David Lynch presents 'A Thinking Room' at the Salone del Mobile

Visitors at Salone del Mobile 2024 were offered a new cinematic experience. The revered director David Lynch — known for cult films like Mulholland Drive, Inland Empire and Wild at Heart — has designed an exhibition entitled 'Interiors by David Lynch. A Thinking Room' on the grounds of the Rho Fiera. The exhibition marks a new kind of venture for the Oscar-winning auteur, but according to it curator, Antonio Monda, the New York University film professor and former artistic director of the Rome Film Festival, it’s not totally out of the blue.

Watch: 'Interiors by David Lynch. A Thinking Room' at Salone del Mobile 2024

'A few years earlier I presented Lynch the lifetime achievement award at the Rome Film Festival, and when I visited him in Los Angeles I found him polishing a desk. I asked him, what are you doing? And he told me he designs furniture now,' recounts Monda. 'So when the Salone del Mobile invited me to commission a filmmaker for this special event, I knew he was the real deal.'

Lynch’s casual carpentry hobby led him to design a full-scale installation at the fair. Inside each of the two 'Thinking Rooms,' a single armchair is surrounded by thick curtains made of blue velvet — a nod to Lynch’s 1986 film Blue Velvet. 'At the beginning, there was only one big armchair inside the room. And I realised it was exactly like an image from one of his films,' says Monda of the scenography.

Above the chair, a series of brass tubes rise towards a curving gold ceiling. While around the perimeter, screens playing abstract videos act like portals to the outside world. According to Monda, Lynch posits the installation as a moment of respite and reflection from the frenetic pace outside on the Fiera floor. To construct the sets, Monda and Lynch worked with the set builders at Milan’s Piccolo Teatro.

'This the first time that I do these kinds of things and it was a lot of fun,' Monda reflects on the project. 'Because you see how the mind of an artist works with a different form of expression. You’re accustomed to seeing how Lynch works when he does a film like Blue Velvet or a show like Twin Peaks, but now his creativity, his talent and his vision are channelled into furniture.' However, Lynch was adamant that his new foray into design exists separately from his film career. 'He wants to keep it separated,' relays Monday. 'He has said that this has nothing to do with his films.'

'Interiors by David Lynch. A Thinking Room' at Salone del Mobile 2024 will be located at Pavilions 5 and 7 in the Rho Fiera from 16 to 21 April 2024

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