The Salone del Mobile.Milano has announced the sixth cultural initiative to accompany the six-day fair: it is the Library of Light installation designed by British artist and set designer Es Devlin (to her credit she has designed sets for theater and opera (but also for U2, Lady Gaga, and Gucci), created for the courtyard of the Brera Academy.
Lady Gaga – “Monster Ball” US Theatre Tour 2009:2010 – Photo © Es Devlin
“I spent a whole day in the Brera courtyard,” says Devlin, “from before dawn to the moment of sunset. It was a suspended, extended time. I looked at the statues and busts commemorating the great thinkers of the past that decorate the building. Among them there is only is a woman: Maria Gaetana Agnesi, a mathematician, philosopher and theologian who lived in the 18th century. It was from here that I got the desire to dedicate the installation to thought, to culture.”
Library of Light by Es Devlin, Salone del Mobile 2025
The Library of Light is a circular structure that slowly rotates around Antonio Canova’s Napoleon, which dominates the courtyard. A platform with a long seat invites visitors to sit down and many mirrored metal shelves hold more than 2,000 books (donated by the Feltrinelli publishing company). Visitors will be able to browse through them, but also bring their own, creating a collection that will then be donated to the Milan library system. Es Devlin will also be the protagonist of two meetings: on Monday 7 with a lecture for all the students of the Academy and on Tuesday 8 at 14:30 he will be at the fair (at Euroluce) in a talk moderated by the journalist Sarah Douglas.
