An edition of White Carrara all about design: in the city of marble, here's Design is Back

The White Carrara event returns from June 14 to Sept. 29, 2024, and this year’s edition is entirely devoted to Made in Italy design combined with local excellence, with a widespread exhibition of iconic pieces that tell a story of ingenuity and high craftsmanship passed down from generation to generation. The 2024 edition of White Carrara, titled Design is back and directed by Domenico Raimondi, features as its protagonist the white marble of Carrara, which over the centuries has attracted artists and creative people from all over the world, supported by skilled workers and advanced technology. White Carrara is promoted and produced by the Municipality of Carrara in collaboration with Internazionale Marmi and Macchine CarraraFiere SpA, with the co-participation of the Northwest Tuscany Chamber of Commerce, the patronage of the Region of Tuscany and the contribution of the Marble Foundation.

During the summer, Carrara will become a sort of en plein air gallery, a place for incubating ideas, projects and proposals, as well as a privileged meeting point for designers, architects, artists, craftsmen, companies and enthusiasts. The exhibition-event Design is back will be organized around two main nuclei: on the one hand, the “homecoming” of some of the projects created over time in the city’s workshops, and on the other, the new proposals of contemporary designers, encouraging the meeting between generations and the transmission of know-how. The project 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 artistic director Domenico Raimondi.

Design is back is also meant to be an opportunity to pay homage to fundamental pieces of Italian design history, such as the Anna G. corkscrew, the Tree Table + Rabbit Chair and the Soul pouf, but also to present new outsized marble productions, such as the kettle from Michele De Lucchi’s Plissè collection and the Bernardo panda by designer Elena Salmistraro, and excellences from the territory, such as Paolo Ulian’s Introverso and Pixel washbasins. The one-of-a-kind sculpture Anna G., made of veined statuary marble by Sa.Ge.Van., was conceived as a tribute to the 20th anniversary of the eponymous corkscrew designed by Alessandro Mendini for Alessi in 1994.

Designed by Stefano Giovannoni and created by Robot City in 2014 for the Salone del Mobile, Tree Table + Rabbit Chair is a marble installation consisting of a phytomorphic table and zoomorphic seats in the shape of rabbits. Combining playful-narrative dimensions, ergonomics, and functionality, Tree Table + Rabbit Chair over time have transformed into a Qeeboo product family of strong media communication. Soul, on the other hand, is a statuary marble pouf-sculpture with unprecedented fluid lines. Conceived by architect Simone Micheli and made by Sa.Ge.Van. in 2023, it enhances the essence of the millennial material through soft and unexpected shapes.

Through a 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 garments of the 1950s and 1960s.

For White Carrara 2024, Elena Salmistraro and the Barattini family, through Studi d’Arte Carrara, will create Bernardo in the fine white marble of Cave Michelangelo. Bernardo is a panda, designed in 2020 and produced by Bosa Ceramiche, a symbol of all endangered species. A hero of our times ready to fight to defend all other animals by reminding us, human beings, how vital the salvation of our planet is.

His affection for his city led 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 forms. The rough-hewn technique, usually used for sculptures, allows the designer to strip and reveal the form and soul of the objects. Smaller objects, displayed in storefronts but also in vacant funds with a view to urban regeneration, include lamps by Martinelli Luce, the Up&Up collection of historic design 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 artists, workshops and art galleries in the area, which will animate the historic center with exhibitions and events related to the event. In anticipation of White Carrara 2024, theAcademy of Fine Arts of Carrara has involved its students in recovering the memory of design in Carrara, which in the recent past has seen Santini, Munari, Coppola and Mangiarotti as teachers. The series of meetings titled Design: between nature and beauty, the fascination of marble, addressed to students in the design and sculpture course, started a creative path that ended with the creation of 8 product design projects dedicated to marble.

Special events aimed at citizens and the public are planned: guided tours to art workshops and in stone companies in collaboration with Carrara Studi Aperti, excursions to quarries, activities for children, musical events and food and wine initiatives with the involvement of trade associations and local producers.

White Carrara also wants to be an opportunity to promote the excellence of the area 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 exhibition Romana marmora. Stories of Emperors, Gods and Quarrymen, set up at the CARMI museum Carrara and Michelangelo, thus drawing an ideal connection between Carrara’s origins, linked to the artistic working of marble, and its current declinations. At mudaC | museo delle arti Carrara, the White Carrara visual arts section, curated by Cinzia Compalati, features solo exhibitions by artists Paolo Cavinato and Gabriele Landi, whose achievements meet aesthetic tangents with the theme of design. For more information and insights: https://whitecarrara.it/.

“Over the years,” Domenico Raimondi explains, “Italian and international design has resorted to the quarries of Carrara for the creation of everyday objects of high aesthetic value, using the historical and perfect synergy between the high craftsmanship of artisanal 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 squeezed into processing times, only to be revealed in stores and showrooms around the world, becoming the protagonist of everyday living. We believe in the culture of design as a collective practice, where different ideas, skills and realities meet and mingle, providing tools and qualities that every project needs. We have built White Carrara 2024 with the valuable artisanal, artistic, cultural and entrepreneurial forces of a community and the treasures of a territory: it is truly a collective experience, based on the responsibility and generosity of sharing what Carrara is capable of. Sharing makes a community stronger, cohesive, proud and makes it courageous, strong and flexible in the face of difficulties. This is the White we have built together, with passion and determination.”

An edition of White Carrara all about design: in the city of marble, here's Design is Back

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