Tuscan Design Double Bill: Outsiders Residency and Vestigia 2026

Key facts

• LABottega, a restaurant, rooms, and gallery in Pietrasanta, has been run by Serena del Soldato since 2011, originally opened by her great-grandparents in 1920.
• Del Soldato also runs La Stellata, an organic farm in Strettoia, where designers and artists are invited for residencies.
• Outsiders is a residency conceived with Tableau, a Copenhagen studio and gallery founded by Julius Værnes Iversen in 2018.
• The first Outsiders resident, Willem van Hoof, exhibited 'I'm Alone With My Thoughts' at LABottega in July 2026, featuring ceramic vessels with handwritten lines.
• A second residency by Berlin studio Yont produced 'Pietra Counter', a modular listening bar from marble offcuts supplied by Bloc Studios.
• Current residents Jacob Egeberg and Laurids Gallée work with marble discarded by quarries above Pietrasanta.
• Vestigia 2026, curated by Cosimo Bonciani, runs at Villa Marie in Vorno until 26 September 2026, with the theme 'Don't Call Me Collectible!'.
• Tableau and Bloc Studios present 'Isole' at Vestigia, a cluster of vessels in marble and onyx designed by Iversen with Elsa De Mori.
• Other Vestigia exhibitors include Costantino Gucci, Francesco Maria Messina, Nèemĕsi, IAMMI, and Etereo Design Studio.
• The show's location, Villa Marie, is an 18th-century estate restored by Marleen and Luc Van Marcke over seven years.
• Bonciani's curatorial stance draws on design historian Glenn Adamson and Carlo Mollino's quote, 'Everything is permitted, provided it is fantastic!'.
• The projects aim to shift focus from 'collectible' as a market label to the workshop and quarry, referencing 'art furniture' of 1870s England.