In 1994, for the inauguration of the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in Paris, Ron Arad designed a monumental installation for the hall of the building by Jean Nouvel. In this glass space, bathed in transparency and shimmering light, Arad conceived a series of forty polished stainless-steel tables, now known as the Cartier Tables.
Created specifically for the installation, they were never produced commercially. Each piece, with its unique form and proportions, reflects its surroundings — the architecture, the light, the movement of visitors. With their mirrored tops supported by inverted V-shaped legs, they seem to float in space, suspended between the materiality of metal and the immateriality of reflection.
Critic Deyan Sudjic described them as “light and insubstantial, like a metal pond or a pool of mercury filled to the brim.” In that image, everything is said: the table becomes a liquid surface, the illusion of a space in motion.
These tables quickly acquired the status of contemporary design icons. Presented several times at auction, they have reached remarkable prices: €61,000 at Christie’s in 2005, £20,320 at Phillips in 2013, €59,482 at Artcurial, and €52,000 at Piasa. Their rarity and direct connection to the Fondation Cartier make them key pieces of 1990s design. Dispersed after the exhibition, some remain in the Fondation’s collections, while others have joined those of private collectors.
Nearly twenty years later, in 2012, Ron Arad returned to Paris with a new project centered on the table and the mirror: Downtown @ Downtown, presented at Laffanour | Galerie Downtown. This time, he abandoned the monumental scale of the Fondation in favor of a constellation of low tables — more intimate, yet just as luminous.
Arranged throughout the gallery, even climbing up the walls, they form a miniature urban plan. Ron Arad speaks of a “hierarchy of streets and squares”: the tables intersect, brush past, and respond to one another. Visitors wander among them like through a city of reflections — a shifting landscape where surfaces capture light and distort perception. The mirrored steel tops rest on conical legs in blackened and waxed steel.
This installation extends the exploration begun at the Fondation Cartier. Where the large tables reflected architecture and nature, those of the Galerie Downtown examine urban density, circulation, and the relationships between objects. Ron Arad continues to question the role of design: function or sculpture? furniture or landscape?
Ron Arad’s Tables
An everyday object par excellence, the table never ceases to fascinate designers. Behind its simple form lies an infinite field of experimentation — a space where function meets creation. For Ron Arad, the table becomes a field of research and play. It reflects the world around it, captures light, and engages in dialogue with its environment.
Throughout his career, Ron Arad has made it a privileged field of exploration. With the Split Table (1990, Poltronova), he transforms the extendable table into a modular object: its adjustable wooden slats reveal the mechanism of extension, while its brushed steel legs give it a sculptural presence. In 2004, the No Waste Table takes this approach even further: cut from a single folded sheet of aluminum, it produces no material waste.
Another striking example is his collaboration with Fiam Italy, a pioneer in curved glass. With the Konx low table, Ron Arad explores the properties of float glass, mercury, and steel, creating a tabletop where transparency and structure merge.
These tables quickly acquired the status of contemporary design icons. Presented several times at auction, they have reached remarkable prices: €61,000 at Christie’s in 2005, £20,320 at Phillips in 2013, €59,482 at Artcurial, and €52,000 at Piasa. Their rarity and direct connection to the Fondation Cartier make them key pieces of 1990s design. Dispersed after the exhibition, some remain in the Fondation’s collections, while others have joined those of private collectors.
Nearly twenty years later, in 2012, Ron Arad returned to Paris with a new project centered on the table and the mirror: Downtown @ Downtown, presented at Laffanour | Galerie Downtown. This time, he abandoned the monumental scale of the Fondation in favor of a constellation of low tables — more intimate, yet just as luminous.
In 1994, for the inauguration of the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in Paris, Ron Arad designed a monumental installation for the hall of the building by Jean Nouvel. In this glass space, bathed in transparency and shimmering light, Arad conceived a series of forty polished stainless-steel tables, now known as the Cartier Tables.
Created specifically for the installation, they were never produced commercially. Each piece, with its unique form and proportions, reflects its surroundings — the architecture, the light, the movement of visitors. With their mirrored tops supported by inverted V-shaped legs, they seem to float in space, suspended between the materiality of metal and the immateriality of reflection.
Critic Deyan Sudjic described them as “light and insubstantial, like a metal pond or a pool of mercury filled to the brim.” In that image, everything is said: the table becomes a liquid surface, the illusion of a space in motion.
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