Heading to the South of France this summer? Don't miss our guide to the best design exhibitions in the area

Whether you’re exploring the South of France from Marseille or Nice, we line up your cultural agenda of design-led exhibitions not to miss in the area this symmer. As you roam private homes and leading art foundations, expect to discover the latest cohort of experimental emerging designers from the Design Parade, names of the moments such as Jamie Hayon, Hall Haus and Olivia Cognet, themes from craft to identity and activism, plus new framings of 20th-century masters from Enzo Mari, to Yves Saint Laurent and Eileen Gray.

Summer 2025 in the South of France: design exhibitions to see

Jaime Hayon and Harry Nuriev at the Design Parade

As ever, this year’s Design Parade celebrates emerging creativity through line-ups of 10 young designers across two locations: design at the 1930s Villa Noailles in Hyères and interior design at the Ancien Évêché in Toulon. These are presided over by a grand jury of experts who selected this year’s competition winners: Thomas Takada, Simon Dupety, Malo Gagliardini, Marie Gastini, Magali Lamoureux and Joanne Riachi, Johan Karrebæk Thun, Kelly Eng and Marie Piplard.

The two solo exhibitions by this year's jury presidents were contrasting yet equally compelling: Harry Nuriev’s ‘The Transformist Apartment’, an assemblage of objects made of common-place materials from plastic pens, microwaves, brown tape and white t-shirts, and Jaime Hayon’s ‘Le Miroir’, an introspective workshop that invites insight into his vibrant production process.

The exhibition of experiments by 2024 winners Sacha Parent and Valentine Tiraboschi, shows the fruitful results of their year of applied research at Cirva (International Center of Glass and Plastic Arts) and the Manufacture de Sévres.

Villa Noailles, 47 Montée Noailles, Hyères.
Until 7 September.

Ancien Évêché, 69 cours Lafayette, Toulon.
Until 1 November.

Une Maison á Saint-Tropez

Architect and designer Isabelle Castanier has imagined an exhibition titled ‘Sieste, songe and légèreté’ following the stages of an escapist siesta. She has brought together friends and designers to her childhood home of Saint-Tropez, where, in the house of her grandparents, a place that has shaped her artistic sensibility, sets and objects celebrate ‘both heritage and avant-garde, the gesture and the idea’.

This year, there are shell-framed mirrors by ceramicist Léa Ginac; Wendy Andreu’s Dragon chair; bold, layered oyster-shell mirrors by Louis Bressolles setting a surrealist scene; delicate organic silversmithing by Margaux Toussaint; tableware by Natalia Criado and colourful ceramic plates by Samantha Kerdine in the garden. Also on show in Saint-Tropez this summer, Shaha Raphaël’s limited edition collection for House of Today.

Place des Lices, 17 avenue Foch, Saint-Tropez.
Until 22 August 2025.

Yelena Yemchuk and Spilka at Kolektiv Cité Radieuse

This summer, Kolektiv Cité Radieuse in Marseille presents unseen personal photo archives and new series’ of works by cult Ukrainian-American photographer, artist and director Yelena Yemchuk. Exploring themes of identity, youth, folklore and post-modernity, the photographs capture her fading childhood memories of summers by the Dnipro River and dreams of the bohemian Odesa (Yemchuk immigrated from Soviet Ukraine to Brooklyn when she was 11 years old). After studying art and photography in New York and California, she returned to Ukraine 15 years later in 1991 (after the country's independence) with a 35mm Minolta camera.

Her most recent series was shot in the Lviv region as late as June 2025. Co-curated with The Naked Room Kyiv, where the exhibition will travel to in November, ‘Ithaca / Ітака’ is Yemchuk’s tribute to ‘the unbreakable spirit of Ukrainian women of all ages’ and aligns with the activist energy of ‘La Bibliothek’ a satellite bookshop focused on independent publishers, curated by Spilka, a collective of Ukrainian multi-disciplinary creatives based in Paris.

Kolektiv Cité Radieuse, Unité d'Habitation Le Corbusier, Marseille.
Until 30 August 2025 / screening programme until 30 October 2025.

Dragon Hill’s design residency

In the hills above Cannes, Dragon Hill is uniquely alive with artist residencies, outdoor sculptures and the organic 1960s architecture of Jacques Couëlle. This summer, the cavernous house has been transformed into a design showroom. Couëlle’s philosophies of craft, nature and environment are discovered in the works on display: Irene Cattaneo’s expressive hand-blown Murano glass lamp and Rosa Egiziano marble table; Agnès Debizet’s ‘Crustacé’ chair made of stoneware and porcelain; André Dubreuil’s welded sheet steel creations; brutal and bulbous shapes by Atelier van Lieshout; a surrealist mirror from the 1970s by Victor Roman; and stucco and ceramic tables by Bella Hunt & Dante Di Calce conceived as ‘temporal bubbles’.

In May, Dragon Hill celebrated the inaugural edition of its sculpture garden, with artists including Claudia Comte, Gisela Colón and Thomas Houseago. The 20th century legacy of the house, which welcomed Picasso, Jean Cocteau, Yves Saint Laurent and Yves Klein as residents, has been revived with a contemporary atmosphere of creativity.

Dragon Hill, Chemin de Castellaras, Mouans-Sartoux.

Olivia Cognet’s vestiges and visions

At ceramicist Olivia Cognet’s new showroom in Vallauris, around 50 works are on display – from ceramic bas-reliefs and glazed lava sculptures, to chandeliers, totems and six-meter-long tables. Located in the historic town of ceramists, which is home to the Musée national Pablo Picasso, the showroom occupies an old building where early 20th century kilns remain. The exhibition titled ‘Vestiges’ nods to this memory and tradition.

Meanwhile in Monaco, a second future-focussed chapter, ‘Visions’, takes place at Renzo Piano’s new Mareterra coastal development. Here, more sculptural works are on display, this time suspended over the Mediterranean Sea on an experimental stage. Informed by the work of Roger Capron (whose former studio she now inhabits) and Jacques Couelle (architect of Dragon Hill, located a short drive away from Vallauris in Mouans-Sartoux), Cognet blends the cultural history of the Côte d’Azur with the modernism of California and Los Angeles, where she learnt to model clay.

Olivia Cognet Showroom, 58 avenue Georges Clémenceau, Vallauris.
8 Quai du Petit Portier, Mareterra, Monaco.

Supports/Surfaces at Fondation CAB

The DKR chair by Hall Haus pays homage to the traditional West African palaver chair, a symbol of oral transmission and communal gathering, reimagined through a contemporary lens. This year, t chair joined France’s national furniture collection, the Mobilier National, and features in the exhibition ‘Partenaires particulaires (supports, surfaces, dissémination)’ at Fondation CAB in Saint-Paul de Vence curated by Hugo Vitrani.

The group show of art, sculpture and design shines light on Supports/Surfaces, an avant-garde movement originating in the 1960s that physically deconstructed the practice of art in an anti-capitalist stance. There are grid-like sculptures by Daniel Dezeuze, experiments in raw canvas by Edith Dekyndt, and constructions of common materials by Japanese artist Miho Dohi. Hall Haus also designed the scenography for the Design Parade this year and the art direction of the upcoming ‘Design District’ at Maison&Objet in Paris this September. Their presence at Fondation CAB reflects on ‘how design can operate not only as form or function, but as cultural expression, social critique, and shared memory.’

Fondation CAB, 766 Chemin des Trious, Saint-Paul de Vence.
Until October 31 2025.

Cacti and Chanel at NMNM

The prickly waxy architecture of the cactus is documented across disciplines in this exhibition simply titled ‘Cactus’, curated by Nouveau Musée National de Monaco (NMNM) in collaboration with the Musée Yves Saint Laurent in Marrakech. Through historic and contemporary photographs, drawings and design objects, the show traces the story of the cactus in the West across perspectives from the 19th century to today. You’ll find an Art Nouveau lamp designed by Louis Majorelle based on the morphology of an Opuntia. Spiny and organic architectures in glass by René Lalique, silver by Maison Buccellati and crystal by Hilton McConnico for Daum.

Maurizio Galante’s furniture which plays on prickles and comfort and Paul Smith’s ‘Sunrise Cactus’ coat stand for Gufram (originally designed in 1972) leans into the eccentric spirit of the form. As well as 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 where a cactus patch has been designed by the Exotic Garden of Monaco. While you’re visiting, don’t miss ‘Les Années folles de Coco Chanel’ at NMNM’s sister Villa Paloma, which explores Gabrielle Chanel’s creativity in the context of the Côte d’Azur in the 1920s.

NMNM / Villa Sauber, 17 Avenue Princesse Grace, Monaco.
Until 11 January 2026.

NMNM / Villa Paloma, 56 Bd du Jardin Exotique, Monaco.
Until 5 October 2025.

The design edit at Rencontres d’Arles

Design, craft, architecture and fashion emerge in many facets of this year’s Rencontres d’Arles under the theme of ‘Disobedient Images’ directed by Christoph Wiesner, where images move beyond an ‘exoticising gaze’ and towards exchange and ‘cultural translation’ extending the theories of anthropologist Alban Bensa. Indigenous leader Célia Tupinambá recovers the sewing tradition of the sacred Tupinambá cloak as a form of anti-colonial activism. Louise Mutrel explores the phenomenon of Japanese ‘dekotora’ trucks, an automobile customization craze of the 1970s influenced by post-war American culture. Modern concrete urbanism in Brazil is viewed through the lens of the Foto Cine Clube Bandeirante (FCCB), an innovative amateur photography club in São Paulo.

Stéphane Couturier blurs perception and imagination of Eileen Gray’s E-1027 villa on the Riviera, and an exhibition of 80 works explores Yves Saint Laurent’s relationship to photography. Read more about this year’s Rencontres d’Arles here.

Various locations across Arles.

Ralph Pucci at Château La Coste

This summer, the New York City studio of Ralph Pucci has been transplanted to Chateau La Coste’s Oscar Niemeyer-designed pavilion. Commemorating 70 years of business, and 50 years with Ralph Pucci at the helm, the exhibition titled ‘Pure: Made in New York: a celebration of a sculpture studio’ brings together furniture and lighting editions by 13 artists and designers – including Patrick Naggar, Elizabeth Garouste, Nina Seirafi and Xavier Lust – all made of white ‘plasterglass’, a material patented by the studio.

Established in the 1950s as a mannequin repair company, Ralph Pucci has evolved into a collectible design gallery for furniture and lighting, transforming hand-sculpted plaster and clay prototypes into products at its New York studio and factory. Celebrating the ‘workshop, process, craftsmanship and the hand of the artist’, Ralph Pucci master sculptor Paul Mathieu is conducting live sculptures demonstrations recreating the atmosphere of the New York sculpture studio to a jazz playlist – featuring Miles Davis and Chet Baker – paying homage to the music of the 1950s. Experience more of the exhibition here.

Château La Coste, 2750 Route De La Cride, Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade.
Until 21 September 2025.

Children’s design in Toulon

Inhabiting a former 19th-century mansion, this joyful unfolding of the world of children’s design – titled ‘Petits Mondes’ – brings together some 200 works from around 60 designers, covering furniture, toys, decorative objects and illustrated books. Tracing the evolution of children’s furniture from the Modern movement onwards, and featuring the likes of Enzo Mari, Bruno Munari and Katsumi Komagata, it shows the shifting materiality, imaginations, needs and narrative approaches across time.

This presentation follows the 2024 exhibition ‘L’Enfance du design’ (the Childhood of Design) held at the Centre Pompidou in Paris; now it has arrived in Toulon as a satellite exhibition of the Design Parade and as part of the Centre Pompidou Constellation programme, which seeks to showcase the collection of the Musée National d’Art Moderne while the Centre Pompidou is undergoing transformation from summer 2025 to early 2030.

Hôtel des Arts, 236 Boulevard Marechal Leclerc, Toulon.
Until 2 November.