\n<\/p>\n
They eventually collaborated on a project they called Satellites,<\/em> which premiered at Herzog & de Meuron\u2019s Prada Aoyama Tokyo in 2023, an installation that exists even though its creators cannot verbally communicate\u2014Kojima doesn\u2019t speak English, Refn doesn\u2019t speak Japanese. They work in completely different media, film and video games. \u201cGrowing up in my situation in New York, Hideo in Tokyo, the idea of Satellites<\/em> was: We were individual artists, individual people, individual fathers, that basically communicated without ever really talking to each other,\u201d Refn said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe met in London, and met in many places, we even met in Saudi Arabia,\u201d Kojima said, through an interpreter.<\/p>\n The three of us were sitting in a lounge at the Chelsea, all of it closed off to only those with Prada Mode silver guest cards\u2014Prada had taken over the hotel, though there are still around 50 permanent tenants at the Chelsea, and they were invited too. At one point, Refn ordered a basket of bread, specifically rugbr\u00f8d from the Copenhagen-based outfit Juno the Bakery. The rye masters had been flown in to bake in situ.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve gone all over the world,\u201d Refn said.<\/p>\n And so what did they create for Prada Mode New York? There are the monitors in the lobby, retro-futuristic monitors that show both artists, and the pirate radio feed that plays on the TVs in the hotels. There are cassettes that were distributed to guests, along with cassette players complete with Prada-branded headphones. All of it was to allow the work\u2019s sonic element to play on analog platforms.<\/p>\n \u201cI have never stayed here at Hotel Chelsea before, but I had certainly heard of it. When we asked ourselves, \u2018Where is the center of gravity in New York?\u2019 We agreed that this hotel should be our base,\u201d Kojima said. \u201cWhen I was growing up in Japan, Tokyo was the first place everyone headed to if they were chasing success. Artists, musicians, actors, professors, you name it\u2014everyone came to Tokyo. Once you\u2019ve earned success in Tokyo, people would dream about going to the US. But not just anywhere in America: New York. New York was the place to go to be successful. It\u2019s a place filled with opportunities. So, what better place to bring the Aoyama exhibition for an even bigger stage than New York City and the Hotel Chelsea?\u201d<\/p>\n An important sticking point for the two artists was carte blanche to cook up whatever they wanted. That was not a problem.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we spoke with Mrs. Prada about Prada Mode, she didn\u2019t specify any certain direction for us to take. Instead, she gave us complete creative freedom,\u201d Kojima said. \u201cShe was very open about our ideas and basically said, \u2018That sounds great; go for it!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBecause we actually have a contract. It said, \u2018Good idea.\u2019 And all of us signed it,\u201d Refn said.<\/p>\n \u201cYes, we did that, we signed that,\u201d Kojima said.<\/p>\n After all the colloquy, surely there was time for supper, for which Prada rented out Katz\u2019s, the delicatessen on the Lower East Side that\u2019s been slinging cured meat even longer than creative types have been washing up at the Chelsea. You know the lines: \u201cI\u2019ll have what she\u2019s having,\u201d \u201cSend a salami to your boy in the army.\u201d I spotted several Prada-clad stars moseying under the tin-clad ceiling, including Shailene Woodley, who once worked<\/a> full-time at the now-defunct American Apparel store a block down Houston, on Orchard Street.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n