The 50-foot-wide kinetic sculpture of Es Devlin’s Library of Us on Faena Beach, during Miami Art Week, commissioned by Faena Art to celebrate its 10th anniversary, represents an intersection between monumental public spectacle and intimate intellectual exploration. The luminous, kinetic installation slowly rotates a triangular bookshelf situated within a shallow, reflective pool, transforming the typical act of reading into a collective, public, and time-based experience.
Communal Library At Miami Art Week
A nonprofit organization, Faena Art, supports hybrid works like Library of Us, which blends elements of architecture, sound design, literature, and performance art. The structure aligns with Faena Art’s mandate to generate monumental, site-specific, and cross-disciplinary spectacles, consistent with the organization’s history of beach interventions. The Library of Us inspires visitors to pause and reflect for a moment, taking in the serenity of reading. Devlin describes libraries as silent yet intensely vibrant places where minds and imaginations collide.
Es Devlin and the Philosophy of the Library
Es Devlin, renowned for her set designs for major concerts and events, as well as large-scale installations, was selected for this monumental task, which pushes the boundaries of the conventional gallery. His work embodies a visual and kinetic presence, inviting quiet contemplation. Library of Us is not an isolated work; rather, it continues Devlin’s core conceptual exploration of the library as a dynamic and collective sculpture. It emerged in early 2025 with Library of Light at the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan, an installation that successfully attracted nearly 200,000 visitors for daily collective readings.
The philosophical concept of the Library of Us in Miami is derived from Devlin’s reading of Umberto Eco. The physical rotation of the massive bookshelf invites people to explore the spatial experience of coexisting peacefully in the world without contradicting one another. It features 2,500 specific literary titles, selected for their profound influence on her life and their role as a creative compass.
The Multi-Sensory Mediation of Text
The overall structure required 4,200 physical volumes, which were repeated to create the monumental form and achieve chromatic gradients. Books function as both scenographic symbols and architectural units, constructing the metaphor and reinforcing the work’s objective to celebrate intellectual influence and coexistence. The installation features two primary modes of textual distribution:
Polyphony of voices: It plays 250 recorded excerpts read by Devlin continuously across the site. The audio score creates a polyphonic field of voices, memories, and literary fragments, offering a collective auditory experience of the literature.
Immediate Textual Access: A continuous, 30-foot horizontal LED screen is integrated into the structure, scrolling brief text snippets drawn directly from the housed books. These immediate fragments, such as the line from Toni Morrison’s 1977 novel, “You wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down,” allow for momentary engagement with the intellectual contents.
Spatial Design and Materiality
The kinetic bookshelf, 20 feet tall and 50 feet in length along the shoreline, was constructed from steel, marine plywood, mirrors, and water. The entire structure sits within a shallow reflective pool, a dramatic design element that amplifies its scale, turning the sculpture into a reflective amphitheater of books. The 2,500 volumes were strategically placed with deliberate spacing that allows light to pass through the shelves, enhancing their visual presence as an illuminated mass after sunset.
The Kinetic System
The striking feature of the installation is the functional centerpiece, a kinetic system that rotates on its axis, completing one cycle every ten minutes. The seating in two concentric reading tables features an inner ring mechanically linked to the sculpture and an outer ring that remains stationary, providing a stable point of reference. The installation footprint extended beyond Faena Beach; a site-specific reading room was created within the Faena Cathedral, while drawings, paintings on glass and paper, and TV displays were exhibited in the Faena Project Room.
The installation is on view from December 2 to 7, 2025, coinciding with the core schedule of Miami Art Week. The design of Library of Us reinforces the intellectual themes of the work, focusing on collective experience. Activities throughout the week include readings, performances, and conversations explicitly framed around the theme of collective listening.
Library of Us Project details
Artist: Es Devlin
Commissioned by: Faena Art
Location: Faena Beach, Miami Beach, Florida
Exhibition Dates: December 2–7, 2025
Photo Credits: © Oriol Tarridas, Sunn Studio
