Fondazione Prada presents the exhibition “A Kind of Language:Storyboards and Other Renderings for Cinema” from 30 January to 8 September 2025at theOsservatorio, located at Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan.
Osservatorio is Fondazione Prada’s outpost for visual experimentation and research onpotential intersectionsandcommonalitiesbetween technologies and cultural expressions. Itis a free-thinking platform open to reflection on various artistic and media languages andtheir impact in an ever-changing cultural and social landscape.
Curated by Melissa Harris, the exhibition shedslight on the complexcreative process behindfilmmaking byexploringstoryboards and other materialsintrinsic to this processsuch asmood boards, drawings and sketches, scrapbooks and notebooks,andphotographs.“AKind of Language” comprisesmore thaneight hundreditems createdfromthe late 1920sto2024byoverfiftyauthors among film directors,cinematographers,visual artists, graphicdesigners, animators, choreographers,and other collaboratorsonfilm and videoproduction.
Georges Méliès was one of the first film directorswho engagedpreparatory and detaileddrawingsas a way topre-conceive the scenes of his fantasy and science fiction movies,including his masterpieceTrip to the Moon(Le voyage dans la lune, 1902). However, thestoryboard’s proper origins can be traced to the early 20th century and are intertwined withthedevelopmentofanimation. From the 1930s,Fleischer Studios and Walt DisneyProductions, and in the 1940s United Productions of America,commissionedin-houseanimatorsandartists to create strips of sketches and other visuals while developing a story’snarrative and characters. “A Kind of Language” includes drawings of Betty Boop, Popeye,Mr.Magoo, Pinocchio, Snow White, and Mickey Mouse in Walt Disney’spioneeringclassicFantasia(1940), among other protagonists of early animation. In the same years, storyboardsbecame invaluable tools in creating any cinematic work, whether animated or live-action,tangible and systematic visual representations of the unfolding story. Decades later,animated projects continue to be storyboarded, as the presence of Hayao Miyazaki’s andStudio Ghibli’s preparatory drawings in the exhibitiontestifies.
As explained by Melissa Harris, “For many, storyboarding is an integral part of the process:visually setting a scene and then plotting out its ebbs and flows may help the film teamconsider relationships between characters, figure out how to advance the narrative, orrealize how to convey the essence of a particular segment. It may also help to troubleshoot,say, when something does not seem quite convincing in a character or a physical interaction,or even provide visual references for the actors. More technically (and as deployed early onby Méliès), storyboards can help the filmmaker to determine the most effective angles forlighting and shooting, or the best use of dissolves and other potential special effects.”
Storyboards have a dualpurposeas they embody the director’s creative visionasinterpreted by the storyboard artist (when not the director), as well as addressing, at times,the technical realization of the film. Storyboardsmay be considereda language on its own,complementing and elaboratingona concept orscript. Theyrepresentone of the firstvisualizations of a director’s ideaand visionbefore the film is actually shot, whether thedirector himself is the author of the storyboard or another artist is involved initscreation.They are a flexible and evolving tool for sharing a working outline that helps coordinate theactivities of many professional figures on and off the set. These materials serve a pragmaticand communicative purpose in that they aremeantto be circulated, copied, consulted, andmodified and, thus, are rarely considered unique pieces. Storyboards play a crucial role indifferent stages of film production: from pre-production, where they help visualize thedirector’s thoughts, to production, where they guide the filming process, and even in post-production, where they assist in editing and special effects.
The set design of this exhibition, conceived by Andrea Faraguna of the Berlin-basedarchitecture office Sub, takes inspiration from the storyboard, a cornerstone of cinematiccreation and a physical tool for composing and communicating the filmmaking process. Byfocusing on its role in filmmaking, the exhibition reinterprets the working environment ofstoryboard artists, transforming it into a spatial experience. At the heart of the design aretables inspired by classic drafting desks. Each table is dedicated to a specific movie,presenting its visual narrative as a sequence of scenes visitors can explore up close. Eachtable is paired with an inverted counterpart suspended from the ceiling to enhance thespatial experience. Together, they form an optical funnel, creating a continuous 40 cm widehorizon line that leads visitors along the exhibition path. On the side facing the windows, thisfunnel frames striking views of the iconic dome of Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, connectingthe interior narrative to the historic architecture of Milan.In plan view, the tables arearranged to evoke the sequential nature of a film reel. This deliberate spatial organizationcreates a flowing, dynamic rhythm, guiding visitors through the exhibition as though movingthrough the frames of a film.This progression allows the audience to experience thestoryboards not merely as static images but as integral elements of cinematic narration
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