The exhibition MATCH: Design & Sport - A Story Looking to the Future is held on the occasion of the 2024 Summer Olympics and Paralympics in Paris. It is conceived as a launch-pad for thinking about the future of sports by examining sports through the lens of design and exploring how design, in its many forms, is an integral component thereof. Looking at projects from the past, present, and future, “MATCH” aims to prompt a broader understanding of the relationship between design and sport.
The most obvious link between these two fields is found in equipment: sporting gear is how sports and design first became intertwined. Throughout the history of sports, design has created lighter, safer, stronger, performance-enhancing products for athletes - professionally and otherwise. Design has also helped sports become more inclusive through the development of protheses as well as the creation of virtual games like eSports. Yet as design pushes sport forward through the incorporation of the latest technologies, sport also pushes design forward: athletes desire equipment that not only looks and feels good but also - and perhaps more importantly - reflects their personal identity and gives them a boost of self-confidence. The results of the ongoing symbiotic relationship between design and sports, as shown in this exhibition, are aesthetically stunning objects and materials that simultaneously serve incredibly functional purposes.
But the impact of design within sports extends far beyond the shape, look, and feel of equipment. A ball’s weight or the responsiveness of a keyboard actually define the speed of a game. Technology enhances human capabilities and compensates for so-called deficiencies. Games - both physical and digital - are controlled by the fine-tuned designs of rules and regulations. Even the spectators’ experience is carefully designed, from camera placements and drone footage to online streaming platforms as well as the look and feel of a stadium. It is an expanded understanding and awareness of this ever-changing impact that drives the future of design and sports.
The exhibition outlines the process of how design initiates such fundamental and far-reaching changes in sports. “MATCH” showcases how things have been made historically but also how advanced technologies and digital manufacturing are spurring a shift away from standardized models and toward individualized equipment. Moreover, it explores the future-oriented shift away from the design of physical equipment to the development and understanding of the immaterial, specifically to the opportunities that can be unlocked by data. Experts predict that, in the coming decades, the ways to enhance an athlete’s performance will rely less on material innovations and more on data analysis. In other words, there will likely be no performance-altering material innovations; instead, the recording, analysis, and use of data will present the highest potential for future developments—and not just for those who practice sport, but for the entire industry.
With these thoughts in mind, “MATCH” presents a subjective selection of projects to reflect on and engender new ideas surrounding the multilayered connections between sports and design. It examines shifting variables throughout the past, present, and future, with one thing always remaining a constant: the people who are at the center of the experience. As the Olympic charter boldly states, “The practice
of sport is a human right.” So although the future of design and sport might be unknown, the practitioners of today are those who will shape it.
Project Assistant:
- Nathalie Opris
Commissioner:
- GrandPalais rmn / Musée du Luxembourg