Craft. Design. Lives
Asia Society installation
A Dialogue Across Craft, Culture, and Distance
The Asia Society is a nonpartisan, nonprofit institution dedicated to promoting mutual understanding and strengthening partnerships between the peoples, leaders, and institutions of Asia and the United States. Across the fields of arts, culture, business, education, and policy, the organisation works to generate ideas, foster collaboration, and address global challenges while shaping a shared future.
For the upcoming office of the Asia Society India Centre at Worli, Mumbai, the brief to EkiBeki was to reflect this spirit of cultural dialogue through design. EkiBeki proposed an unusual pairing: Longpi pottery from Manipur and Madhurkathi mat weaving from West Bengal. These crafts originate in entirely different cultural and geographical landscapes and have rarely intersected in practice. Bringing them together within a single design language was an opportunity to demonstrate how traditional skills can find new meaning in contemporary spaces. Without altering its essence, but by placing it in new contexts where it can shine.
Reimagining Longpi Pottery
Longpi Pottery, originating from Longpi village in Manipur, is a rare black pottery tradition created using a unique blend of serpentine stone and clay. Unlike conventional pottery, the craft does not use a potter’s wheel; each piece is meticulously shaped by hand and burnished with leaves to achieve its smooth finish before firing, which gives the pottery its distinctive matte black surface.
Traditionally, Longpi products are small-scale - kitchenware, desk accessories, or decorative pieces - owing to the material’s weight and structural limitations.
For the Asia Society project, EkiBeki worked closely with the artisans to push the boundaries of the craft. Through iterative design development, technical drawings, and collaborative discussions, the craft evolved into four large pendant lights, an unprecedented scale for Longpi work.
These were crafted entirely in Manipur by master artisan Mr. Wungshungmi Shangrei, in his village workshop.
The Weave of Madhurkathi
Complementing the sculptural presence of the Longpi lights, the second craft story unfolded over 2,000 kilometres away in Paschim Medinipur, West Bengal, where artisans practice the centuries-old tradition of Madhurkathi mat weaving.
Made from reeds harvested in the wetlands of the region, the mats are split, dyed, and woven on floor looms to create lightweight yet durable surfaces known for their fine textures and geometric patterns.
While traditionally used as floor mats, the design reimagined Madhurkathi as an architectural element. For the Asia Society office, artisan Mr. Akhil Jana wove custom Madhurkathi mats at his ancestral home. Rather than using them as conventional floor pieces, the design reimagined them as part of the architecture of the workspace. The central work table is draped with custom-woven Madhurkathi mats, cascading elegantly over the table legs and softening the minimal interior with warmth and texture.
The weaving was completed in the village, while the final assembly was carried out in Mumbai by a team of skilled carpenters.
A Process of Collaboration
What appears effortless in the finished space is the result of careful collaboration across regions, materials, and traditions. Ideas travelled through sketches and screens; materials and craftsmanship travelled across the country.
In bringing together two craft traditions that would rarely intersect, the project reflects the very ethos of the Asia Society - dialogue, exchange, and collaboration across cultures.
For EkiBeki, this project was an important milestone: the ability to execute a sophisticated architectural installation, so that artisans could generate meaningful work and preserve local livelihood without leaving their native communities.
