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Yahoo
17 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Eric Cantona and Ella Toone help meld football and art for Manchester festival
An installation created for the exhibition by Stefano Boeri and Eduardo Terrazas with the former Italian player Sandro Mazzola. An installation created for the exhibition by Stefano Boeri and Eduardo Terrazas with the former Italian player Sandro Mazzola. Photograph: Courtesy of Stefano Boeri Architetti 'Everybody needs his own ritual or way of preparing,' says the former Dutch footballer Edgar Davids. 'Those minutes that you're in the tunnel is where we're going to start.' Davids is talking about a piece he has worked on alongside the artist Paul Pfeiffer in which the pair recreate the tension of the tunnel before a big game. Advertisement The work will serve as the passageway into the 'set piece' of this year's Manchester international festival – Football City, Art United – where the beautiful game is moving off the pitch and into the artist's studio. 'It's now more important than ever to bring things together,' says Hans Ulrich Obrist, who has co-curated the exhibition alongside Josh Willdigg and the former Manchester United midfielder Juan Mata. 'There's a lot of separation and it's important to connect worlds that wouldn't necessarily talk to each other. It's exciting to do it with sport.' For Football City, Art United, Pfeiffer was paired with the former Juventus midfielder Davids, who has a significant art collection of his own and suggested recreating the intensity of the tunnel as players prepare to walk out into a stadium. 'He referred to it as the moment of greatest tension,' says Pfeiffer. 'Even more so than being on the field itself.' Advertisement Visitors to the Aviva Studios in Manchester, where the exhibition is being held, will be immersed into a tunnel, with audio of crowd noise that Pfeiffer and his team recorded live at the San Siro stadium during the Milan derby earlier this year. Davids, who also played for both Milan sides during his career in Italy, was able to pull strings to get the artist's team pitchside. Pfeiffer calls it a mix of the 'preparation and interior space of the individual player' versus 'the sound of 100,000 fans permeating the wall'. There are 11 'pairings' in total, with footballers and artists put together according to interests. Arguably the most anticipated work for locals comes from the United fan favourite and Manchester United bete noire Eric Cantona, who alongside the British conceptual artist Ryan Gander explores the effects of fame on a player. The work features three parts: an automated spotlight that will pick out visitors at random so they can experience the 'isolating glare of celebrity'; a song performed by Cantona, Les Temps Passe or Time Passes, will play; and a number of match tickets from the French forward's final appearance at Old Trafford will be handed out to every 100th visitor replete with a message from him. Advertisement Perhaps the most intriguing work is a collaboration between the Berlin and London-based artist collective Keiken and the England star Ella Toone. Visitors can step on to a podium and interact with a mask inspired by Toone's 'spirit animal', the shetland pony. 'The idea is that football is for everyone and art is for everyone,' says Obrist. 'We're here to create a bridge of possibilities. There are moments of epiphany in football and art, and hopefully we can create some in Manchester.' This is not the first time Obrist has embraced football. He was a passionate backer of Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno's film Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait, which he describes as a masterpiece. He has also had a long-running collaborative relationship with Mata, after the pair messaged each other on Instagram when the footballer began liking Obrist's studio visit posts. This year's project is the latest instalment of The Trequartista: Art and Football United, a multi-part exploration of the sport and artistic practice. Advertisement After connecting with Mata, the Serpentine curator invited him to collaborate with the German-Indian artist Tino Sehgal at the 2023 Manchester international festival. The resulting work, This entry, features Mata alongside a trick cyclist, a freeform footballer, a violinist and a dancer. Obrist described the 2023 work as a teaserfor what's to come later this summer. The Honolulu-born, New York-based Pfeiffer's work often intersects with sport. He has used digital editing to make it seem as if a boxer is being hit by an invisible opponent and removed audio from NBA games, creating eerie portraits of players. As one critic put it, Pfeiffer 'strips away the pageantry' of sport and in so doing shows 'the pain and contradiction that draw people in'. The Swiss Uruguayan artist Jill Mulleady once met Diego Maradona, and she is using that chance encounter as the basis for a 'holographic illusion' of the footballer, which will recall his controversial 'hand of God' goal against England at the 1986 World Cup. Advertisement Alvaro Barrington teams up with the 90s Brazil star Raí to create a 'large green felt banner' that will hang about the space, while the architects Stefano Boeri and Eduardo Terrazas have created a work on the floor of the Aviva Studios with the former Italian player Sandro Mazzola where visitors can recreate some of his goals. Other work includes the manga artist Chikyuu no Osakana Pon-chan recreating scenes from the life of the former Manchester United midfielder Shinji Kagawa; the Zidane co-creator Parreno and Marco Perego present a Sims-style video game where visitors can explore the 'physical geography' of the former Everton and Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti. The US artist Suzanne Lacy, the Manchester City and Netherlands star Vivianne Miedema and the Angel City FC and New Zealand captain Ali Riley have created a film; Bárbara Sánchez-Kane and the former Mexican goalkeeper Jorge Campos have created a flamboyant mascot named Brody; and the British artist Rose Wylie worked with the Arsenal and England defender Lotte Wubben-Moy to turn moments from her daily life as a footballer into paintings.
BBC News
11-03-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Eric Cantona turns spotlight on fans in Manchester art exhibition
Eric Cantona is to give football fans a taste of what it feels like to be in the spotlight as part of a new art exhibition created by players about their experiences of the beautiful Manchester United legend is alongside Dutch master Edgar Davids, England's Euro 2022 winner Ella Toone and Spanish World Cup winner Juan Mata in a squad of creative players who have been paired with artists for the and contemporary artist Ryan Gander will highlight the effects of fame on players with an art installation that literally puts a spotlight on visitors and follows their movements through the Frenchman famously felt the pressures of the spotlight when he kung-fu kicked a rival fan in 1995. Cantona and Gander's installation will "playfully explore the effects of fame on players", organisers said."The new work will see a spotlight randomly pick a visitor and follow their movement around the exhibition until they leave the space, continually repeating the process and selecting a new subject to shower with attention."It will be part of the Football City, Art United exhibition in the city where Cantona made his mark on the pitch, at this summer's Manchester International has remained a hero at Old Trafford, and since retiring from the pitch has dabbled in a range of creative pursuits including acting and players taking part in the exhibition include Manchester City and Netherlands star Vivianne Miedema, who has teamed up with US artist Suzanne Lacy to show a short film "exploring and questioning football's complex relationship with gender". Former Ajax and Juventus midfielder Davids is working with US sculptor and video artist Paul Pfeiffer to exhibit a tunnel inspired by those players walk through before a will invite visitors to "step into the thoughts, feelings, and rituals players experience as they move through the sacred space between the dressing room and the pitch".There will also be artistic creations by Brazilian World Cup winner Raí, England defender Lotte Wubben-Moy, and former Mexico goalkeeper Jorge who is co-curator of the exhibition, said: "The worlds of football and art can both be beautiful, complicated and powerful; something that is explored through these collaborations."Football City, Art United will run at Aviva Studios in Manchester in July and August. It will be one of the centrepieces of the Manchester International Festival, which happens every two years and stages an array of events spanning art, music, theatre and will run from 3 to 20 July and other highlights, announced on Tuesday, will include:The Herds will open the festival with more than 100 life-size animal puppets reaching Manchester on a trek across Africa and Europe, with performances to "vividly dramatise the climate crisis"A stage adaptation of Christopher Isherwood's 1964 novel A Single Man will feature the Royal Ballet with former principal Ed Watson, and US musician John GrantRapper and choreographer Blackhaine will stage the premiere of And Now I Know What Love Is, inspired by the "seemingly desolate" Lancashire landscapes where he grew upThe play Liberation will mark the 80th anniversary of the Fifth Pan African Congress, which was held in Manchester in 1945 and was a key moment for independence movementsIn A Symphony of Flesh and Bones, artist Juliet Ellis is inspired by her world champion bodybuilder father and former cage fighter brotherThe Beginning of Knowledge will be the first international solo exhibition by Santiago Yahuarcani, an artist, activist and leader of the Uitoto people in northern Peru
The Guardian
11-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Art with Cantona and puppet animals lined up for Manchester international festival
A giant herd of puppet animals raising awareness of the climate crisis and artwork inspired by footballers including Eric Cantona are part of the 10th edition of the Manchester international festival (MIF), whose organisers want visitors to have 'a moment to reflect'. The former Manchester United footballer Juan Mata and the art curator Hans Ulrich Obrist have put together the event's 'set piece', a celebration of the beautiful game where artists and footballers collaborated on purpose-made artworks. The England Lionesses midfielder Ella Toone, the former Netherlands and Juventus enforcer Edgar Davids, and the Manchester United great Cantona are among the footballers taking part in Football City, Art United, which will take place in Aviva Studios and include sculpture, sound installations and animation. It was inspired after a conversation between MIF's artistic director, John McGrath, the poet Lemn Sissay, Obrist and Mata, who saw MIF's Poets Slash Artist show, where visual artists and poets collaborated, and asked if something similar could be done with footballers. Mata also featured in 2023's edition of the festival, working with Obrist and Tino Sehgal. McGrath said: 'It's about treating both things with mutual respect, not just can we do something smart and arty about football but rather asking what's the creativity behind these great human endeavours.' Low Kee Hong, who curated the festival alongside McGrath, said he wanted the 18-day event, which has expanded to include sites across Greater Manchester, to be a place where people could 'transcend the stress of everyday'. 'We open up our phones and it's a shitshow,' said Kee Hong, who previously led arts organisations in Hong Kong and Singapore, and will oversee future MIF editions. 'It's important that we're reminded that we are capable of hope and joy. 'It's not escapism. But because we live in the world we live in right now, it's more important to lean into the way artists are fashioning and seeing the world … We also need to ask what kind of world do we want to live in?' The tagline of the festival is 'Dream Differently', and other highlights include The Herds, a group of animal creations designed by the team behind the Little Amal puppet. It is hoped they will provoke thought about the climate crisis. The Royal Exchange theatre is also hosting the premiere of Liberation, by Ntombizodwa Nyoni. The play is inspired by the fifth Pan-African Congress, held in Manchester in October 1945, which was attended by the anti-colonial activist and later Kenyan prime minister Jomo Kenyatta, the eventual Ghanian prime minister Kwame Nkrumah, and the American writer WEB Du Bois. Christopher Isherwood's novel A Single Man is being turned into a stage version by MIF and the Royal Ballet while Blackhaine, who has collaborated with Kanye West, will perform his new work And Now I Know What Love Is, taking inspiration from the 'seemingly desolate spaces' of urban landscapes in the north-west of England, where he grew up. Two Indigenous artists will also come to Manchester: Santiago Yahuarcani's first international solo show will be held at the Whitworth art gallery, and the queer collective FAFSWAG will take over HOME during MIF with work that includes live cultural ceremonies. The film-maker and artist Juliet Ellis's new work A Symphony of Flesh and Bones is an exploration of the male body through the prism of her father, a world champion bodybuilder, and her brother, a former cage fighter. The Herds will open MIF on 3 July and the event runs until 20 July in various venues around Manchester city centre and Greater Manchester.
