I also owe a lot to football and it’s something I’m always willing to discuss, play or watch. It’s even more appropriate to discuss today and even into the summer. In a matter of hours, over in Moscow, the Champions League Final kicks off featuring an all-English match up of Chelsea FC and Manchester United FC (I’m rooting for Man U). In a matter of a few weeks (17 days to be exact), the European Championships begin, sadly without England, but I’ll be rooting for the Orange Crush (that would be the Dutch National Team) and glued to every game I can catch on TV.
Every two years I become transfixed with the World Cup or Euro Championships – and it is heaven. I remember beautiful goals as if they were works of art and the players that create them (Pele, Maradona, Cruyff and Zidane) like artists – but I excitedly digress and this is where I bring this post back to planet art museum. With all this football on my mind, I decided to research contemporary works of art and artists influenced by or featuring this sport.

Here’s what I found:

Local artist Artur Silva is pretty cool and not because I can have a conversation about Gordon Banks with him. Artur is Brazilian which means he has the luxury of supporting some of the best teams in the history of the game. I remember watching the 2002 World Cup game between England and Brazil in a bar as Brazilian fans samba’d around me celebrating their victory. It was painful loss for an England fan, but it really opened my eyes to the beauty of Brazilian soccer. Around the same time, I came across this piece by Artur Silva and it brought back so many memories of Pele, the game, the history. So thank you to Artur for that.

I’ve written about it before, but I don’t mind beating a dead horse. Zinedine Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait is an impressive cinematic work of art that depicts the beautiful game and one of the games greatest players ever, Zizou. Directed by Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno, it features stunning camera work (all 17 of them), a mesmerizing soundtrack by Mogwai and clever, thoughtful editing. Do whatever you can to find this video.

Fellow blogger Phillip sent this link to me ages ago and I went nuts. German artist Susken Rosenthal creates individual portraits of specific football matches by sketching and tracking the ball movement in real time. The result is similar to that of a seismographic drawing. To someone not familiar with soccer, it may not make sense. To me it’s a work of art.

And in short -

Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco not only plays soccer but has also depicted it in some of his work. Check it out here.

Here’s an interesting piece by Brian Jungen that synthesizes Nike silver soccer balls made to resemble lava rock.

Turkish artist Omer Ali Kazma created a video installation on Turkish team, Galatasaray featuring footage from over 8 months of work. I would love to see this somehow. Can anyone help me out?

And that’s all I’ve got…for now. If you’ve made it this far and want to contribute any recommendations for contemporary artists and football, please leave me a comment.

In the meantime, enjoy this Maradona goal scored against England in the 1986 World Cup. Painful for me to watch, but quite possibly a work of art.

This post is about our new video on the new installation by Julianne Swartz. It actually wasn’t on the schedule, but our team created it anyway. When there is a chance to capture some nuggets, we’ll be there. So here’s the breakdown –

Sunday Jan 27 – Lisa Freiman, curator of contemporary art, calls me at home. I’m relaxing drinking champagne and eating lobster. Lisa informs me that Julianne has arrived and the installation work has begun – can I stop by and get some footage of the initial work? I drive a hard bargain and arrive 15 minutes later. The entire oval entry floor is covered in what looks like a netting. Lisa introduces me to Julianne who is sweet, friendly and thoughtful. This is going to be a great installation.

January 28 – Feb 1 – I update the rest of the nugget factory (new media) team (Dan, Danny and Despi). We all agree to capture the rest of the installation process over the next 8 days. This means Dan and Danny periodically visit the installation and film. They’ve done this a million times, and it will look great. Danny convinces Brad Dilger, installation technician, to take him 30’ in the air for the perfect shot. Dan and I accidentally walk into his shot several times…and then several more times on purpose.

Friday Feb 1 – Despi has worked with the contemporary department to setup an exclusive video interview with Julianne. We try to do this with every artist that comes to the museum. It’s a video series we’re calling In the Factory (coming soon!). It’s the end of day on Friday, after a long, intensive week, but Julianne gives a great interview, dropping plenty of nuggets.

Wednesday February 6 – We film a segment for the Director’s Journal, a monthly series featuring IMA’s Director and various staff. Our boss, Max Anderson, discusses the installation with Julianne and Sarah Green from IMA’s contemporary department. It’s a three camera shoot in the oval entry using all members of the Nugget Factory. Everyone nails it. It’s a wrap.

February 18-22 – Dan, Danny and Despi wrap up all of the work for the Breaking the Mode website. It’s an inordinate amount of digital content – sixteen designer profile videos (shot and produced in-house), flickr pool images, an iMix, streaming audio and much more. Without stopping to reflect on a job well done, Danny moves onto editing the Julianne Swartz video.

Friday Feb 22 – Danny completes the video and all members of new media review it. We invite people to the Nugget Factory to view the piece (its standard operating procedure). Lisa and Sarah stop by, hang out, check out the video and ….drum roll….approve it! High fives all around.

Monday Feb 25 – The video is uploaded to our YouTube channel and takes its place as a nugglette on imamuseum.org.

Now it’s up to you to watch it!