White Carrara, the event that celebrates Made in Italy design and the excellence of the territory, is scheduled until September 23. The eighth edition, entitled “Design is back” and directed by Domenico Raimondi, promises to bring back to life a thousand-year-old tradition with a touch of innovation.
Carrara becomes an open-air gallery, an incubator of ideas and projects. The carefully positioned installations capture the attention of visitors, each telling a story of ingenuity and high craftsmanship, passed down from generation to generation. The homecoming of historic projects created in the laboratories of the city, recognized throughout the world for its prestigious marble, mixes with new proposals from contemporary designers.
Among the works that stand out, the Anna G. corkscrew shines in its new guise of veined statuary marble. This sculpture, created as a tribute to the twentieth anniversary of the corkscrew designed by Alessandro Mendini for Alessi, exudes an aura of elegance and simplicity, transforming an everyday object into a timeless icon.
Not far away, the installation Tree Table + Rabbit Chair by Stefano Giovannoni attracts with its combination of phytomorphic and zoomorphic forms. The rabbit-shaped seats and the phytomorphic table seem to have come out of a fairytale world, combining a playful-narrative dimension, ergonomics and functionality in a creation that stimulates wonder.
Il pouf Soulconceived by architect Simone Micheli, stands out for its fluid and unexpected lines. Made of statuarietto marble, it enhances the essence of the millenary material with soft and innovative shapes, inviting the public to touch with their hands the history of marble that comes to life.
Thanks to the collaboration between Alessi, Franchi Umberto Marmi and Angeloni Marble Studio, the collection Pleated by Michele De Lucchi is celebrated with a marble kettlelight and sculptural, capable of restoring the dynamism of the pleated dresses of the fifties and sixties.
At mudaC, the Carrara arts museum, the solo exhibitions of Paolo Cavinato and Gabriele Landi offer a unique look at contemporary design
In the project room of mudaC, the installation of Gabrielle Landientitled “To the mountains”offers a tribute to Carrara inspired by the “Captain’s Testament”, a dramatic song of the Alpine troops. With new volumes that invade the space and convey the grandeur of the mountains, the work presents itself as an epidermal cartographic map, developed in three dimensions with vibrant colors that recall the glow of marble under the sun. Made with the patience of an embroidery, it obtains new spaces from the artist’s carvings. In contrast, an installation of the opposite sign represents the reflection of the mountains: the valley, with anthropic signs on the vertical element and human presences that overlook as if on water.
Marco Cavinato’s recent and museum-quality works, including Solaris#5, produced site-specifically for the museum, transform the seventeenth-century convent into a symbolic place of experimentation. Cavinato challenges visitors to explore an interior world in which, once chaos has been ordered, it is possible to find oneself. Combining empty and full spaces, walkable or illusory, geometric or anthropized forms, his visual language blends painting, sculpture, photography, architecture, scenography and music. Cavinato’s works encourage visitors to investigate the limits and potential of their relationship with the world, arousing wonder and disquiet and casting doubt on every certainty.
The White Carrara journey is not limited to large installations. The smaller projects, exhibited in the windows and empty spaces of the city, such as the lamps/sculptures of the Luci di Cava project, tell stories of collaboration and innovation, the result of the encounter between internationally renowned designers and local craftsmen.
