The Fondazione Prada, headed by fashion elite Muiccia Prada and her husband Patrizio Bertelli, is gearing up to premiere its 62,000 square feet (19,000 square meter) arts complex in Milan. Designed by architect Rem Koolhaas, the campus consists of seven existing buildings with three new ones — museum: a space for temporary exhibitions; cinema: a transformable multimedia auditorium; and torre, a ten-story gallery tower for displaying the foundation’s permanent collections.

Residing in the Fondazione Prada’s permanent collections are works by Ed and Nancy Kienholz, including pieces from their Volksempfängers series. Created by the couple in the mid to late ‘70s in their Berlin studio, the assemblage sculptures were conceptualized around World War II-era radios that were disseminated to the German populous as a means of distributing Nazi propaganda. 

L.A. Louver presented these Volksempfängers in the exhibition Berlin/Hope, which brought together works the Kienholzes created from 1975-1979, when they split their time between respective studios in Berlin, Germany and Hope, Idaho. Click here to view an online catalogue produced in conjunction with the exhibition. 

IMAGES: (top to bottom/left to right) Fondazione Prada’s arts complex in Milan, photo by Bas Princen, courtesy of Fondazione Prada; Edward & Nancy Reddin Kienholz, Die Nornen / The Norns, 1976, mixed media assemblage, 61 ½ x 115 ¾ x 61 ½ in. (156.2 x 294 x 156.2 cm); Edward & Nancy Reddin Kienholz, Der Ofenschirm / The Fire Screen, 1975, mixed media assemblage, 61 ¼ x 39 ½ x 17 ¾ in. (155.6 x 100.3 x 45.1 cm); Edward & Nancy Reddin Kienholz, Brünnhilde, 1976, mixed media assemblage, 61 ½ x 41 ¾ x 18 in. (156 x 106 x 46 cm).