The exhibition at the Musée du Luxembourg will be showing how closely design and sport are linked until 11 August. 150 exhibits illustrate the constant development of sports equipment and its influence on performance and aesthetics.
Sport in all its forms has an enormous value, especially for design. A “cult of perfection” has grown up around the many athletes who compete in various competitions, not only in terms of their bodies and fitness, but also in terms of their equipment. Sleek suits and elegant jerseys make them stand out from the crowd, while optimised sports equipment protects and enhances their performance like some kind of prosthetic.
The exhibition “Match. Design & Sport” at the Musée du Luxembourg – in Paris, conceived on the occasion of the Olympic and Paralympic Games and curated by Konstantin Grcic, shows how design and sport go hand in hand with numerous examples until 11 August.
Grcic’s interest in the subject not only goes back a long way, it was formative. Even as a boy, he was obsessed with poring over sports equipment catalogues, fascinated by their design, which combined energy, beauty, technology and functionality: “You could say,” says Grcic, “that sport was my first design teacher. Not only are athletes constantly trying to improve their performance, but their equipment is also constantly evolving. “Just as supplements and wearable technologies contribute to gradual physical changes,” he says, “equipment and sports environments are also constantly evolving”.
For Match, Grcic has selected 150 historical and iconic pieces – commercial products, prototypes, models, drawings, prints, films and applications. It’s about stadiums, pitches and playing fields, established codes and typologies, pictograms, race, gender and religion, inclusion and exclusion – and much more.
Sportswear, from boxing to tennis, may be the be-all and end-all of any sporting activity, but even the graphic language of global sporting events, down to the pattern of a simple sports bra, makes it clear that design plays a crucial role in conveying societal values far beyond the parameters of sport. Accordingly, the exhibition reflects on the importance of equipment for para-athletes as well as for chess computers on the path to AI. Last but not least, it asks whether the focus of design in the field of sport will also shift from the design of physical equipment to the immateriality of data analysis.
