For the second edition of the LED Light Exhibition Design, Milan is being lit up by the creativity of young talents and renowned designers who have been commissioned to decorate the city with lights, projections, sets, and large scale works of art and design.

Once such piece, which is now available to view in the city is 'Sottovoce' by Dutch designer Huub Ubbens.

Ubbens however, has taken a bit of a less obvious route with the theme of light; choosing to construct four big, matt-black cones that each offer protection to one person.

Inside, each cone plays a text on a 20 minute loop, read by Italian actors.

Hubbens' piece has been installed inside the Public Gardens Indro Montanelli in front of the Seventeenth century Palazzo Dugnani, surrounded by the silent and evocative green of the park and framed by Antonio Rosmini’s statue and a fountain.

The five authors represented in Sottovoce propose a reflection - anthropological, poetic, metaphysical and historical - on the culture of light in man's life: its variety and beauty, the importance of the dark, the symbolism of light and its relationship with the human being.
 
The five essays; 'In Praise of Shadows' by Junichiro Tanazaki, 'De Umbris Idearum' by Giordano Bruno, 'Light' by Ettore Sottsass and an interaction of two voices reading fragments from 'Light in its Artistic Manifestations' by Hans Sedlmayr and 'Light of Things' by Antonella Anedda, approach the thread in different ways, concentrating on the dark that generates light or starting with reflections on light to end with the dark.

The intimate darkness inside the cones where the texts are diffused emphasises the meaning of the words and creates the ideal atmosphere to concentrate on the authors’ monologues and let the imagination run free.
 
Ubbens says:

“Sometimes these stories about light are so delightful to exceed in beauty the original source of inspiration” adding;

“Maybe, reading or listening to these stories on light we are able to imagine silent places and magic atmospheres and really see and perceive what we normally take
for granted in our everyday life”.

The interactive sculpture will be on show in the city until January the 10th, 2011.