india mahdavi and crosby studios invite players to a game of ping pong in paris

set in mahdavi's project room space, the installation revisits the idea of play and exercise as a common aspect of being at home.

lea zeitoun June 25, 2024 4 min

match point lands in the project room space in paris

Ahead of the Summer Olympic Games, French-Iranian architect India Mahdavi invites multidisciplinary artist Harry Nuriev from Crosby Studios to imagine a ping-pong installation at her Project Room space in Paris. The collaboration, titled Match Point (a.k.a. Project Room #14), offers a new setting that expands the space’s continuum of domestic experimentation by revising the idea of play and exercise as a common aspect of being at home. Visitors are welcome to play a game of ping pong for free anytime between 2pm and 7pm from Monday to Saturday on a first-come/first-serve basis.

india mahdavi ping pong — all images © Benoit Florençon

Harry Nuriev & india mahdavi revisit the essence of ping pong

As a game or as a sport, in private or in public, ping-pong is played by all age groups and has a unique ability to connect humans. Not only does it convene physical activity, leisure, and design, but it also triggers childhood memories of joy, fun, and competitiveness. With that in mind, Match Point acts as a modern-day parlor and addresses table tennis bothspatially and socially; it reconnects with the game’s origin by devoting an interior (domestic) space to physical activity while inviting the outside to play indoors. Harry Nuriev manifests this opposition with a bold and effective gesture — covering India Mahdavi’s entire Project Room, from the walls down to the table and rackets, in reflective silver surfaces to evoke a spatial mirroring from interior to exterior and vice versa. ‘One of my favorite parts of the project is that it has no color. Everything is grey and silver – and reflects everything happening around and outside the Project Room,’ the designer shares.

exploring playfulness and domesticity with ‘match point’

Reflecting on this collaboration, India Mahdavi adds: ‘I was interested to see how Harry would appropriate the space as he stands at the crossroads of many different disciplines – and I believe my practice embodies this very principle too. There’s a sense of playfulness and domesticity in both our practices; in a way, we’re both athletes in our fields.‘ Project Room is programmed by Mahdavi and conceived for free expression and collaboration. It invites, produces, and exhibits, merging talents and crafts and instigating conversations with designers from across the spectrum in the form of installations, décors, models, screenings, performances, lectures, and meetings. Project Room is regenerated four times a year, with free access. If you’re in Paris, go check out Match Point / Project Room #14, which will be open to the public until August 2nd, 2024.