Installation view of the Laila Gohar x Arket carousel, showcased during this year’s Milan Design Week. (Courtesy Arket)
Late last month, thousands descended upon Milan for the city’s 2026 Design Week. Among the throng of designers, artists, brands, and collectors were Leila Gohar and Arket—there not just as attendees, but as exhibitors. On April 20, 2026, the New York–based artist and Nordic lifestyle brand unveiled an unexpected collaboration: a repurposed 18th-century carousel.
The carousel, which originates from Wiesbaden, Germany, dates back to the late 1700s and features intricately painted scenes, floral illustrations, and soft fairground lights. While reimagining the structure for Arket, Gohar left many of these antique details untouched, focusing instead on the carousel’s seating. It should perhaps come as no surprise that Gohar, with her specialization in food art, veered toward fruit and vegetables as motifs, transforming traditional carriages into oversized eggplants, pears, and radishes.
Nestled in Milan’s historic Giardino delle Arti, Gohar and Artek’s carousel kicked off Design Week with a remarkable sense of play and surrealism. The fruit and veggie seats betray Gohar’s keen eye for theatricality, a quality that defines much of her work and has arguably fueled her rise to prominence. Throughout her career, the Egyptian American artist has strained against the limits of food, producing everything from a chair-shaped cake for Sotheby’s and little dolls constructed from sausages, to a decadent shrimp tower and a bed stitched together with bread. By 2022, the New Yorker had even dubbed her the “Björk of food”—a fitting title, considering her level of innovation and creativity.
Gohar’s collaboration with Artek is no exception, of course. But what distinguishes the carousel from other projects is its insistence on encounters. Here, German woodworking traditions confront Gohar’s sculptural sensibilities, which, in their simplicity and realism, complement the carousel’s existing architecture, despite their whimsy. As viewers, we are also invited to engage with the carousel, tracing the movement of each fruit and vegetable as they continuously turn. In these ways, the installation rejects a static model of art, preferring participation and repeated viewings from multiple angles.
This is exactly how Gohar herself understands the work. “We wanted to create something open and inclusive—something that invites people in, rather than asks them to observe from a distance,” she explains. “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.”
The carousel is part of a larger collaboration with Artek, which launched Gohar’s ready-to-wear debut on April 21. The collection spans 27 pieces, ranging from a smock blouse inspired by women’s uniforms to a modular dress with a detachable skirt. Taken together, the garments reflect Gohar’s command over tactile yet surreal surfaces, combining opposites like masculinity and femininity or softness and stiffness to fascinating effect.
“I don’t really differentiate between everyday clothing and special occasion clothing. Every day is a special day,” Gohar says of the collection. “Working with Arket was about translating that attitude into clothing.”
To learn more about Leila Gohar’s collaboration with Arket, visit the brand’s website.
During this year’s Milan Design Week, Leila Gohar and Arket collaborated to reimagine an antique carousel from the 18th century, transforming it into a site of play, whimsy, and interactivity.
Installation view of the Laila Gohar x Arket carousel, showcased during this year’s Milan Design Week. (Courtesy Arket)
Installation view of the Laila Gohar x Arket carousel, showcased during this year’s Milan Design Week. (Courtesy Arket)
Installation view of the Laila Gohar x Arket carousel, showcased during this year’s Milan Design Week. (Courtesy Arket)
An eggplant seat, part of the carousel produced for the Laila Gohar x Arket collaboration. (Courtesy Arket)
A pear seat, part of the carousel produced for the Laila Gohar x Arket collaboration. (Courtesy Arket)
An onion seat, part of the carousel produced for the Laila Gohar x Arket collaboration. (Courtesy Arket)
Installation view of the Laila Gohar x Arket carousel, showcased during this year’s Milan Design Week. (Courtesy Arket)
Installation view of the Laila Gohar x Arket carousel, showcased during this year’s Milan Design Week. (Courtesy Arket)
