Inujima Project, Prada donated a permanent pavilion designed by Kazuyo Sejima & Associates, located in the Inujima Life Garden. This site also features Suspended Landscape, two counters crafted from soil excavated during the construction of the nearby pavilion, symbolizing a cycle of reintegration. Blending quietly into the atmosphere, the counters are now part of the landscape before gradually returning to the ground.
As people approach S-Art House, they encounter A-Art House. This building is a ring with an empty centre, surrounded by homes. Standing in the middle of the courtyard, the viewer is simultaneously surrounded by artwork and enveloped by the village. The entire landscape appears as a museum, and the art becomes part of the island itself.
F-Art House stands in front of a rocky hill and small shrine. When a derelict building on the site was dismantled, even older materials from a previous structure were discovered. Following this precedent, House F retains the existing frame while replacing deteriorated timber. Interior partition walls were removed to simplify the layout, introduce transparency and allow for a dialogue between art and landscape. Small patios were also added to both ends of the building: they serve as the structural bracing and offer outdoor exhibition spaces, open to the sky.
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Suspended Landscape
Shingo Masuda + Katsuhisa Otsubo Architects
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I-ART HOUSE Kazuyo Sejima & Associates Olafur Eliasson | Self-loop
The final gallery, I-Art House, is located down a quiet slope towards the sea, beyond the village. This is the renovation of an existing house and the only gallery with white walls. Diagonally placed windows allow viewers to experience both the artworks and the surrounding scenery simultaneously. Visitors access the exhibition space by walking through a garden that faces onto the sea.
This transparent gallery unfolds along a narrow road nestled between two hills. The thin acrylic walls are stabilised by incorporating small curves within the overall form, one that itself follows the shape of the road. This approach made the panels thinner, and therefore lighter, making it possible for them to be carried through the pedestrian streets that characterise this part of the village. The exhibition space is passively temperature-controlled by way of tubes buried underground.
Born in Ibaraki, Japan, Kazuyo Sejima graduated from the Japan Women’s University in 1981. In 1987 she opened her own studio in Tokyo and then in 1995, together with Ryue Nishizawa, founded SANAA. Her own works include House in Plum Grove, Inujima “Art House Project,” and Japan Women’s University Mejiro Campus. SANAA’s main works include the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, the Rolex Learning Center, LouvreLens Museum, Grace Farms, Bocconi University New Urban Campus, La Samaritaine, Art Gallery of New South Wales Expansion — Naala Badu Building, and Edward and Joyce Linde Music Building W18, Cambridge, USA, 2024. In 2010, Kazuyo Sejima was appointed director of the 12th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale. Her honors include the Japan Architecture Award, Venice Biennale Golden Lion Award, Rolf Schock Prize in Category of Visual Arts, Pritzker Architecture Prize, Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Prix de l’Équerre d’Argent, the Medal with Purple Ribbon, Thomas Jefferson Medal, Praemium Imperiale, and the 2025 Royal Gold Medal by the Royal Institute of British Architects. She is currently a professor at the Polytechnic University of Milan, a visiting professor at Japan Women’s University and Osaka University of Arts, an Emeritus Professor at Yokohama National University, and Director of Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum. She was the designer of a Prada bag for Prada Invites — Spring Summer 2019, the designer of the exhibition Paraventi: Folding Screens from the 17th to 21st Centuries at Fondazione Prada 2023, and the curator of Prada Mode Tokyo 2023.
