Elmgreen & Dragset, Prada Marfa, 2005
Valentine, Texas
May, 2025
Background
Modeled after a Prada boutique, Prada Marfa is a sculpture built by art duo Elmgreen & Dragset in 2005, housing some bags and shoes from the brand’s fall 2005 collection. Located on a barren stretch of highway one mile west of Valentine TX with no other man made development visible other than power lines, the highway, and a railway track. It was commissioned by the Art Production Fund and Ballroom Marfa. The art duo is comprised of Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dragset, who met in a nightclub in Copenhagen. The installation was designated a museum by the Texas Department of Transportation in 2014.
The concept really began in the late 1990s and early 2000’s, when Elmgreen & Dragset noticed the changing New York City landscape, specifically in Chelsea. They noticed the gentrification and transformation of this (and other) neighborhoods, where it had been affordable for artists to live there. But with these new and trendy tenants, real estate prices are slowly driven up as demand grows. Galleries then join the area, followed by boutiques, and then larger shops, and finally the chains. Eventually, often, displacing the artists that were the catalyst. Elmgreen & Dragset specifically reference the Guggenheim Soho, which closed in 2001. It was replaced by a Prada, and that inspired them to do it as a conceptual piece themselves.
Represented by Tanya Bonakdar, they showed Opening Soon from October 20 to November 24 in 2001 as their first solo exhibition at her gallery. They covered up the windows of Tanya Bonakdar Gallery and had a sign announcing that Prada will open soon. Apparently people thought it was real and didn’t attend, thinking the gallery really was closing. The artists mention that people called the gallery to say they were sorry they were going out of business, but they wanted to work on the development of the Prada store. It was so typical that they began to contemplate the reverse. Where would it be abnormal? Eventually they obsessed over the idea of building a store outside of its normal environment. A lonely out of place store that would definitely catch the eye.
Elmgreen & Dragset debated locations throughout the southwest, most notably Nevada. However, the New York based Art Production Fund worked with the artists and Ballroom Marfa, where it was decided it would be done in Texas. The artists would later say that the box of the Prada store was physically reminiscent of Donald Judd’s boxes (another piece in Marfa) and they liked that relationship. It cost $120,000 to build (around $200,000 today). Miuccia Prada (head designer) gave her approval, donated the selection of pieces, and the faux store was built following their brand’s aesthetic codes. The door however does not have a handle and is functionally not a door. The store is never actually open, though in the evening, some interior lights turn on.
I’ve considered it as land art because it is highly site-specific and iconic to its location. It works in this vast vacant setting (versus Coming Soon, which blended in so well, people didn’t notice). It explored conceptual ideas and rejects consumerism and the art market (though I imagine there are people would definitely buy it). Its remote location and visual starkness echo the minimalism and scale often found in land art. While it doesn’t involve natural materials and is even powered, it was the artists’ original intent for it to deteriorate and “return” to nature. However, over time, it was decided to be maintained (the 2014 museum designation reinforced that). Elmgreen & Dragset discussed how it is often the case that artists have to come to terms with the fact that their pieces grow on their own and evolved beyond their own decision making and intent.
There have been three vandalism I could find on the internet, but there have been a slew of smaller incidents as well. The first was just a few days after opening; vandals spray painted the building and all the merchandise was stolen. It was restored, and the merchandise was adjusted. The bags had their bottoms removed and only right footed shoes were included. In 2011, the structure had been tagged with graffiti, shot at repeatedly (bullet holes in windows), and even had a dedication plaque knocked down. In early March 2014, an anonymous artist (alias “9271977,” later identified as Joe Magnano) covered the façade in light-blue paint, pasted fake TOMS logos, posted a political manifesto, and slashed the awning. Magnano was arrested, pled guilty to misdemeanor criminal mischief, and fined, including $10,700 restitution to Ballroom Marfa plus a $1,000 penalty. I can report that it was in good shape in May, 2025, with surprisingly little vandalism.
It debuted in 2005, amusingly as the first “Prada store” in Texas. They say about 50 people showed up, and there was live country western music, homemade tequila, and Mexican beer. The local community came out in particular. Curious as to what it was. The local community wanted to maintain it, because it had become important to the locals. Boyd Elder, artist and resident of Valentine, is the site caretaker. He wasn’t official at the beginning, but became friends with the duo, and self-appointed himself. Elmgreen & Dragset didn’t expect a lot of people to actually go visit it, but it benefited from traditional media (Gossip Girls and the Simpsons) and even more so, social media. The art duo are proponents of public art, and its exposure to many more people that may not typically be interacted with.
15th Anniversary Interview with the Artists
Travel
Prada Marfa is technically part of Valentine, TX, which is in the middle of nowhere. The installation is a 2 hour and 15 minute drive from El Paso International Airport or a 3 hour and 10 minute drive from Midland International Air and Space Port. It is wildly inconvenient as both airports are basically regional, so you’ll likely have to layover somewhere to even get to one of them.
More realistically, you’ve decided to drive out to Marfa and visit this spot as well. So I imagine most people are just driving from Marfa. It’s hard to miss. 32 minutes west of Marfa on Route 90. Just drive until you hit Valentine, then it’s just a couple minutes outside of the town on the same road.
It’s on the opposite side of the road, you can pull over on either side, just be careful because people are driving pretty fast on them. I would suggest pulling over on the near side (as you’re driving west) as you stay out of the way of other people’s photographs. You do have to cross the road then, but it’s so flat and straight you can see vehicles coming from literally miles away. The right side has an active set of train tracks, be aware, they’re in use and trains will go by, so don’t just dilly dally on them, or leave anything on them.
There are no facilities here. There is an informational plaque off to the right of the building. It is free to visit, but obviously you are not allowed to go inside or vandalize the property. There are a significant number of “love locks” on the fence around it, and there are no trash bins, so please take everything you bring and leave the area pristine.
As for other sites. En route from Marfa, you can stop at the Welcome to Marfa sign and the Giant Marfa Mural at Wyatt Ranches (They filmed part of the James Dean / Elizabeth Rock 1956 film Giant here). There’s also a small and cute bar called the Valentine Texas Bar, in the middle of the nearest town. Worth a celebratory drink if you made it this far!
While you obviously have to go to Marfa and experience all that it entails (featured here in this other post), the other “local” recommendation would be to go to the McDonald Observatory. Observatory facilities are located atop Mount Locke and Mount Fowlkes in the Davis Mountains of West Texas, which offers the largest sky reserve in the continental United States (Greater Big Bend International Dark Sky Reserve). It is a 42 minute drive from Marfa and a 58 minute drive from Prada Marfa. They have evening programs throughout the year called Star Parties. They’re mostly geared towards kids and families, but it’s never not fun to just sit out and enjoy the stars.
You should also keep track and book it (if you can) on a clear night and when the moon is not visible. We happened to be in Texas during and around a ridiculously large full moon. It was so bright in the evenings that we had shadows. It sort of ruined the star party and just generally night sky viewing, but the observatory made the best of the situation. They focused on the moon and pointed most of the telescopes towards it. So, I did get to see the moon in more depth than I’ve ever seen it before. The picture on the left, you can see the edges of the moon light to the left. And on the right, that’s our shadow at around midnight.
Be courteous and don’t use your phone / flash any lights. They really want to have everyone’s eyes adjust to the darkness and improve the experience. The staff are great and knowledgeable. They cost $25 per person (less for students, elders, or children). There are even special viewing nights where they use the larger telescopes. Star parties typically are on the weekends, but there are some midweek ones as well. It generally starts in the evening, so make sure your vehicle has good lights to navigate the winding roads. You also do not need to get there early or even on time. It’s a family friendly program, so it’s flexible seating, and pretty casual. We showed up early and ended up just sitting around for a half hour waiting for it to darken and start. Bring a blanket and/or jacket, because you will get cold at night. We were pretty cold.
Would I recommend? Probably not, unless you’re looking for a family friendly activity or are a huge space / star nerd.
Experience
My experience with this piece begins in my apartment. Upon Mattos moving in I wanted to change up the apartment to make her feel more comfortable. We did some upgrades, and one of her requests was to wallpaper. She convinced me to get this one from Katie Kime. There are some truly heinous color combinations, so I did have to push for something more subtle, but it does now occur to me that we have 9-10 Prada Marfas on a wall in our apartment… it cost be $209.15 to purchase this for our wall (and this was basically the smallest wall available). It’s peel and stick, which is great, so I could install it myself. A fun little project that still looks pretty good now (over a year later), it extends around a doorway and along a joist separating the kitchen and living room areas.
Elmgreen & Dragset brought up how they were motivated by the transformation of neighborhoods. And that’s particularly meaningful to me, since that’s my day job, so I found this very amusing from that perspective. I spend my days with maps and data, figuring out where certain healthcare service lines should be expanded or consolidated. I’ve been part of basically every gentrification situation in New York City. And this is truly the “worst” location you could pick for a luxury goods store, and by doing so you demonstrate how my job isn’t rocket science! Picking a location is pretty straightforward. Figure out who your customer is, find their traits, replicate their traits and look for them elsewhere. Add in layers of other important metrics, in retail’s case, competition and access I’m sure are important. I figured I’d give it a gander and show you some of what I would do. Below is a typical drive time decay map. We have Prada Marfa in the center, with 20, 60, and 120 minute drive times around it. A typical site would be closer to 10, 15, and 20 minute drive times. You then would evaluate these drive times for their populations value. The interior drive times would be weighted more than the larger ones, pretty straightforward, someone located nearer is simply more likely to be a potential customer. So this is really crazy and definitely the strangest drive time map I’ve ever done. There are simply not real roads to so much of this land! The grey icons are retail hubs where a retailer would typically look to be.
Doing a typical urgent care analysis shows that this would be a terrible location. An abysmal estimated indexing score of 22 (average performance would be around 100). The only redeeming site selection qualities it has, is that there it is in the middle of a large medical access desert (pun intended). Some of the demographics are below (in garbage charts because Squarespace sucks, but it doesn’t really matter). Anyway, this is all to say, this is a terrible location for basically anything! Which just adds to the amusement of its existence. An anti-store.
Okay, so anyway. While we didn’t travel to Marfa for Prada Marfa, it was probably in our top 3 reasons to go to Marfa (I’d say that list was probably The Chinati Foundation, Big Bend National Park, and Prada Marfa/Ballroom Marfa). So let’s skip ahead and we are in Marfa. We timed it to be our dinner / sunset activity on a Sunday evening in May. We swung out to Para Llevar and got a pizza and a salad (food was only okay, but hey, we live in a pizza town so we have a high bar). Across the street is a Stripes (gas station convenience store) and we snagged drinks there. We hit the road and after stopping at a few of the other quick photo roadside attractions, we arrived at Prada Marfa around 6:30 PM and parked on the railroad side. There was another couple parked in front and taking pictures. We opened up our pizza and dug in. When they were gone, we hopped out and explored it up and close. I was surprised how good of a condition it was in. I was expecting more vandalism, so either people have decided to respect it in recent years, or Ballroom / Boyd are doing a good job of maintaining it.
Prada Marfa is pretty busy. We basically were never alone. We’d have a 10-15 minute stint by ourselves, then another car would pull over and take pictures. Some people stayed for a minute, others for a half hour. Plenty of people offered to take our picture, and we returned the favor. We mostly sat on the hood of our car and ate our pizza as the sun set. We drank our Hard Sunny D’s and Ranch Waters and just enjoyed the scene. We were there to until around 9:30 PM. Under different circumstances I would have liked to stay out. But knowing that it was a full moon and the stars were going to be limited at best, we decided to call it there, and just head back to our Airbnb.
Here are some of Mattos’ thoughts on Prada Marfa (this has been edited because it wasn’t a real interview and I’m not really quoting her):
It holds a special place in my heart, I have a very soft spot for it because of my first trip out there [she did a solo art pilgrimage trip that she used as a catalyst for some life changes]. Last time I saw it at noon, so it was fun to see it at sunset and at night.
It’s very easy to like. It’s easy to photograph, and it has become this art object that you see a lot. It’s in the zeitgeist, a simulacrum, you see all these images of it reproduced. It’s akin to seeing a great master, you see the image so often, that you build an innate desire to see it in person. Coupled with Marfa, an art haven in the middle of nowhere, it calls to a certain viewer to travel great distances to see a work of art. In the same way that an old master in Europe would.
There’s a silliness to it in its critique of commercialism, but there’s something really great to it as an art pilgrimage. It’s easy to understand, from both ends of the spectrum, with a wide group of people who would go see it. Either as a pop culture instagram-y attraction, or a deeper critique of capitalism. Because it’s in the desert versus being in an urban [or even suburban] environment, it has more purpose. If it was in a city, people would just be like, it’s a closed store, and move on. Here, it’s an oasis in the desert and a remarkably amusing one at that. Not water, fuel, or supplies. But a totally useless luxury good that wouldn’t help anyone who stumbled upon it. [imagine you not knowing it’s there, driving by and being confused, you would most certainly look it up or pull over to take a picture or inspect it.
What an excellent location to have dinner. It was very quiet, except the odd car driving through at a high speed or someone else pulling over to check it out. At some point the interior lights turned on. But they were slightly damaged or old, so they would flicker quite a lot.
Later that evening we went to the Marfa Lights Viewing Area to try and catch a glimpse. We didn’t see anything, but who knows, maybe you will! These pictures were around midnight. There were a few other groups here sitting around hoping to catch sight of this phenomenon. I don’t really get it and I’m surprised it hasn’t been debunked yet. Looking back at it, the stars are not half bad, so maybe it would have been a cool thing to wait for.
Summary
By no means should you get yourself all the way to the middle of West Texas to go see this, but if you happen to be in the area or certainly Marfa. It’s worth a gander. Take in its absurdity. Grab a drink and a bite, sit and enjoy this iconic sculpture.
“If you put anything in spectacular nature, it looks pretty good.”
Sources
https://www.pradagroup.com/en/perspectives/excursus/prada-marfa.html
https://www.ballroommarfa.org/prada-marfa/
https://www.ballroommarfa.org/archive/prada-marfa-an-explainer/
https://www.ft.com/content/23cd59a0-7f96-4379-81e2-a1ce210eb31b
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/art-bites-how-a-prada-store-sprang-up-on-an-abandoned-highway-2523188
https://www.vogue.com/article/prada-marfa-visit-texas-elmgreen-dragset-art-vandalism
https://highxtar.com/en/the-significance-of-prada-marfa-space-metaphor/
https://www.tanyabonakdargallery.com/exhibitions/547-michael-elmgreen-and-ingar-dragset-opening-soon-tanya-bonakdar-gallery-new-york/
https://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/29/fashion/thursdaystyles/little-prada-in-the-desert.html
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/the-vandal-who-turned-prada-marfa-into-toms-pleads-guilty-166870