site: Various locations (Carrara, Massa Carrara).
From 14 June to 29 September 2024 White Carrara returns, an 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.
The 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.
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 statuary marble pouf-sculpture 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.
Finally, affection for his city leads Paolo Ulian to exhibit Introverso and Pixel for White Carrara 2024, 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 promoted and produced by the Municipality of Carrara in collaboration with Internazionale Marmi e Macchine Carrara Fiere, in partnership with the North-West Tuscany Chamber of Commerce
Information
whitecarrara.it
Featured image
Anna G by Alessandro Mendini for Alessi, 1994, production in Sa.Ge.Van. marble, 2014
