'Library of Light' by Es Devlin presents a cumulative spatial experience in Milan

"I have always experienced libraries as silently intensely vibrant places where minds and imaginations soar while clutched like kites by their seated bodies,” says British artist and stage designer Es Devlin about her kinetic installation, Library of Light, in an official release. Commissioned as the flagship installation for Salone del Mobile.Milano 2025's Euroluce programme, Library of Light is a luminous kinetic sculpture that takes over the 17th-century Cortile d'Onore building, which connects some of the most distinguished landmarks of Milan, such as the Pinacoteca di Brera art museum, the Braidense National Library and the Brera Academy of Fine Arts. The revolving sculpture comprises a repository of over 2,000 volumes, courtesy of the Milan-based publishing house Feltrinelli, aligned with the theme of the design festival, Thought for Humans. As a walkable, participatory space, Library of Light channels knowledge itself as kinetic energy, embodying it into the spatial design.

Known as a ‘poet of light’, Devlin perceives the audience as a “temporary society”, inviting public participation in her expansive oeuvre that spans stage designs for opera houses and spatial designs for international biennales. Renowned globally for her poetic public installations, Devlin transforms spatial experiences into meditations on collective identity and shared imagination. From the AI-integrated UK Pavilion at the Dubai Expo 2020 to the environmental campaign for endangered species in London, her concepts consistently foreground dialogue among humans and the built environment. With the Library of Light, the Kingston-born designer brings forth a dynamic interplay of light, literature and architecture, portraying the oscillation of knowledge and thoughts across time and space within human minds.

Devlin draws the installation’s conceptual design from the words of Italian medievalist and philosopher Umberto Eco—“Books are the compass of the mind, they point to countless worlds yet to be explored”—that she reflected upon while exploring the Braidense National Library. The impetus of the Library of Light is rooted in an exploration of reading as a spatial and communal act, perceiving the space of a library beyond being a storehouse of texts. Devlin envisions the site as a space for “synaptic connections", where “resonances and associations” ricochets across individual and collective consciousness.

The revolving, cylindrical sculptural design has a diameter of 18 metres, featuring a mirrored ceiling that reflects natural light deep into the historic building's architectural recesses, consequently illuminating the space throughout the day. By night, the lighting design generates a chiaroscuro of shadow and text across an LED display as the library itself recites the texts, creating an immersive design experience. While renowned British actor Benedict Cumberbatch voices a series of collective readings for the installation, including theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli’s book The Order of Time (2017), Devlin’s voice echoes the words of Maria Gaetana Agnesi, an 18th-century Italian mathematician and philosopher. British duo Polyphonia underscores the recitals through its composition, featuring a violin solo inspired by Beethoven’s 1806 Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61.

Devlin came to admire Agnesi for her profound research on natural resonant frequencies and the behaviour of light after discovering her statue at the Cortile in 2024. With the intent of honouring the mathematician and her significant contributions and achievements, Devlin brings her presence to the centre of the installation, drawing on Agnesi’s research to craft the sculptural design by merging optical dynamics and symbolic geometry. While the constant motion of the installation symbolises the ever-active mind, the mirrored ceiling acts as a metaphor for internal intellectual reflection.

The artist recalls the words of Jorge Luis Borges, an Argentine short story writer, essayist and poet: “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.” Inspired by Borges’ words, the designer adds another dimension to the conceptual layering of the installation. The Library of Light assumes a cumulative identity, contingent upon every book absorbed, every thought ignited and every connection established among the visitors. Hence, the site becomes a simplified, symbolised mind affected by communal parameters, existing as a paradox of individual and collective consciousness.

Combining art, craftsmanship, literature, theatre and museography, the installation is a stage for meeting and dialogue among the visitors, providing a platform for artists, writers, curators and innovators to represent themselves. The installation, which is on view till April 21, 2025, presents diverse talks on the themes of memory, tradition and identity. As the visitors browse through the built environment, absorbing the knowledge and contributing to it, the library becomes a living, breathing and growing archive of shared inquiry through physical and neural movements witnessed by the space.

Keep up with STIR's coverage of Milan Design Week 2025, where we spotlight the most compelling exhibitions, presentations and installations from top studios, designers and brands. Dive into the highlights of Euroluce 2025 and explore all the design districts—Fuorisalone, 5Vie, Brera, Isola, Durini and beyond—alongside the faceted programme of Salone del Mobile.Milano this year.