Double Club Los Angeles
Courtesy of Prada
As fashion companies descend on Los Angles for Oscar Week — to throw cocktail parties and mount brand activations — Prada is offering something different.
For the next two nights, the Italian luxury house has paired with German artist Carsten Höller to create an ephemeral nightclub located inside a massive warehouse in downtown Los Angeles.
Dubbed The Double Club Los Angeles, Prada’s pop-up runs for two nights (March 7 and 8) as a private installation-slash-club before opening to the public on March 9 and 10 (Oscars day).
Inside the cavernous space, there are multiple bars, a large brightly-lit central performance stage covered in multi-colored bulbs and three vintage amusement park rides including a carousel, a swing ride, and one called the Silver Streak that takes riders in circles at a fairly fast clip. The whole shebang is being presented in partnership with Luna Luna, the vintage circa 1987 art amusement park featuring a Jean-Michel Basquiat Ferris wheel, Keith Haring carousel and Salvador Dali hall of mirrors that’s on display a few hundred yards away in its own downtown warehouse.
At a preview for Prada’s Double Club Los Angeles Thursday morning, Höller explained that he conceived the installation with a progressive floor plan that divides the space in half as guests walk through it.
“It’s very simple,” said Höller. “Basically, you take a space and you divide it in the middle, and then you take half of it and divide in the middle again, and you take the square that you have and divide it again and so and so. You would in principle, if you go on dividing it, just reach zero if you do this to infinity — if you want a conflict between a mathematical perspective and a philosophical perspective. In mathematical terms, this will never be zero but in philosophical terms, this could as well be zero.”
The artist further explained that he likes the contrast between the mathematically derived layout and the planned use of the space, which is for enjoyment.
Presented by the Prada Mode cultural series, both private club nights at the space also will feature a program of musical performances, co-curated by Höller and Drake (who’s the major backer of the restoration of Luna Luna).
Höller, who has collaborated with Prada twice previously, said he hopes that visitors will enjoy the Double Club as “entertainment in its pure form, something that is strong enough to take you away, to make you feel that you’re alive, make you even dance” while at the same time, “standing on ground that is extremely rational.” An approach not unlike that of Prada itself.