Whether or not you’re exploring the South of France from Marseille or Good, we line up your cultural agenda of design-led exhibitions to not miss within the space this symmer. As you roam personal properties and main artwork foundations, count on to find the most recent cohort of experimental rising designers from the Design Parade, names of the moments reminiscent of Jamie Hayon, Corridor Haus and Olivia Cognet, themes from craft to id and activism, plus new framings of Twentieth-century masters from Enzo Mari, to Yves Saint Laurent and Eileen Grey.
Summer season 2025 within the South of France: design exhibitions to see
Jaime Hayon and Harry Nuriev on the Design Parade
Jaime Hayon ‘Le Miroir’ on the Design Parade 2025
(Picture credit score: Luc Bertrand)
As ever, this yr’s Design Parade celebrates rising creativity by way of line-ups of 10 younger designers throughout two places: design on the Nineteen Thirties Villa Noailles in Hyères and inside design on the Ancien Évêché in Toulon. These are presided over by a grand jury of consultants who chosen this yr’s competitors winners: Thomas Takada, Simon Dupety, Malo Gagliardini, Marie Gastini, Magali Lamoureux and Joanne Riachi, Johan Karrebæk Thun, Kelly Eng and Marie Piplard.
(Picture credit score: Luc Bertrand)
The 2 solo exhibitions by this yr’s jury presidents had been contrasting but equally compelling: Harry Nuriev’s ‘The Transformist Condominium’, an assemblage of objects made from common-place supplies from plastic pens, microwaves, brown tape and white t-shirts, and Jaime Hayon’s ‘Le Miroir’, an introspective workshop that invitations perception into his vibrant manufacturing course of.
Sacha Father or mother & Valentine Tiraboschi ‘Mécaniques Granulaires’ on the Design Parade 2025
(Picture credit score: Luc Bertrand)
The exhibition of experiments by 2024 winners Sacha Father or mother and Valentine Tiraboschi, exhibits the fruitful outcomes of their yr of utilized analysis at Cirva (Worldwide Middle of Glass and Plastic Arts) and the Manufacture de Sévres.
Villa Noailles, 47 Montée Noailles, Hyères.
Till 7 September.
Ancien Évêché, 69 cours Lafayette, Toulon.
Till 1 November.
Une Maison á Saint-Tropez
(Picture credit score: Mathilde Hiley)
Architect and designer Isabelle Castanier has imagined an exhibition titled ‘Sieste, songe and légèreté’ following the levels of an escapist siesta. She has introduced collectively mates and designers to her childhood dwelling of Saint-Tropez, the place, in the home of her grandparents, a spot that has formed her creative sensibility, units and objects rejoice ‘each heritage and avant-garde, the gesture and the concept’.
(Picture credit score: Mathilde Hiley)
This yr, there are shell-framed mirrors by ceramicist Léa Ginac; Wendy Andreu’s Dragon chair; daring, layered oyster-shell mirrors by Louis Bressolles setting a surrealist scene; delicate natural silversmithing by Margaux Toussaint; tableware by Natalia Criado and vibrant ceramic plates by Samantha Kerdine within the backyard. Additionally on present in Saint-Tropez this summer season, Shaha Raphaël’s restricted version assortment for Home of At the moment.
Place des Lices, 17 avenue Foch, Saint-Tropez.
Till 22 August 2025.
Yelena Yemchuk and Spilka at Kolektiv Cité Radieuse
Set up of Yelena Yemchuk and Spilka’s Bibliothek at Kolektiv Cité Radieuse
(Picture credit score: Courtesy Kolektiv Cité Radieuse)
This summer season, Kolektiv Cité Radieuse in Marseille presents unseen private photograph archives and new collection’ of works by cult Ukrainian-American photographer, artist and director Yelena Yemchuk. Exploring themes of id, youth, folklore and post-modernity, the pictures seize her fading childhood reminiscences of summers by the Dnipro River and goals of the bohemian Odesa (Yemchuk immigrated from Soviet Ukraine to Brooklyn when she was 11 years outdated). After finding out artwork and images in New York and California, she returned to Ukraine 15 years later in 1991 (after the nation’s independence) with a 35mm Minolta digicam.
Her most up-to-date collection was shot within the Lviv area as late as June 2025. Co-curated with The Bare Room Kyiv, the place the exhibition will journey to in November, ‘Ithaca / Ітака’ is Yemchuk’s tribute to ‘the unbreakable spirit of Ukrainian ladies of all ages’ and aligns with the activist vitality of ‘La Bibliothek’ a satellite tv for pc bookshop targeted on unbiased publishers, curated by Spilka, a collective of Ukrainian multi-disciplinary creatives primarily based in Paris.
Kolektiv Cité Radieuse, Unité d’Habitation Le Corbusier, Marseille.
Till 30 August 2025 / screening programme till 30 October 2025.
Dragon Hill’s design residency
Left, Agnès Debizet’s ‘Crustacé’ chair. Proper: Stucco and ceramic tables by Bella Hunt & Dante Di Calce
(Picture credit score: Alexis Armanet)
Within the hills above Cannes, Dragon Hill is uniquely alive with artist residencies, outside sculptures and the natural Nineteen Sixties structure of Jacques Couëlle. This summer season, the cavernous home has been reworked right into a design showroom. Couëlle’s philosophies of craft, nature and atmosphere are found within the works on show: Irene Cattaneo’s expressive hand-blown Murano glass lamp and Rosa Egiziano marble desk; Agnès Debizet’s ‘Crustacé’ chair made from stoneware and porcelain; André Dubreuil’s welded sheet metal creations; brutal and bulbous shapes by Atelier van Lieshout; a surrealist mirror from the Nineteen Seventies by Victor Roman; and stucco and ceramic tables by Bella Hunt & Dante Di Calce conceived as ‘temporal bubbles’.
In Could, Dragon Hill celebrated the inaugural version of its sculpture backyard, with artists together with Claudia Comte, Gisela Colón and Thomas Houseago. The Twentieth century legacy of the home, which welcomed Picasso, Jean Cocteau, Yves Saint Laurent and Yves Klein as residents, has been revived with a recent environment of creativity.
Dragon Hill, Chemin de Castellaras, Mouans-Sartoux.
Olivia Cognet’s vestiges and visions
Olivia Cognet’s Vallauris showroom
(Picture credit score: Eleonora Paciullo)
At ceramicist Olivia Cognet’s new showroom in Vallauris, round 50 works are on show – from ceramic bas-reliefs and glazed lava sculptures, to chandeliers, totems and six-meter-long tables. Positioned within the historic city of ceramists, which is dwelling to the Musée nationwide Pablo Picasso, the showroom occupies an outdated constructing the place early Twentieth century kilns stay. The exhibition titled ‘Vestiges’ nods to this reminiscence and custom.
(Picture credit score: Eleonora Paciullo)
In the meantime in Monaco, a second future-focussed chapter, ‘Visions’, takes place at Renzo Piano’s new Mareterra coastal improvement. Right here, extra sculptural works are on show, this time suspended over the Mediterranean Sea on an experimental stage. Knowledgeable by the work of Roger Capron (whose former studio she now inhabits) and Jacques Couelle (architect of Dragon Hill, situated a brief drive away from Vallauris in Mouans-Sartoux), Cognet blends the cultural historical past of the Côte d’Azur with the modernism of California and Los Angeles, the place she learnt to mannequin clay.
Olivia Cognet Showroom, 58 avenue Georges Clémenceau, Vallauris.
8 Quai du Petit Portier, Mareterra, Monaco.
Helps/Surfaces at Fondation CAB
(Picture credit score: Courtesy: Partenaires particulaires (helps, surfaces, dissémination), 2025 Fondation CAB Saint-Paul de Vence © Antoine Lippens)
The DKR chair by Corridor Haus pays homage to the normal West African palaver chair, a logo of oral transmission and communal gathering, reimagined by way of a recent lens. This yr, t chair joined France’s nationwide furnishings assortment, the Mobilier Nationwide, and options within the exhibition ‘Partenaires particulaires (helps, surfaces, dissémination)’ at Fondation CAB in Saint-Paul de Vence curated by Hugo Vitrani.
The group present of artwork, sculpture and design shines gentle on Helps/Surfaces, an avant-garde motion originating within the Nineteen Sixties that bodily deconstructed the apply of artwork in an anti-capitalist stance. There are grid-like sculptures by Daniel Dezeuze, experiments in uncooked canvas by Edith Dekyndt, and constructions of widespread supplies by Japanese artist Miho Dohi. Corridor Haus additionally designed the scenography for the Design Parade this yr and the artwork course of the upcoming ‘Design District’ at Maison&Objet in Paris this September. Their presence at Fondation CAB displays on ‘how design can function not solely as type or perform, however as cultural expression, social critique, and shared reminiscence.’
Fondation CAB, 766 Chemin des Trious, Saint-Paul de Vence.
Till October 31 2025.
Cacti and Chanel at NMNM
(Picture credit score: Nouveau Musée Nationwide de Monaco / Andrea Rossetti, 2025)
The prickly waxy structure of the cactus is documented throughout disciplines on this exhibition merely titled ‘Cactus’, curated by Nouveau Musée Nationwide de Monaco (NMNM) in collaboration with the Musée Yves Saint Laurent in Marrakech. By way of historic and up to date images, drawings and design objects, the present traces the story of the cactus within the West throughout views from the Nineteenth century to immediately. You’ll discover an Artwork Nouveau lamp designed by Louis Majorelle primarily based on the morphology of an Opuntia. Spiny and natural architectures in glass by René Lalique, silver by Maison Buccellati and crystal by Hilton McConnico for Daum.
(Picture credit score: Nouveau Musée Nationwide de Monaco / Andrea Rossetti, 2025)
Maurizio Galante’s furnishings which performs on prickles and luxury and Paul Smith’s ‘Dawn Cactus’ coat stand for Gufram (initially designed in 1972) leans into the eccentric spirit of the shape. In addition to exploring the Jardin Majorelle in Marrakech and César Manrique’s El Jardín de Cactus in Lanzarote, it extends out into the gardens of the Villa Sauber the place a cactus patch has been designed by the Unique Backyard of Monaco. When you’re visiting, don’t miss ‘Les Années folles de Coco Chanel’ at NMNM’s sister Villa Paloma, which explores Gabrielle Chanel’s creativity within the context of the Côte d’Azur within the Nineteen Twenties.
NMNM / Villa Sauber, 17 Avenue Princesse Grace, Monaco.
Till 11 January 2026.
NMNM / Villa Paloma, 56 Bd du Jardin Exotique, Monaco.
Till 5 October 2025.
The design edit at Rencontres d’Arles
(Picture credit score: Stéphane Couturier, Villa Eileen Grey – #29, E-1027+123 collection, 2021–2022. Courtesy of the artist / Galerie Christophe Gaillard)
Design, craft, structure and vogue emerge in lots of sides of this yr’s Rencontres d’Arles below the theme of ‘Disobedient Photographs’ directed by Christoph Wiesner, the place photographs transfer past an ‘exoticising gaze’ and in direction of trade and ‘cultural translation’ extending the theories of anthropologist Alban Bensa. Indigenous chief Célia Tupinambá recovers the stitching custom of the sacred Tupinambá cloak as a type of anti-colonial activism. Louise Mutrel explores the phenomenon of Japanese ‘dekotora’ vehicles, an car customization craze of the Nineteen Seventies influenced by post-war American tradition. Fashionable concrete urbanism in Brazil is seen by way of the lens of the Foto Cine Clube Bandeirante (FCCB), an modern newbie images membership in São Paulo.
(Picture credit score: Stéphane Couturier, Villa Eileen Grey – #29, E-1027+123 collection, 2021–2022. Courtesy of the artist / Galerie Christophe Gaillard)
Stéphane Couturier blurs notion and creativeness of Eileen Grey’s E-1027 villa on the Riviera, and an exhibition of 80 works explores Yves Saint Laurent’s relationship to images. Learn extra about this yr’s Rencontres d’Arles right here.
Varied places throughout Arles.
Ralph Pucci at Château La Coste
(Picture credit score: Antoine Bootz)
This summer season, the New York Metropolis studio of Ralph Pucci has been transplanted to Chateau La Coste’s Oscar Niemeyer-designed pavilion. Commemorating 70 years of enterprise, and 50 years with Ralph Pucci on the helm, the exhibition titled ‘Pure: Made in New York: a celebration of a sculpture studio’ brings collectively furnishings and lighting editions by 13 artists and designers – together with Patrick Naggar, Elizabeth Garouste, Nina Seirafi and Xavier Lust – all made from white ‘plasterglass’, a fabric patented by the studio.
Established within the Nineteen Fifties as a model restore firm, Ralph Pucci has developed right into a collectible design gallery for furnishings and lighting, reworking hand-sculpted plaster and clay prototypes into merchandise at its New York studio and manufacturing facility. Celebrating the ‘workshop, course of, craftsmanship and the hand of the artist’, Ralph Pucci grasp sculptor Paul Mathieu is conducting dwell sculptures demonstrations recreating the environment of the New York sculpture studio to a jazz playlist – that includes Miles Davis and Chet Baker – paying homage to the music of the Nineteen Fifties. Expertise extra of the exhibition right here.
Château La Coste, 2750 Route De La Cride, Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade.
Till 21 September 2025.
Youngsters’s design in Toulon
(Picture credit score: Luc Bertrand)
Inhabiting a former Nineteenth-century mansion, this joyful unfolding of the world of kids’s design – titled ‘Petits Mondes’ – brings collectively some 200 works from round 60 designers, protecting furnishings, toys, ornamental objects and illustrated books. Tracing the evolution of kids’s furnishings from the Fashionable motion onwards, and that includes the likes of Enzo Mari, Bruno Munari and Katsumi Komagata, it exhibits the shifting materiality, imaginations, wants and narrative approaches throughout time.
(Picture credit score: Luc Bertrand)
This presentation follows the 2024 exhibition ‘L’Enfance du design’ (the Childhood of Design) held on the Centre Pompidou in Paris; now it has arrived in Toulon as a satellite tv for pc exhibition of the Design Parade and as a part of the Centre Pompidou Constellation programme, which seeks to showcase the gathering of the Musée Nationwide d’Artwork Moderne whereas the Centre Pompidou is present process transformation from summer season 2025 to early 2030.
Hôtel des Arts, 236 Boulevard Marechal Leclerc, Toulon.
Till 2 November.
Supply: Wallpaper
