Forever – The Ball!
is a videoart compilation deadling with sport as a topic in contemporary art. While sport and especially football (soccer) has an extraordinary relevance and popularity in the society influencing the individual life of quantitatively many people, but there is exist a certain kind of stereotype of the representation of sport in art.
The compilation selected and curated by Agricola de Cologne is viewing the phenomenon of football from different positions. Most of them transport the enthusiasm which is marking the engagement for football as a central component, concerning those who actively practise this sport and those who are just “fans”, enthusiastic amateurs, and in this way the videos transport positive message, but not solely, since also the dark of this phenomen, connected especially with football, like hooligans, the misuse of drugs and alcohol are spotlighted.
Jacques Faton & Alpha Sadou Gano (Belgium/Senegal) – Laar, 2011, 19:00
Hubert Sielecki (Austria) – Foul, 2009, 5:50 min
Alvaro Collar (Spain) – c1900, 2009, 8:08
Kevin Ryan (Ireland) – It’s more important than that, 2007, 5:06
Anders Weberg (Swe) – Misconduct, 2011, 01:22
Haike Rausch & Torsten Grosch (D) – “Time Lap | One of those days”, 2011, 10:00
Yuriy Kruchak & Yulia Kostereva (Ukraine) – Start Time, 2011, 3 min.49
Joanot Cortès (Spain) – The Black God, 2010, 5:00
Cristian Chironi (Italy) – Sticker, 2007, 7:26
Marta Azparren (Spain) -The goalkeeper and the void, 2010, 3:56
Heike Liss & Patrice Scanlon (USA) – Fancy Footworks, 207, 5:08
Eric Esser (Germany) – Dawn of the Dorks, 2006, 22:00
Eva Olsson (Swe) – Taking Control, 2007, 2:28
Max Hattler (Germany) – Your Highness, 2010, 3mins
Henry Gwiazda (USA) – footballcloud practice, 2005, 1’29”
Paula Noya (Spain) – “Watching”, 2010, 3’07’’
Sander Veenhof (NL) – “SoccAR”, 2011, 2’19
Scott Stark (USA) – Longhorn Tremolo, 2010, 16 mins.
David Anthony Sant (Australia) – Euro’92, 2005, 1:40
Ann Tracy (USA) – Zombie Kickball”, 2011, 3:00
Goran Dimic (Croatia) – Love for the Ball, 2009, 2:22
Lili White (USA) – The Octopus, 2010, 5.55
Forever – The Ball
It is the general opinion, that (most) artists reflect society and their living conditions via art. The art museums are overwhelmed with two different type of artistic expressions manifesting themselves in formal abstract works which obviously depict another than the visibly perceivable reality, and nearly the contrary – the criticsm of the current, reflecting current political, social or environmental issues. Strange enough, that certain fields of life in which really many people are engaged in -, for instance, leisure activities like sport serving well-being and health which additionally have an enormous social impact do obviously not represent topics in art, but why?
It is not for the first time that Wilfried was choosing unconventional topics for curatorial project – and choosing the most popular sport “football” (Soccer) which is attracting millions and millions of people all over the world, was as unusual. By preparing the project, it became obvious why – a juxtaposition of two opposites – the physical in shape of physical exertion and the rather immaterial – intellectual/sensual one which obvious both have not much in common with each other.
Wilfried actually was looking for cooperations with institutional structures dedicated to sport & culture, but there aren’t many. He found at first many open doors, but as soon as it became obvious that it was about art, any of Wilfried’s attempts were declined, as if art would be something like a desease. On the other hand, the artists were speaking quite respectless of such sports professionals as mono-dimensional, intellectually restricted type of human beings………so, sport and art was something which did not fit.
Wilfried had himself conflicting feelings – in childhood and during the school he did not like to practice any sports, but he liked to watch how other people did, like wintersport or athletics like olympic games etc, on the other hand, after high school starting his studies and entering an actors school, confronted with the physical movement of dance and performance he became an enthusiast by taking additionally privat dance lessons in classical ballet, jazz and tap dance, but now it was about “art”, while doing sport remained something “empty”.
In fact, Wilfried never liked “football” (soccer) as a mass phenomenon and he even liked less the typical American football, but during his travels around the world which were leading him often to poor countries, especially football (soccer) had an enormous socially integrating function by taking young poor people from the streets and prevent their criminalization. The carreers of the best football players started in such small sporting clubs giving young people support and orientation, and this aspect of sports Wilfried found most exciting.
