From 14 June to 29 September 2024 White Carrara returns, event that celebrates Made in Italy design and the excellence of the territory with a widespread exhibition of iconic pieces, which tell a story of ingenuity and high craftsmanship, handed down from generation to generation. Protagonist of the eighth edition – entitled Design is back and directed by Domenico Raimondi – is the white Carrara marble, which over the centuries has attracted artists and creatives from all over the world, supported by qualified workers and advanced technology. White Carrara is promoted and produced by the Municipality of Carrara in collaboration with Internazionale Marmi e Macchine CarraraFiere SpA, in partnership with the North-West Tuscany Chamber of Commerce, with the patronage of the Tuscany Region and the contribution of the Marmo Foundation. For the whole summer, Carrara will become an open air gallery, an incubator of ideas, projects, proposals and a privileged place for discussion between designers, architects and artists, artisans and companies, professionals and enthusiasts. The Design is back exhibition-event will develop around two main nuclei: on the one hand the “return home” of some projects created over time in the city’s laboratories, on the other the new proposals of contemporary designers, to facilitate the meeting between generations and the transmission of know-how.
A project that has led renowned Italian design brands, such as Alessi, Antonio Lupi Design, Bosa and Martinelli Luce, to forge new collaborations with local companies, at the invitation of the artistic director Domenico Raimondi.
«Over the years – explains Domenico Raimondi – Italian and international design has resorted to the Carrara quarries for the creation of objects for everyday use, with a high aesthetic value, using the historical and perfect synergy between the high craftsmanship of the artisan workshops and the innovative professionalism of local companies. A true design and cultural heritage, visionary and aesthetic, which often remains hidden from the city, locked up in workplaces and limited in processing times, to then reveal itself in stores and showrooms all over the world, becoming the protagonist of everyday life” .
Design is back will be an opportunity to pay homage to fundamental pieces in the history of Italian design – the Anna G. corkscrew, the Tree Table + Rabbit Chair with seats, the Soul pouf, among others – but also to present new productions in out-of-scale marble, such as the kettle from the Plissè collection by Michele De Lucchi and the Bernardo panda by designer Elena Salmistraro, and local excellences, such as the Introverso and Pixel washbasins by Paolo Ulian. The Anna G. sculpture was created as a single example in veined statuary marble by Sa.Ge.Van. as a tribute on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the corkscrew of the same name, designed by Alessandro Mendini for Alessi in 1994. Ten years later, the iconic Anna G. in marble is presented to the public again for White Carrara. Designed by Stefano Giovannoni and created by Robot City in 2014 for the Salone del Mobile, Tree Table + Rabbit Chair is a marble installation composed of a phytomorphic table and zoomorphic seats in the shape of rabbits. Combining a playful-narrative dimension, ergonomics and functionality, Tree Table + Rabbit Chair have transformed over time into a family of Qeeboo products with strong media communication. Soul is a pouf-sculpture in statuary marble with original fluid lines. Conceived by architect Simone Micheli and created by Sa.Ge.Van. in 2023, it enhances the essence of the millenary material through soft and unexpected shapes. Thanks to the synergy between Alessi and Franchi Umberto Marmi, the Plissè collection, designed by Michele De Lucchi, is celebrated through the proposal of a contemporary object with distant roots. A large marble kettle, sculptural yet very light, capable of restoring the dynamism of the pleated dresses of the fifties and sixties.
For White Carrara 2024, Elena Salmistraro and the Barattini family, through Studi d’Arte Carrara, will create Bernardo in the precious white marble of the Michelangelo Cave. Bernardo is a panda, designed in 2020 and produced by Bosa Ceramiche, symbol of all species at risk of extinction. A hero of our times ready to fight to defend all other animals, reminding us, human beings, how vital the salvation of our planet is.
The affection for his city ultimately leads Paolo Ulian to exhibit for White Carrara 2024 Introverso and Pixel, two cylindrical washbasins designed for Antonio Lupi Design, which through human intervention reveal unique and unrepeatable shapes. The rough-hewn technique, usually used for sculptures, allows the designer to strip and reveal the shape and soul of the objects.
Among the smaller objects, displayed in shop windows, but also in vacant lots, with a view to urban regeneration, we highlight the lamps by Martinelli Luce, the historical design collection Up&Up by Upgroup and the La Casa di Pietra collection by Gumdesign.
White Carrara 2024 will also have an Off Circuit, thanks to the participation of local artists, workshops and art galleries, who will liven up the historic center with exhibitions and collateral events to the event.
«We believe in the culture of the project as a collective practice, in which different ideas, skills and realities meet and mix, making available the tools and qualities that every project needs», underlines Raimondi. «We built White Carrara 2024 with the precious artisanal, artistic, cultural and entrepreneurial forces of a community and the treasures of a territory: it is truly a collective experience, founded on the responsibility and generosity of sharing what Carrara is capable of doing. Sharing makes a community stronger, more cohesive, proud and makes it courageous, strong and flexible in the face of difficulties. This is the White that we built together, with passion and determination.”
In anticipation of White Carrara 2024, the Academy of Fine Arts of Carrara has involved its students in recovering the memory of design in Carrara, which in the recent past saw Santini, Munari, Coppola and Mangiarotti as teachers. The series of meetings entitled Design: between nature and beauty, the charm of marble aimed at students of the design and sculpture course started a creative journey that ended with the creation of 8 product design projects dedicated to marble.
Special events aimed at citizens and the public are planned: guided visits to artistic laboratories and stone companies in collaboration with Carrara Studi Aperti, excursions to the quarries, activities for children, musical events and food and wine initiatives with the involvement of trade associations and local producers.
White Carrara is an opportunity to promote the excellence of the territory and confirm Carrara’s vocation as a UNESCO Creative City, through an initiative that aims to tell the “landscape” of marble, the history of a community and the identity of places.
White Carrara takes place simultaneously with the Romana marmora exhibition. Stories of emperors, gods and quarrymen, set up at the CARMI Carrara and Michelangelo museum (https://carmi.museocarraraemichelangelo.it/), thus tracing an ideal connection between the origins of Carrara, linked to the artistic processing of marble, and its current declensions. Al mudaC | Carrara arts museum (https://mudac.museodellearticarrara.it/), the section dedicated to the visual arts of White Carrara is set up, curated by Cinzia Compalati, with the personal exhibitions of the artists Paolo Cavinato and Gabriele Landi, whose creations meet aesthetic tangents with the theme of design.
For information and further information: https://whitecarrara.it/.
White Carrara 2024 is signed by Domenico Raimondi – thesignlab, a laboratory of creatives and designers who work in the design and visual field. Art director and designer, Raimondi completed his technical studies at the European Institute of Design in Turin. His training includes a master’s degree in landscape design directed by the IED Research Center in Milan as well as important international project experiences relating to exhibit design, event planning and communication. Founder of the creative laboratory that bears his name active in Lucca and Turin, he works in the design and visual field with particular reference to projects and organization of residential, commercial, exhibition and museum interior design. Always alongside leading institutions and companies
in the creation of exhibition and communication solutions through direct synergies with the marketing, visual and brand promotion offices.
WHITE CARRARA 2024
Design is back
Artistic direction: Domenico Raimondi – thesignlab
Carrara (MS), historic centre
14 June – 29 September 2024
Conference and press preview: Thursday 13 June, 11.30 am
Inauguration: Friday 14 June, 6.00 pm
Thanks to
Companies / Laboratories Carrara
AD Marmi, Bufalini Marmi, Bruno Lucchetti, Carrara Design Favtory, Cave Lazzareschi, Cave Michelangelo, Dansk, Dedalo, Elle Marmi, Franchi Umberto Marmi, Furrer, Graziani Marmi, IGF Marmi, Il Fiorino, Interni Now, Michelangelo srl, Marmi Borghini, Marmi Carrara, Max Marmi, Petacchi Marmo, Robot City, Sa.Ge.Van., Studi d’Arte Carrara, Successori Aldfo Corsi, Torart, Up Group
Design companies
Alessi, Antonio Lupi, Bosa ceramiche, Martinelli Luce
Designers / Architects / Artists
Nicholas Bertoux, Olga Bielewska, Eugenio Biselli, Luisa Bocchietto, Michel Boucquillon, Giulio Cappellini, Paolo Cavinato, Nina Cho, Carlo Colombi, Robert Courtright, Michele De Lucchi, Carlo Alberto Gasperini, Stefano Giovannoni, Gumdesign, Gabriele Landi, Antonio Leone, Tiziano Lera, Donia Maaoui, Emiliana Martinelli, Alessandro Mendini, Simone Micheli, Emiliano Moretti, Michele Monfroni, Claudio Nardi, Andrea Ponsi, Benvenuto Saba, Cynthia Sah, Marta Sansoni, Elena Salmistraro, Studio Formart, Paolo Ulian.
Collaborations
Academy of Fine Arts of Carrara, Oltre Aps, CNA Carrara, Confcommercio Carrara, Vox marmoris
INFORMATION
White Carrara 2024
PRESS OFFICES
RPpress
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CSArt – Communication for Art
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White Carrara 2024 press kit: https://bit.ly/WhiteCarrara2024
