Fútbol: The Beautiful Game
An exhibition at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (LACMA), titled Fútbol: The Beautiful Game, examines football’s ability to generate a shared human experience between spectators from a multitude of cultures.
Featuring approximately 50 works by nearly 30 artists on the subject of football —often referred to as “the beautiful game”— the exhibition looks at issues of nationalism, identity, globalism, and mass spectacle. In anticipation of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, the exhibition considers the sport through video, photography, painting, sculpture, and large-scale installation.
“When people watch a game, they feel inspired by the spirit of the team, the fans, and the sense of community,” said Franklin Sirmans, Curator and department head of contemporary art at LACMA. “We, the fans, create the spirit of the team via our rituals. Witnessing a game is one of the few occasions during which a collective sense of enthusiasm is still possible. This exhibition explores that energy.”
Two room-sized video installations anchor Fútbol: The Beautiful Game. The first, Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait is a piece by the artists Philippe Parreno and Douglas Gordon that provides an intimate portrait of Zinedine Zidane one of the greatest football players in the history of the sport. While Stephen Dean’s Volta, directs its gaze at stadium crowds and draws attention to both the pandemonium and organised ritual of mass audiences. Other works by artists including Robin Rhode, Kehinde Wiley, Petra Cortright, Andy Warhol, and Hassan Hajjaj provide a sense of the possibilities of the sport as a universal conversation piece.
Fútbol: The Beautiful Game is on display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, USA until Sunday 20 July 2014.
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