Fondazione Prada presents “Diagrams”, an exhibition project conceived by the AMO/OMA studio, founded by Rem Koolhaas, in the Venetian venue of Ca’ Corner della Regina from 10 May to 24 November 2025
“Diagrams” analyses the visual communication of data as a powerful device for constructing meanings, understanding or manipulation and as a pervasive tool for analysing, understanding and transforming the world. The aim of the project is to promote dialogue and speculative reflection on the relationship between human intelligence, scientific and cultural phenomena and the creation and dissemination of knowledge.
The exhibition itinerary unfolds on the ground floor and the first floor of the eighteenth-century Ca’ Corner della Regina palace and brings together over 300 objects, including rare documents, publications, digital images and videos made from the 12th century to the present and relating to different cultural and geographical contexts. The material is organised according to a thematic principle that reflects the urgencies of the contemporary world and bears witness to the transversal and diachronic nature of diagrams.
Prints and Photographs
The project is based on in-depth research conducted by Fondazione Prada in collaboration with Rem Koolhaas and Giulio Margheri, associate architect of OMA, and with the consultancy of Sietske Fransen, Max Planck Research Group Leader, Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History.
As Rem Koolhaas states, “In my view, the diagram is a tool that has always existed. For example, in the early stages of our research we found three-dimensional diagrams made in South Africa around 40,000 BC and maps of the Greenland coast carved in wood on the island of Ammassalik. This shows that it is a durable form of communication that adapts to whatever medium exists at a given time. And regardless of the medium, the diagram always fulfills didactic (explanation) or suggestive (persuasion) functions. In this sense, it not only exists by default in any new medium, but is applicable to any area of human life: fashion, religion, as well as the history of social inequalities can all be interpreted in the form of a diagram. I deeply appreciate this interdisciplinarity of the diagram, its invariable attribute of being independent of language (words) makes it one of the most effective forms of representation.”
A diagram can be described in a nutshell as a tool for visualizing information that can be reflected upon, communicated, and documented, as if it were a neutral and objective representation. Starting from Gilles Deleuze’s assumption that “the diagram is the possibility of the fact, not the fact itself”, the project explores the diagram as a means of creating meaning that shapes and influences people’s thinking and life, and can potentially convey misconceptions or be used as a tool for propaganda and political struggle.
The exhibition itinerary, conceived by AMO/OMA according to the principle of “contemporary urgencies”, is structured according to nine main themes: Built Environment, Health, Inequality, Migration, Natural Environment, Resources, War, Truth, and Value. Each theme is documented within a series of showcases arranged in parallel in the central room on the first floor of the building. Each “urgency” is also explored in depth in a lateral room, where different exhibition modes present some sub-themes or the work of a specific author. This complex and layered investigation is introduced on the ground floor by a display made by AMO/OMA, which could be defined as a diagram of the exhibition on diagrams itself. This meta diagram reveals the methods of research and exhibition in all their transparency and accuracy.
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