Chinese Artist Cao Fei Opens New Exhibit at Fondazione Prada: See “Dash”

At Fondazione Prada, contemporary Chinese artist Cao Fei brings the farmlands of China and Southeast Asia to Milan with an immersive exhibit: “Dash.” Through a multimedia approach spanning across photography, videography, virtual reality, and archival materials, “Dash” explores the impact of rapidly changing technology on agriculture.

For three years, Fei dedicated herself to studying agricultural practices across the region. Despite current advancements, the industry remains at risk due to climate change and labour shortages. Once the artist connected with an agricultural robotics company, XAG, in 2021, production of “Dash” took off. The new exhibition investigates how technology can be harnessed to reshape traditional systems — reducing labour, improving productivity, and protecting food quality, all of which are responses to the climate crisis.

Cao Fei: Embracing the Unconventional

Originally from Guangzhou, Fei is one of the leading artists in China. After being featured in Ai Weiwei and Feng Boyi’s controversial 2000 collection, Fuck Off, she has been called a ‘chronicler’ of unconventional youth culture.

Her work extends beyond youth culture, however. Engaging in broader social issues — ranging from social injustice, economic hardship, the climate crisis, and rapid urbanization — Fei treads on the border of imagination and reality. 

Fei’s work encompasses visual art, film, and virtual reality. Her most famous work includes Cosplayers (2004), Whose Utopia? (2006), and RMB City (2007). Each piece reflects a wider sociological issue, which through her craft, comes alive through multidimensional collections. After working with Prada on the Men’s Fall 2019 Campaign, Fei made her way to Fondazione Prada.

Agriculture: The Foundation of Humanity

Provoking questions about the relationship between tradition, nature, and humanity, the exhibit features life-sized structures: a rice granary tent, a temple, and a small banana plantation in contrast to surrounding smart farming equipment. This juxtaposes past and future in the same space, at the same time.

A video installation is displayed across dual screens inside the grain warehouse, capturing how farmers interact and operate with machinery. Dash-180c, a virtual reality experience, places the viewer inside the perspective of a discarded drone — a futuristic scenario of automated agriculture. Her decision to use a discarded drone offers a future speculation. Does it reinforce an inevitable cycle of obsolescence? Both technology and humanity seem at risk of being surpassed. Additional archival materials including interviews, photos, and documents ground the installation in history alongside Fondazione’s illustrated book. The exhibit questions humanity’s relationship to the very process we created; the technology designed to save us might destroy us instead.

Fondazione Prada: Where Art and Academia Collide

Since 1993, Fondazione Prada has pursued its mission to foster new perspectives in art through research. For co-founders Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli, this interaction is imperative for success in a rapidly shifting world.  

For 2026, Fondazione Prada will also house several other diverse exhibits, complementing their permanent installations. Among them is German artist Hito Steyerl’s exhibit, “The Island.” It’s been on display since December 2025 and will be presented until the fall. This evocative, four-part project merges politics, climate change, and the prominence of artificial intelligence in society.   

Fondazione Prada offers guided tours of the museum as well as an annual film fund to support independent cinema. Through these initiatives, social impact becomes far more accessible while providing wider reach for both the artists and audience.

Staying Ahead: Is Art ‘Reconstructing’ the World?

In a precarious time, art is a way to bridge culture, express emotion, and invite different questions and perspectives. To Fei, artists can’t eradicate these issues, but they can question why these issues occur. “Dash” doesn’t aim to solve the contradictions of technology and tradition; instead, it presents an opportunity to engage with an issue that can’t be ignored.

The issues that Fei raises with “Dash” aren’t exclusive to China and Southeast Asia; the exhibit surfaces a bigger, international problem. The same issues exist here in Canada. At Fondazione Prada, this project leans into Cao’s forte of surrealism, while opening new discussion: as technology comes to the forefront, how will sustainable farming be handled?

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