At Paris Design Week, Harry Nuriev’s Objets Trouvés transforms forgotten objects into certified art, blending analog exchange with contemporary design.

Paris Design Week always delivers its share of polished showrooms and forward-looking concepts, but one of the most unexpected installations this year came from Harry Nuriev. Known for his chrome-laden, hyper-modern aesthetic, Nuriev flipped his own reputation inside out with Objets Trouvés, a participatory installation staged on the Left Bank.

Rows of aluminum boxes set the stage, each one filled with what could only be described as “junk”: a broken tennis racket, a tattered tote bag, a stack of mismatched items that feel at once disposable and oddly intimate. But here’s the catch, to enter you are required to leave something of your own behind, while departure demand you take something away. Each object is then certified by Nuriev’s team, transforming it into art with a traceable lineage.

Analog Exchange in a Digital Era

What makes Objets Trouvés so striking is its analog simplicity. It’s almost an anti-tech gesture from a designer celebrated for futuristic interiors and digital aesthetics. Instead of VR headsets or reflective surfaces, the installation embraced human ritual, browsing, trading, and valuing the overlooked.

The setup borrowed from the marketplace or flea fair, but it was stripped of commerce. No money exchanged hands, only stories and objects. In juxtaposition to the rest of Paris Design Week’s sleek showcases, Nuriev reminded us that design isn’t just about producing the new, it’s also about recontextualizing the familiar.

Why It Matters

Participation as design: Visitors became co-authors of the work, contributing their own objects and narratives.

Value redefined: Junk became certified art, sparking conversations around consumption, memory, and authenticity.

Contrast as commentary: By stepping away from his chrome-futurism, Nuriev underscored how much the low-tech, human gesture still resonates in design.

In a week where innovation often means pushing forward, Objets Trouvés looked backward, and inward, making us rethink what it means to give, take, and trade in the design world. View more from Harry Nuriev here. All images courtesy of Nuriev.