PARIS – Prada brought its Sea Beyond project here with a two-day series of events at the Paris Oceanographic Institute that included a splashy cocktail party, a screening and an educational workshop to celebrate its ongoing partnership with UNESCO.
The brand took over the historical building’s Italian Renaissance-style grand amphitheater, followed by an unspooling of its documentary film “Kindergarten of the Lagoon,” which sees a group of children enrolled in its educational program in Venice. The Prada-supported program, launched in 2021, has now seen 35,000 children learn its immersive curriculum.
Prada also brought a panel of speakers including Liborio Stellino, Italian delegate to UNESCO; Clément Lavigne, director of ocean policy, Prince Albert I of Monaco Foundation’s Oceanographic Institute; Agnès Saal, adviser to the French National Commission for UNESCO and organization team of the U.N. Ocean Conference; Karen Evans, UNESCO head of Ocean Science Section, and Francesca Santoro, UNESCO senior program officer.
Stellino said that educational programs are especially important in the current political and economic climate. “We cannot hide the fact that we are unfortunately experiencing every day, that we live in a period in which multilateralism is often linked [to] the supposed waste of resources, to this sort of redundant supranational growth, sometimes for much abstract deliberation without concrete effects,” he said.
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“The best ingredient to reply to this growing criticism is to work hard on the ground to contribute to a measurable social impact vis-à-vis global challenges. This is only the only way to reestablish mutual trust and gain universal support by people and governments,” he said. Programs like those depicted in the film are a concrete example, he said.
Speaking on stage, Lavigne said that the institute’s data indicates that ocean protection programs would need about $175 billion annually to be adequately funded, which needs to come from a combination of governments and the private sector. “We are trying to see how we can make the ocean investable in way that is sustainable and regenerative, in a way that actively contributes to the protection of the ocean,” he said.
Lavigne added that the institute in Monaco is about to open a new educational wing dedicated to the Mediterranean Sea.
Speaking about the film, Saal said: “Art captures the beauty and fragility of the ocean, inspiring emotional connections that drive action.”
She added that UNESCO is relying on support from Prada to develop parts of its programming at the coming U.N. Ocean Conference. “Today with Prada, we wish these elements create a powerful force for change by shifting mindsets and encouraging sustainable policies,” she said.
Evans said that Prada’s film and overall ocean education project “provides an example of the importance of direct experience with the ocean from a very early age in building an understanding of and connecting to the ocean,” and framed it as part of a cultural heritage worth protecting.
Prada launched its partnership with UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission in 2019 for educational programs and has now extended its scope to support scientific research, community engagement and policy advocacy.
For the second day of programming, Prada conducted a workshop on how to accurately identify and read data sources and communicate the impacts to the public, attended by delegates from countries including Chile and Turkey.
Prada also unveiled its calendar of Sea Beyond events for the rest of the year, including the opening of its own permanent Ocean Literacy Center in Venice on April 3; its pavilion and slate of programming during the U.N.’s Ocean Conference in Nice, France, from June 9 to 13, and its activation in Shanghai for a week this fall.
That initiative will see Sea Beyond programming overtake the historical Rong Zhai residence, Prada’s restored mansion and multipurpose cultural space in downtown Shanghai, for a program including panels and screenings, as well as an exhibit from environmental photographer Enzo Barracco from Oct. 10 to 19.
The brand also marked the release of its Re-Nylon collection campaign short film series, featuring Benedict Cumberbatch and Italian actress and Sea Beyond ambassador Valentina Gottlieb. The first two films, released in January, examine the role of abandoned plastic pollution and ghost fishing nets which trap and kill marine life, and the impact of noise pollution from shipping, and drilling for oil and gas on whales and dolphins who use song to communicate.
Sadie Sink also appears in the campaign, as well as National Geographic’s Giovanni Chimienti. The next two installations of the film series will be released later this year.
Prada’s Re-Nylon for Sea Beyond collection, which uses recovered and recycled plastic from fishing nets and other plastic collected from the ocean, gives 1 percent of its proceeds to the educational programs.
