Devendra Banhart has curated a new series of workshops, titled Imaginary Universes, which open at Fondazione Prada's Accademia dei bambini in Milan this Saturday, May 5, 2018. He will personally lead the inaugural workshops scheduled for that day, titled "The Astonishing Adventures of a Celestial Archaeologist."

In the spaces of the Accademia, every Saturday and Sunday, children will have the opportunity to travel through galaxies in a magic imaginary spacecraft. After sailing past stars, space cakes, asteroids and comets, they will arrive at an undiscovered planet, inhabited by strange animals, cheese trees, lights, colors and sounds never seen or heard in any other universe. Employing blank globes and markers, children will be able to invent fantastical unexplored planets.

Workshops are open to all children aged four to ten. Each workshop can host a maximum of fifteen children. Places are assigned on a first-come first-served basis. The complete program schedule for May can be found at fondazioneprada.org.

The Accademia dei Bambini is the first project Fondazione Prada has dedicated to children. Its program, overseen by neuropediatrician Giannetta Ottilia Latis, is designed to create a space in which cultural offerings linked to art, cinema, and science open up a dialogue between generations. Articulated in a series of themed workshops, each lasting several weeks, its programming is integrated in quarterly workshops led by “masters” in various disciplines.

The architectural layout of the Accademia, designed in collaboration with a group of young students from the École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Versailles (France), led by their teachers Cédric Libert and Elias Guenon, was developed according to archetypes, symbols and constructions designed to stimulate children’s imagination and creativity. The flexible nature of the setup allows the space to be organized according to different configurations, from a laboratory to a theatre, from a cinema to a stage.