Austrian Cultural Forum New York: Exhibition

EXHIBITION

Bread and Soccer: in the arena of art
May 28 through September 13 | 2008

Throughout much of the world, soccer has long been more than just a sport. It is a cultural phenomenon, an arena in which local rivalries and national dramas have been played out long before satellite broadcasting made it possible for games to be beamed around the world and experienced simultaneously by hundreds of millions of viewers. Even as professional baseball, football, basketball, and hockey attract bigger audiences in the United States, there is nothing that compares with soccer as a game that is truly played around the world.

In June 2008, Austria and Switzerland play host to the European championship soccer tournament UEFA Euro 2008, a sporting spectacle that to Europe and in many other parts of the world is more important than America's Superbowl. The Austrian Cultural Forum has commissioned the exhibition Bread and Soccer: In the Arena of Art to mark the occasion. The show explores the magical flowing rhythm of the game itself as well as the unique energy and identity that soccer fans have brought to the sport.Eleven artists (like the eleven players on a soccer team) present works that suggest ways in which the cult of spectatorship meets the culture of participation.

The nationalistic and cultural aspects of the sport are explored in Gustavo Artigas'sRules of the Game. He documents a sporting event he sponsored that consisted of two Mexican soccer teams and two American basketball teams, playing against one another, simultaneously, on the same court. Juxtaposing the two sports, he not only produces a surreal vision of competition but contrasts the rules of each game, the style of play and the spectator cultures of the different sports. Klaus Pobitzer (born 1971, lives and works in Vienna) presents a graphic installation in homage to women's soccer teams. Pobitzer's homage plays on our knowledge that with very few exceptions women's sports are not accorded the same attention or afforded the same resources as men receive.

Bread and Soccer is an exhibition that looks at art, soccer, and mass spectacle from the place where the amateur and the professional intermingle. Monika Wuhrer (lives and works in New York) develops and merchandises alternative fan products. She is also conducting a series of foosball (table soccer) tournaments as a contact point between professional soccer players, exhibition visitors, and fans. Over the last fifteen years, Roderick Buchanan (born 1965, lives and works in Glasgow) has produced an extraordinary range of works exploring the culture of spectatorship and participation, particularly in relation to the game of soccer. He will premiere a new video commissioned for this exhibition entitled Wrong Time, Wrong Place. Martin Maximilian Michl and Markus Iser (born 1977 and 1975), live and work in Salzburg) have produced a stunning viral video wherein people in the streets re-enact Zinedine Zidane???s famous headbutt in the final game of the last soccer World Cup.

Fascination and mastery, participation and belonging blend in heady and hallucinatory ways that blur distinctions between the individual and the mass. Thomas Feuerstein (born 1968, lives and works in Vienna) is a philosopher and visual artist who is producing a computer-generated installation in which large crowd scenes are animated and abstracted through new computer techniques. Pia Lindman (born 1965, lives and works in New York) layers multiple exposures of sports stadiums to produce haunting meditations contrasting the monumental structure of the stadiums with the fluctuating density and movement of the audience. Spencer Tunick (born 1967, lives and works in New York) is well known for his photographic tableaux of bodies lying in urban situations. While he has produced a number of documentary videos of these situations, he is creating a new art video based on a recent project in Ernst Happel soccer stadium in Vienna. Nives Widauer (born 1965, lives and works in Vienna) provides an alternative soundtrack to the singing of the national anthems that precede each game. As the camera pans along, the players are seen to be speaking or thinking short philosophical texts. Julius Deutschbauer/Tonspurvienna presents his project Insult Arena, a site-specific sound installation that recreates the insults hurled by fans at the opposing team.

A final highlight is a remarkable sculpture called Global Culture (Red) by Serge Spitzer (born 1951, lives and works in New York). It features a robotic table that magically keeps a soccer ball balanced on its surface, even as the table tilts and swivels in all directions, drawing attention back to the simple physical wonder that is at the core of the beautiful game.

Artists |

GUSTAVO ARTIGAS | RODERICK BUCHANAN | JULIUS DEUTSCHBAUER/TONSPURVIENNA |THOMAS FEUERSTEIN | PIA LINDMAN | MARTIN MAXIMILIAN MICHL & MARKUS ISER | KLAUS POBITZER | SERGE SPITZER | SPENCER TUNICK | NIVES WIDAUER | MONIKA WÜHRER

Curated by Trevor Smith and Jürgen Weishäupl
Commissioned and Produced by Andreas Stadler
Exhibition Coordination| Elisabeth Haider
Exhibition Assistance| Natascha Boojar | Catharina Coreth | Pauline Rigaudeau | Maria Simma | Stephanie Pereira| Susanne Zöhrer

The exhibition is generously supported by Austrian Airlines | Duggal | Ottkringer | Red Bull | RZB Finance | Settepani |Zumtobel Staff

Austrian Cultural Forum NYC