Es Devlin's Library of Light Installation at Brera for Fuorisalone 2025

Salone del Mobile.Milano has announced a major cultural installation for Fuorisalone 2025: 'Library of Light' by British artist and designer Es Devlin (born 1971 in Kingston upon Thames). The circular light sculpture with a rotating floor, conceived as a library, will be installed in the Cortile d'Onore of the Pinacoteca di Brera from April 7 to 21, 2025. Over two thousand volumes—essays, novels, poetry books—provided by publisher Feltrinelli will fill its shelves; after the exhibition, these books will be donated to Milan's library network. The structure will be slightly off-center, functioning as a sundial that reflects light onto less sunlit areas of the courtyard, such as columns and statues. Devlin drew inspiration from Umberto Eco's phrase describing books as 'compass of the mind' and from the statue of Maria Gaetana Agnesi, an 18th-century mathematician and first woman to publish a mathematics book (1748) and hold a mathematics chair at the University of Bologna. Devlin noted Agnesi's work on light propagation and electromagnetic waves, and the curve mistakenly called 'the witch of Agnesi.' The installation will feature a voice recording of Devlin reading Agnesi's words, alongside Benedict Cumberbatch voicing physicist Carlo Rovelli's reflections on time. During the Salone, the installation will host talks with artists, curators, and writers, including Walter Siti's lecture on the body on April 9 at 7 PM.