Es Devlin. Library of Light

Library of Light is a Salone project in collaboration with the Pinacoteca di Brera and with the contribution of Milan based publishing house, Feltrinelli.

In the year of Euroluce, the Salone del Mobile has commissioned a monumental kinetic installation by Es Devlin, the British artist and designer, known as a ‘poet of light’. The work is being created within one of Milan’s most venerable landmarks: the Pinacoteca di Brera. The installation reflects a phrase by Umberto Eco that came to the artist's mind as she climbed the tall shelves of the Braidense National Library: “Books are the compass of the mind, they point to countless worlds yet to be explored.” Devlin’s luminous rotating sculpture is located in the centre of the 17th century Cortile d'Onore, which connects the Pinacoteca di Brera, the Braidense National Library and the Academy of Fine Arts. It is an 18 meter diameter revolving cylindrical sculpture formed of illuminated book shelves containing 3200 volumes. During the day, while the structure turns, the angled mirrored plane at the top of Devlin’s cylindrical sculpture will reflect the sun’s light into the columns, the statues of the portico and parts of the building never previously penetrated by the rays of the sun. At night, its illuminated structure creates shadow plays on the walls of the courtyard.
 

Find out more, read the in-depth article

Pinacoteca di Brera – Cortile d’Onore
A project by Salone del Mobile in collaboration with Pinacoteca di Brera and La Grande Brera With contribution of Feltrinelli
Free entrance, April 7 to April 21, from 9 am to 9 pm. 
April 22 to May 5, 10 am to 7:30 pm (last admission 7 pm).

Talk

Tuesday 8th April
7 pm, in English
Weaving Indian Art
Vinita Chaitanya, Interior Designer, Founder Prism
Urmila Chakraborty, Writer, Specialist of Patachitra Folk Art
Malika Verma, Founder Border&Fall
Moderator: Cristina Kiran Piotti, Italian-Indian Journalist and Consultant

Motifs, tapestries, weaving, embroidery, interweaving. For a long time considered "just" a refined craftsmanship of excellence from the South of the world, but now increasingly recognised as an art form in its own right. In particular, in India, textiles are deeply intertwined with cultural expression, historical memory, gender emancipation and local identities. The world of design today takes on a fundamental role in literally weaving new sensitivities and fresh looks at these both ancient and contemporary practices.

Wednesday 9th April
7 pm, in Italian
C'era una volta il corpo
with Walter Siti, Writer, Literary Critic and Essayist Curated by Feltrinelli

Thursday 17th April - The Talk is postponed due to adverse weather to a date to be determined
6 pm, in Italian
Thought for Humans.
Matilde Cassani, Artist and Designer
Luca Cipelletti, Architect and Museographer
Margherita Palli, Set designer
Moderator Annalisa Rosso, Editorial Director e Cultural Events Advisor, Salone del Mobile.Milano

The theme of the 2025 Salone del Mobile.Milano communication campaign – Thought for Humans. – becomes an opportunity for a broad and multidisciplinary reflection on the role of the body in space. An exploration of the emotional and sensory aspects conveyed by direct physical experience, capable of opening new interpretative keys also for the world of design. Through different but profoundly connected practices – art, theatre, museography – a new way of thinking, inhabiting and questioning the centrality of the human being is investigated.

 

Ph. Es Devlin Studio