MDW 2024: Inside David Lynch's Mysterious Installation

Anyone who has seen the iconic Blue Velvet (1986) and Mulholland Drive (2001) knows how much the surrealist nature of David Lynch 's films can provoke incessant thoughts — but it's not just in the cinema that the director will make you think.

At the Salone de Mobile design fair , the biggest event of Milan Design Week 2024 , filmmaker David Lynch has presented, literally, a thinking room in the form of an art installation. Curated by Antonio Monda, “Interiors by David Lynch - A Thinking Room” features two identical rooms with blue velvet curtains, a large central throne with seven golden cylinders, objects such as a mirror and a clock, and video projections with images.

All of these elements work together to achieve Lynch's main goal: to build a space entirely dedicated to reflection.

Lynch's interest in design and architecture is long-standing: the filmmaker has dabbled in carpentry for many years, making furniture for both his home and the sets of his films. In 1997, he attended the Milan furniture fair and presented a collection of furniture at the Salone del Mobile .

Upon his return to the event, Lynch sought to insert a space for thought or meditation into MDW 2024. According to Monda, the exhibition’s curator, the aim was to create a space where “people could be at peace with themselves.” The filmmaker developed all the sketches for the installation, which was built by Milanese architecture firm Lombardini22 and set designers from the city’s Teatro Piccolo.