Es Devlin’s Library of Light – Photo by ©Monica Spezia, courtesy of Salone del Mobile 2025.
Design. We round up the most intriguing and unconventional design exhibitions and installations at Fuorisalone 2025, the citywide festival taking over Milan with over 2,000 events and showcases on April 7-13. Our Top Ten features a design and architectural perspective on modern incarceration at Drop City, Brutalist crafts from Poland in the 5VIE design districts and playful objects that adapt to their user at Isola Design Festival. Es Devlin, Google and Bob Wilson shape light as if it were a tangible material.
- RELATED STORIES: Read more about Milan Design Week 2025 on Archipanic.
Library of Light by Es Devlin
Until April 30, h. 9.00-21.00, Via Brera 28, Map.
Photo by ©Monica Spezia, courtesy of Salone del Mobile 2025.
While climbing a library, famed writer Umberto Eco once said, “Books are the compass of the mind. They point to countless worlds yet to be explored.” From here, Salone del Mobile commissioned Es Devlin to a luminous exhibition in the courtyard of Pinacoteca di Brera. The British ‘Poet of Light,’ artist and designer, creates an 18-meter diameter revolving cylindrical sculpture formed of illuminated bookshelves containing over 3.000 volumes in collaboration with the Feltrinelli publishing house. Read more…
Google shapes light
‘Making the Invisible Visible’ exhibition by Google in Milan – Photo by Google.
Google returns to Milan Design Week with the Making the Invisible Visible exhibition co-created by the company’s Chief Design Officer of Consumer Devices, Ivy Ross, with the light and water artist Lachlan Turczan. The showcase welcomes visitors into misty spaces sculpted entirely out of responsive architectures of light. Light, a typically fleeting presence, takes on a material permanence, transforming into something that can be touched, inhabited, and felt. The exhibition continues with a display of Google hardware devices and technology. Read more…
Mother by Robert Wilson
Mother by Robert Wilson – ©Lucie Jansch and Salone del Mobile.
At the Castello Sforzesco, American light artist Robert Wilson has designed Mother, a ‘total work’ dedicated to Michelangelo’s Pietà Rondanini. Alongside Leonardo’s Last Supper, it is acknowledged as one of Milan’s most significant artworks. The installation measures itself against the mystery of the ‘unfinished’—an energy that exists in the balance between matter and thought. Arvo Pärt’s compositions musically embrace the visitors’ experience. Read more…
Romantic Brutalism from Poland
Photo by Ludovic Balay.
In early XX-century Poland, Brutalist design and architecture were the medium to be back on the map. Since then, those values and aesthetics have played an important role in the country’s design scene. At the 5VIE design district, the Romantic Brutalism exhibition showcases contemporary crafts and collectable design, bridging history from tradition to modernity. The exhibition is presented by the Visteria Foundation and curated by Federica Sala. Read more…
Designers’ funeral urns
The Last Pot, Michael Anastassiades’ metallic, egg-shaped urn – Courtesy of Alessi.
Il Tornitore Matto, a pioneering design project by entrepreneur Alberto Alessi and industrial designer Giulio Iacchetti, presents The Last Pot, a collection and exhibition of funeral urns featuring works by Daniel Liebeskind, Philippe Stark, Michael Anastassiades, Naoto Fukasawa, and more. “In essence, Alessi’s entire journey has been about creating containers,” explained Alberto Alessi. “We’ve crafted them for countless purposes, constantly striving to make them more beautiful, better built and perfectly suited to their intended use.” But not urns so far. Read more…
Conscious Objects
©Luca Santini, courtesy of Isola Design.
The playful Conscious Objects exhibition, curated by Elif Resitoglu, Isola Design‘s creative director, engages visitors through multiple senses—hearing, playing, touching, tasting, and interacting—sometimes even becoming part of the experience. “Imagine a chair that works only when sitting together, objects that adapt to the user’s needs, or a table game with playing cards to taste,” explains Resitoglu. Find out more.
Prisons’ spaces and time through the lens of design
Photo by Piercarlo Quecchia, DSL Studio, courtesy of DropCity.
Beneath the revamped tunnels of Milan’s Central Station, DropCity presents Prison Times, an exhibition examining modern incarceration from a design and architectural perspective. The project delves into the current state of imprisonment, investigating the underlying causes and impacts of penal systems on individuals and society as a whole. By showcasing furniture designed for prisons, the exhibition further challenges perceptions of time related to procedural deadlines and the role of objects in daily penal routines, highlighting the design tension between security and functionality. Read more…
101010 by Layer
Courtesy of Layer.
British designer Benjamin Hubert celebrates the 10th anniversary of his studio Layer with the 101010 retrospective and forward-looking exhibition at 10 Corso Como’s Project Room. The showcase unveils six pioneering social design prototypes in partnership with RÆBURN, Kvadrat, Muuto, and more. Discover a rainwater collecting tower, a garment that adapts to climate extremes, as well as other projects that tackle global challenges, from urban biodiversity and climate resilience to self-sufficiency and sustainable craftsmanship. Read more…
EXODUS by JoAnn Tann and Luca Nichetto
Photo by Max Rommel.
Multidisciplinary designers JoAnn Tan and Luca Nichetto used sustainable flooring by climate-neutral Swedish woven design company Bolon to give life to fantastic animals for the Exodus installation during Milan Design Week. Like the materials’ pioneering transformation bridging past and future, the creatures appear in the process of evolution. Read more…
Magnificat, an ode to independent design
Photo by Andrea Pedretti.
Italian designer Vito Nesta opened the doors of his studio near the Central Station to present Magnificat, an exhibition and an act of devotion to independent design. “All the designers and brands selected for the exhibition share a deep commitment to refined craftsmanship,” explained the exhibition’s curator, Paolo Casicci. “They combine different materials like alchemists. Their pieces create new functions and rituals.” Read more…
Romantic Brutalism – Visteria Foundation – Photo by Archipanic.
