Where have the farmers gone? A show of drones, algorithms, and automated fields at Fondazione Prada

Cao Fei’s exhibition Dash at Fondazione Prada explores the transformation of agriculture through drones, algorithms, and automated farming, where human labor is gradually replaced by systems, data, and new technological rituals.

Images from Cao Fei’s exhibition ‘Dash’ Cao Fei
Dash, 2026
Multimedia installation, variable dimensions
Two-channel video, 47 min. 05 sec.; 9-panel photographic installation; rice paddy structures; weather stations; agricultural drones; autonomous vehicles; and XAG promotional footage; furnishings. Installation structure developed by Small Production. Courtesy of the artist, Vitamin Creative Space, and Sprüth Magers. Work produced by Fondazione Prada on the occasion of the exhibition Dash

Photo: Marta Marinotti and Federico Floriani. Courtesy of Fondazione Prada

Images from Cao Fei’s exhibition ‘Dash’ Cao Fei
The Birth, 2026
Multimedia installation, variable dimensions
Three-channel looped video; harvest-related props; altar; fertilizer sacks; banner; cushions; XAG agricultural drone.
Installation structure developed by Small Production.
Banner and cushions designed by Xiang Gao.
Courtesy of the artist, Vitamin Creative Space, and Sprüth Magers. Work produced by Fondazione Prada on the occasion of the exhibition Dash.

Photo: Peng Jing
Courtesy of Fondazione Prada

Photo: Marta Marinotti and Federico Floriani. Courtesy of Fondazione Prada

Photo: Peng Jing
Courtesy of Fondazione Prada

Images from Cao Fei’s exhibition ‘Dash’ Cao Fei
Dash 180-c, 2026
Installation, variable dimensions
Virtual reality game, 20 min. 15 sec.; 2-minute trailer.
Artificial banana trees, neon lights, print on glass, 2 sets of panoramic curved screens, 2 VR devices.
VR content development collaborator: VIVE Arts.
Music: Ma Haiping.
Installation structure developed by Small Production.
Courtesy of the artist, Vitamin Creative Space, and Sprüth Magers. Work produced by Fondazione Prada on the occasion of the exhibition Dash.

Photo: Marta Marinotti
Courtesy Fondazione Prada

Images from Cao Fei’s exhibition ‘Dash’ Cao Fei
Precision Agriculture, 2026
Reading space featuring a selection of books curated by Studio Cao Fei.
Courtesy of the artist. Work produced by Fondazione Prada on the occasion of the exhibition Dash.

Photo: Marta Marinotti and Federico Floriani. Courtesy of Fondazione Prada

Images from Cao Fei’s exhibition ‘Dash’

Photo: Marta Marinotti and Federico Floriani. Courtesy of Fondazione Prada

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Giorgia Aprosio
09 April 2026

When we think of automation, we often associate it with factories, logistics, and self-driving cars. Yet Marshall McLuhan reminds us that agriculture was the first technology humans invented to secure food. It is the original site of production, where climate, labor, resources, and land are deeply intertwined. It is precisely in agriculture that some of the defining tensions of our time become most visible: on the one hand, the promise of efficiency, precision, and control; on the other, the diminishing human presence, growing dependence on technological infrastructure, and the transformation of agricultural labor into data management. This is the terrain artist Cao Fei has been exploring over the past three years through research conducted across China and Southeast Asia.

Cao Fei. Photo: Marta Marinotti

It is from this close observation that Dash, the project she is now presenting at Fondazione Prada, emerged. The exhibition grows out of an investigation into the development of smart agriculture: drones, automated irrigation, mechanized harvesting, sensors, software, and new cultivation protocols. Yet the aim is not simply to catalogue these technologies. Rather, it is to understand what happens when our relationship with the land is mediated by screens, algorithms, and remote-control systems.

Cao Fei Southward Journey (still), 2026 Single-channel video, color, sound, 30min. Courtesy the artist, Vitamin Creative Space, and Sprüth Magers Work produced by Fondazione Prada on the occasion of the exhibition “Dash”

The question running through the entire project is as simple to pose as it is difficult to untangle: who will work, and how, in the agriculture of the future? Cao Fei places this question at the center of the exhibition, with striking clarity. Recalling a visit to a super farm in China in 2023, she says: “I noticed that there were virtually no humans in the fields.” In their place were hovering drones, automated vehicles, and systems for irrigation and harvesting. “That sci-fi future was already there. It was already present.”

The exhibition does not simply describe this transformation in technical terms. In Dash, agritech is not treated merely as a matter of productivity; it is shown to reshape food trade, logistics, global markets, and the organization of land itself.

As the artist points out, one of the exhibition’s most incisive themes is the friction between innovation and ritual: “During her research in Southeast Asia, the artist saw Vietnamese farmers lighting incense for drones, Cambodian women tying auspicious red ribbons to devices, and communities continuing to project expectations, fears, and forms of symbolic protection onto machines.”

Cao Fei Dash (still), 2026 Double-channel video, color, sound, 47min. Courtesy the artist, Vitamin Creative Space, and Sprüth Magers Work produced by Fondazione Prada on the occasion of the exhibition “Dash”

“No matter how advanced technology becomes, people still need a way to cope with their unease.” On the ground floor, amid a barn, a temple, a workstation, and virtual reality environments, the agricultural landscape appears as a hybrid space where automation coexists with archaic forms of devotion and memory. Upstairs, documents, books, interviews, and archival materials deepen this journey, showing that agricultural modernization is not a recent phenomenon but the result of a long political and cultural process.

Cao Fei Dash-180c (screenshot), 2026 Virtual Reality Game Courtesy the artist, Vitamin Creative Space, and Sprüth Magers Work produced by Fondazione Prada on the occasion of the exhibition “Dash”

Cao Fei: Dash
April 9 to September 28, 2026
Prada Foundation, Milan