Prada Frames: In Sight

Under the title In Sight, the 2026 edition considers image-making as a defining condition of contemporary culture. Rather than treating images as neutral forms of representation, the symposium approaches them as cultural, political, and material forces that shape how reality is perceived, constructed, and circulated.

The increasing overlap between human-made and machine-generated images has destabilised the distinction between the real and the represented. At the same time, the apparent immateriality of digital images conceals extensive infrastructures of resource extraction, energy consumption, data storage, and labour. The increasing overlap between human-made and machine-generated images had destabilised the distinction between the real and the represented. At the same time, the apparent immateriality of digital images concealed extensive infrastructures of resource extraction, energy consumption, data storage, and labour.

Over three days, the symposium unfolded through a programme of lectures and conversations, bringing together different perspectives on the histories that shaped ways of seeing, the environmental and social costs of digital imagery, the political uses of images, and the economies of attention that governed their circulation. The programme created a space to reconsider not only how images influenced views of the world, but also how they shaped the ways in which it was understood, negotiated, and inhabited.

The symposium took place within the complex of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, with the lectures held in the Sacrestia, a Renaissance space traditionally attributed to Bramante. The choice of the site extended the curatorial investigation: Western visual culture had been profoundly shaped by religious imagery, through which systems of belief, authority, perception, and collective memory were historically constructed.

The programme was complemented by guided visits to the complex, allowing smaller groups of participants to engage directly with the architectural setting and its relationship to the theme. Alongside the three-day symposium, a special evening event brought together a curated selection of ideas and discussions developed throughout the programme with a live music performance. The event extended the themes of In Sight through a different form of collective experience, opening the discussion to a wider public and bringing together spoken reflection and live sound.