Villa Marie / Vorno / Tuscany
Art, hospitality and a private stay in Tuscany
Villa Marie is an exclusive-use private estate in Vorno, near Lucca, and the host venue and partner of Vestigia. Here, restoration, gardens, hospitality and daily life become part of every encounter with art.
Villa Marie / 2027
Private stays at Villa Marie
Villa Marie is the setting for Vestigia’s exhibitions. In 2027, the property is also available for private stays, subject to availability.
Information on rates, capacity, included services and minimum-stay conditions is provided directly by Villa Marie. Vestigia remains the contact for artworks and the exhibition programme.
Place / 01
The work enters a living place.
Villa Marie is not a neutral backdrop. Its house, outbuildings and cultivated grounds bring contemporary art and research-led design into contact with water, weather, architecture, work and daily life.
Light shifts across old surfaces. Paths determine how slowly a work is approached. Water and foliage alter reflections, while domestic scale sits beside the openness of the garden. The setting does not illustrate the work; it changes the conditions in which the work is read.
Restoration / 02
Restoration as continuation.
Villa Marie was recovered through a long and careful restoration. The purpose was not to return it to one fixed moment in the past, but to allow its story to continue through attention, repair and use.
Original Tessieri floors, terracotta, wall paintings, inherited furniture and historic materials were retained or reused wherever possible. Bricked-up windows were reopened, returning light and views of the garden to the house. Local craftspeople brought knowledge of materials and techniques inseparable from the place.
The result remains visibly layered. New interventions do not erase what came before; they enter into conversation with it.
Hospitality / 03
A home before an exhibition space.
Villa Marie remains first of all a home: a place for gathering, meals and conversation. That character shapes Vestigia’s exhibitions.
Hospitality is part of how art is encountered here. It creates time for a visit to unfold through movement, attention and exchange rather than through a rapid sequence of objects. A conversation at the table, a walk through the grounds or a return to a work later in the day can all deepen the experience.
Water and cultivation / 04
Water shapes the garden.
Water arriving from the Vorno area feeds the pond and supports irrigation across the grounds. Formal planting, the Art Garden, olive trees, kiwi vines, productive areas and spaces for art belong to one connected landscape. The garden changes continuously through growth, maintenance, weather and use.
For an exhibition, this matters. Reflections move, vegetation frames and conceals, and the route through the estate becomes part of the experience. A visit unfolds as a walk between clipped hedges, mature trees, water and architecture. The plan shows the permanent garden rooms through which each edition can trace a different route.
Works in place / 05
The place changes how each work is read.
In the pond, Altera by Costantino Gucci gathers fragments of sky, foliage and water into its mirrored surface while keeping the viewer at the edge of its shifting reflections.
Along the pond, Silenti by Jonathan Bocca changes from pale, tactile bodies in daylight to illuminated figures at dusk, turning approach, distance and the rhythm of the path into part of the encounter. Across the garden, Tiles by IAMMI IAMMI becomes a soft, movable path underfoot, making the visitor’s body and movement part of how the work is understood.
These works do not relate to Villa Marie in the same way. Some respond through reflection, others through light, scale, threshold, material or use. Together they make the estate newly legible.
Vestigia at Villa Marie / 06
A continuation, not an interruption.
Vestigia’s editions at Villa Marie continue the life of the estate rather than interrupt it. Art enters a place already shaped by restoration, cultivation and human use. In return, the exhibitions draw attention to aspects of the estate that might otherwise remain unnoticed.
Works may echo their surroundings or stand in deliberate contrast. What matters is that the relationship remains perceptible. Art changes how the place is seen; the place changes how the art is read.
Continuity
The estate is carried forward through repair, adaptation and use rather than returned to an imagined single moment.
Cultivation
The house and garden require attention over time. Growth, maintenance, material knowledge and seasonal change are part of their meaning.
Encounter
Art is experienced through movement, scale, light, weather, conversation and return. Villa Marie gives those encounters room to unfold.