Fondazione Prada presents Dash, a new multimedia project devised by Chinese artist Cao Fei for its Milan venue combining multiple languages ranging from photography to video installation, from virtual reality to documentary footage, and archival material, to trace a complex portrait of a global agricultural technological revolution and its inherent contradictions.

Dash unfolds from Cao Fei’s long-term research. Over the past three years, Cao Fei has immersed herself in farmlands across southern and northwestern China, as well as Southeast Asia, observing and interpreting the emergence of smart agriculture.

Currently, global and Chinese agriculture, particularly, is confronting multiple severe challenges: extreme weather caused by climate change, constraints on grain yield growth due to water scarcity, and the exacerbation of the “agricultural labor shortage” issue by rural population outflow. This project reflects on how technology enhances efficiency, reduces labor, and safeguards food security amid climate uncertainty and rural aging. It also explores how algorithms are displacing traditional knowledge, reshaping human-land relationships, and changing rural-urban dynamics, raising concerns about ecology, employment, and cultural continuity.