- Trọng Gia Nguyễn
- Win-Win (Harlequin), 2026
- wood, paint, mirror
- 214 x 153 x 137 cm (84.25 x 60.24 x 53.94 in)
- Inv: TGN_2026-001
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Available
Win-Win consists of one half of a ping pong table, placed flushed against a wall mirror, that reflects and completes itself. Positing a slight existential dilemma, the viewer/player competes solely against himself. The ball always comes back. Like other works by the artist, Win-Win is an interactive sculpture that employs "the look of interaction,” imposing upon the viewer a certain measure, literally, of accountability.
In this Harlequin version for Galerie Bao in Paris, the table is painted with the iconic diamond pattern associated with the trickster figure of European folklore and theatre. Originating from medieval demonology and later popularized in the Commedia dell’Arte, Harlequin embodies agility, subversion, and anti-authoritarian wit, a servant who disrupts systems from within. Transposed onto the ping-pong table, this pattern infuses the work with irony and instability: play becomes strategy, humor masks tension, and movement replaces resolution.
Both playful and unsettling, Win-Win (Harlequin) stages a game without victory, where the illusion of choice mirrors contemporary forms of agency - endlessly active, yet structurally contained.
Exhibition History
- Weight: 55.0 kg