Richie Hawtin’s Plastikman soundtracks Prada exhibition in Shanghai

Richie Hawtin has produced a bespoke soundtrack for Pradasphere II, an exhibition by Prada taking place in Shanghai.

The DJ and producer made the music for the exhibition under his Plastikman alias. Pradasphere II is a public project which was curated by Prada co-creative directors Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons, and follows on from the first iteration in 2014.

The exhibition features more than 400 artefacts from Prada’s history, covering physical and digital ephemera. It also features various immersive spaces with Hawtin’s soundtrack.

In a statement, Hawtin said: “My relationship with Prada is a beautiful interplay for the senses. My task, as always in my collaborations with Prada, is to find the right frequencies to act as a supporting architecture for Mrs. Prada & Raf’s vision. This particular project was creatively challenging due to its scale and ambition, and was still a work in progress as I left the studio and headed to Shanghai for the installation.

“Only upon arrival could I truly appreciate the subtleties of the exhibition’s intentions, which helped focus the final details of the music. Each piece is a unique hour-long generative audio soundscape, delicately balancing sight and sound, in order to create a perfect harmonic experience.

“Pradasphere II bought together a unique group of inspiring minds augmenting the core Prada team. Working alongside everyone, including Michael Rock and his [consultant] 2×4 [New York] team, was a dream and something that I will not soon forget.”

Pradasphere II is free and open to the public from 7th December, 2023 until 21st January, 2024 at Shanghai’s Start Museum, in Xuhui District.

Hawtin previously worked with Prada in 2021 when the fashion house hired him to compose a series of runway soundtracks for their seasonal online fashion shows.

His debut album as Plastikman, ‘Sheet One’, was recently reissued.