In the marble cloisters of Milan’s storied Pinacoteca di Brera, light is taking on new dimensions. During this year’s Salone del Mobile – and particularly in the year of Euroluce, its dedicated celebration of lighting design – the British artist and stage designer Es Devlin has conjured something rare: a luminous monument to the imagination. Library of Light, her latest work, spins both literally and metaphorically at the centre of the 17th-century Cortile d’Onore, connecting past and present, intellect and emotion, shadow and sun.
Commissioned by Salone del Mobile in collaboration with the Pinacoteca di Brera, La Grande Brera, and with contributions from Feltrinelli, this revolving, 18-metre cylindrical installation is far more than a kinetic sculpture. It is a temple to the mind, an evolving archive of human thought that breathes with light and knowledge. Devlin – long hailed as a poet of light – invites us not just to see, but to reflect. Her sculpture is made up of illuminated bookshelves containing more than 3,000 volumes, selected and donated by Feltrinelli on the theme of Thought for Humans, the 2025 Salone’s chosen leitmotif.
Image credit: Monica Spezia
Devlin is one of the most celebrated and boundary-pushing creative minds of our time, renowned for her transformative work that effortlessly bridges the gap between set design, interior design and architecture. Her immersive, sculptural creations – often large-scale, luminous, and kinetic – have redefined how we experience space, whether on stage, in a gallery, or within a public installation. The designer is perhaps best known for her theatrical designs for opera and theatre, but her influence extends far beyond the stage. By weaving narrative into spatial form, she has created unforgettable environments that challenge the very notion of where design ends and performance begins.
Whether designing Kanye West’s floating stage, the monumental mirrored labyrinth for Beyoncé, or other visual set designs for the likes of Adele, U2 and The Weeknd, Devlin’s work becomes a powerful form of storytelling. She reimagines space not just as a container for experience but as an emotional force in itself, merging the precision of architecture with the fluidity of performance.
In each project, whether a concert stage or a conceptual installation, her designs echo a sense of wonder, purpose, and precision. In the world of high fashion and avant-garde art alike, Devlin stands as a visionary who reshapes the spaces we inhabit, making them unforgettable, immersive, and emotionally charged.
Image credit: Monica Spezia
At 8:00pm each evening during Milan Design Week, her latest sculpture comes even more vividly alive. Readings are ‘recited’ by the library itself, via a moving LED display that carries the texts like a literary ticker tape around the structure’s circumference. Visitors can browse the shelves, linger with the books, and even donate their own volumes to this growing archive, which will become part of Milan’s public library system – ensuring the sculpture’s impact extends beyond its physical and temporal presence.
Libraries have long served as sanctuaries of quiet transformation, and Devlin captures that energy with characteristic brilliance.“I have always experienced libraries as silently intensely vibrant places where minds and imaginations soar, while clutched like kites by their seated bodies,” Devlin said. “This kinetic sculpture reflects the synaptic connections being forged, the resonances and associations at play within the minds of a temporary community of readers. As Jorge Luis Borges said, ‘I am not sure that I exist, actually. I am all the writers that I have read, all the people that I have met, all that I have loved; all the cities I have visited’.”
With this gift to the city, Salone del Mobile has not just embraced the convergence of design, architecture, and art—it has affirmed the role of culture as a living, participatory act. In the hands of Devlin, light is no mere aesthetic; it’s a metaphor for thought, for attention, for communion. In a world often overwhelmed by noise and speed, Library of Light offers a rare pause – a moment to read, to listen, to be illuminated.
Main image credit: Victor Picon Cartier
