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Let There Be Light For Salone del Mobile Milano 2025, light wasn't just about design — it was about ideas. Enter Es Devlin, the British artist known for turning imagination into architecture. Her latest work, Library of Light, was a kinetic, glowing installation in the heart of Milan's Pinacoteca di Brera. It became the emotional and conceptual epicenter of this year's Euroluce. Rising 18 meters inside the 17th- century Cortile d'Onore, Devlin's cylindrical sculpture spun slowly, lined with 3,200 illuminated books — a living archive of thought, curated by Milan publishing house Feltrinelli. As it turned, a mirrored canopy reflected sunlight into corners of the historic courtyard previously untouched by natural light. At night, the piece transformed — shadows danced, texts glowed, 22 Salone del Mobile Milano 2025 7 Visionary Design Tableaux, Cinematic Sets, and Fever Dreams that Toppled Modernism from its Pedestal By Steven Hempel and Michelle Aviña voices emerged. Each evening at 8 pm, the sculpture "recited" words across an LED ribbon, with Benedict Cumberbatch reading from Carlo Rovelli and Devlin lending her voice to the words of Maria Gaetana Agnesi. A custom soundtrack by Polyphonia, weaving in Beethoven's 1806 Violin Concerto, Op. 61, added an emotional undercurrent. More than an installation, Library of Light became a cultural engine. Visitors browsed, reflected, and donated books — each volume becoming part of the Milan Library System. Talks, readings, and daily activations turned the space into a dynamic hub where literature, art, science, and design collided. This wasn't just Salone's art moment — it was Milan's new lighthouse for ideas. Modernism, Disrupted What if modernism wasn't a triumph, but a question? For Staging Modernity, Formafantasma transformed Teatro Lirico Giorgio Gaber into a fragmented theatrical space that reconsidered the legacy of Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand on the 60th anniversary of their iconic collection for Cassina. Rather than celebrate the clean lines and industrial utopia of the 1929 Salon d'Automne, the installation tore it apart. Modernist ideals were scattered like relics. Directed by Fabio Cherstich, with costumes by Jil Sander, the result was an M ilan Design Week 2025 did not whisper — it provoked. This year, design spoke in volumes: spinning light into knowledge, tearing modernism off its pedestal, and turning interiors into cinematic provocations. From Es Devlin's glowing archive to Prada's critical deep dives, the city became a stage where ideas moved faster than objects — and nothing was as it seemed. Here and below, Es Devlin's Library of Light at Pinacoteca di Brera – Cortile d'Onore. Salone del Mobile, Milano 2025 ©MONICA SPEZIA ©MONICA SPEZIA