Inside Milan Design Week: ARKET and Laila Gohar’s Reimagined Carousel
Inside Milan Design Week: ARKET and Laila Gohar’s Reimagined Carousel To mark the launch of their new collaboration, premiering on 21 April, Nordic lifestyle brand ARKET and New York-based artist Laila Gohar present a co-created public installation at Giardino delle Arti in Milan during this year’s design week. Part sculpture, part interactive stage set, the work centres on a reimagined fairground ride, with its figures replaced by oversized fruit and vegetables – bringing together a shared interest in food, playfulness and everyday beauty, shaped through Gohar’s theatrical language. ‘We wanted to create something open and inclusive – something that invites people in, rather than asks them to observe from a distance. A carousel felt like a natural way to do that. It’s familiar, physical, and meant to be shared. I’ve always been drawn to the idea of beauty as something accessible in the everyday, often shaped by surprise and excitement, which made this collaboration feel very natural’, says Laila Gohar. The original ride is an antique carousel, originating from Wiesbaden in Germany – a historic centre of woodworking craftsmanship – and is believed to date back to the late 1700s. Passed down through generations of the Degli Innocenti family, it represents a disappearing tradition of fairground engineering and artisanal design, with only a few examples surviving today. Starting from the existing carousel, the installation replaces the original figures with oversized fruit and vegetables, shaped through minimal intervention. Defined by scale, placement and a single clean cut that enables seating, the forms remain otherwise intact – presented as solid, recognisable and culturally familiar objects. The carousel opens to public on Monday 20 April and will run 20–24 April, 12–8PM, during Milan Design Week. Treats from ARKET CAFÉ will be served throughout the day, and all visitors to the park will receive a ticket redeemable at the ARKET Milan store for an exclusive giveaway. The ARKET and Laila Gohar collaboration launches on 21 April and marks the artist’s debut in ready-to-wear. The collection spans 27 pieces, blending Gohar’s idiosyncratic interpretation of beauty with ARKET’s focus on practical design, designed for moments that move between the everyday and the exceptional.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo. Image Courtesy of ARKET
