ES Devlin tells Library of Light, more viewed installation of Fuorisalone

It took it ES Devlin to align the people of the Design Week: his Library of Light – built in the courtyard of honor of the building of Breast from the Salone del Mobile.Milano Together with the Pinacoteca and with the contribution of Feltrinelli – it is certainly The most visited installation of the Milanese event. Kinetic sculpture for art lovers, an engagement of performing architecture performing for the most radical designers, a perpetual carousel carousel for the most transversal audience: describing it already opens a theme of debate. From any point of view you observe it, the one signed by the artist and costume designer who designs the scenography for the tours of Beyoncé and U2it is a monumental work of 18 meters in diameter, whose cylindrical body, defined by a light shelving with a digrading pace, opens up to invite us to rise.

Surrounded by microphones, objectives and iPhones ready for the last selfie, We met her right in the heart of the installation. « Project for performing works for over 10 years », points out smiling. « Of course, I also deal with music, but I would say that compared to my practice that is a secondary aspect. » Beyond the clamor from Pop Star, a degree in English literature at the University of Bristol and a diploma in Fine Arts at the Central Saint Martins, they make her A multifaceted artist with multidisciplinary sensitivity. It is also understood from the titles of the over 3,000 volumes exhibited in its library.

« It is a question of codes: Each installation has its own and it is important to know which to use to involve the public », which changes each time. Al Mobile salonas in Las Vegas or Glasgow, where on the occasion of Cop26 he presented an installation of 197 trees, as many as the countries that ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on climate change. « Projectsthose related to reforestationwhich, considering the damage that the profession of creatives is causing the environment, are multiplying. It is also better Hans Ulrich Obrist»Says Devlin, referring to the artistic director of the Galleries Serpentine.

So I wonder if a manifest connection between Devlin exists between the idea of ​​preserving nature and that of nourishing culture. It is in fact no coincidence that in Remember Nature: 140 Artists’ Ideas for Planet Earth – The book written four hands by Huo and Kostas Stasinopoulos (Ed. Penguin) dedicated to the most significant and differently committed practices of today – the name of the English artist appears.

«As a human, One of my fears is the potential extinction of the ability to see through the eyes of others», The library therefore as a tool to exorcise fear. « The books are the looks of others, and the space that hosts them, places where you can imagine the cure. If we don’t make this thought, we are really in danger ». In an attempt to explain why, the discussion slowly turns towards the neuroscience: «The hemispheres of our brain have different functions: if in the left one the language, logic, rationality, in the right one, perception, creativity, emotional interpretation is located. At the beginning it was all very simple: one indicated what to eat, the other, how to survive. But as the neuroscientist teaches Ian McGilchristtoday the transactional dimension, that is rational, has more and more the best on the transcendent, or emotional « one, and to put the planet back, » towards which we do not nourish compassion. My works ”, he puts,“ hire a broad, transversal heterogeneous audience because What I always go looking for are people who, despite diversity, are equally moved by compassion. Yes, that’s how it is ».

But do you think it is still considered a value?

«Yesterday, like every time I speak to young people, in Milan as in Paris, London, New York, There is always a small group of people who are moved, who approaches me and looks for a hug. It is not a cry of pain, rather of discovery», As if his work put the hemispheres in balance, providing us with love, rather than with the calculation of probability, a possibility of redemption.

« I have always perceived libraries as silent, but intensely vibrant places, where minds and imaginations hover in flight, detained as seats with seated bodies that host them. This kinetic sculpture represents the synaptic connections that intertwine, the resonances and associations that come to life in the mind of a temporary community of readers ».

And the rotation? It is to be wondered which role to play in relation to this idea of ​​preserving knowledge.

«Moto is only a way to remember what we continue to forget: that we are all always on the move. Accustomed to observing reality from a single point of view, We have lost the perception of the planet’s revolution. What I impressed on the library is only a small acceleration, to remind us who we are and how we live: it would be necessary to take a step back in the nineteenth century, to theInvention of time-lapseWhy It is only giving time a different value that can be grasped the change. Sometimes, the task of us artists is precisely that not only to change the point of view, but also the time scale « , trying to delay it.

We have not yet talked about the woman who inspired this work: Maria Gaetana Agnesi is the only female statue among those dedicated to famous knowledge and lighting seekers. A tribute to feminism?

“When I entered this place, I looked around: I was surrounded by men. Who with the world worldwide in hand, some with a ruler or a compass. Men who hold tools to satisfy their curiosity. While I was looking for someone who resembled me, I find a woman who does not have her arms. It is a bust and holds nothing in hand. It is Maria Gaetana Agnesia woman pushed by the father, a man of great intelligence, to become the extraordinary mathematics that was: his is a story of spiritual ascent and devotion that led her to write The most important book on the calculation of the eighteenth century. Here you are, I wanted to give her an instrument ”, Library of Light is his ».

In times like what we are going through, of great erosion of rights, we all need to update our tools. “But the struggle is not mine. I believe in the plurality of voices and looksevery time a thought different from what represents me emerges overwhelmingly, I bring my point of view into response « , which revolves and is always on the move. Like its Milanese architecture, which comes straight to the hearts of people.

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