29/03/2020
"My game is fair play" is a group exhibition curated by Manuela Morales framed around football at Gallery Mommsenstr, Berlin.
08.08.2015 - 05.09.2015
The exhibition is articulated in three stages: "Players", "Referees" and "Stadium", each artist representing a role, which merge and dialogue with one another.
Football is the most powerful and popular sport in the world, can be seen as the ultimate level of equality. It can also be viewed as a mirror of global power. The game is structured in a way that projects our society on many levels, both its failures and victories. The exhibition is split in two sides, displayed through two rooms, a series of works reflect in a historical and political matter, a game of contradictions although seemingly absurd that simultaneously make sense.
The exhibition opens with a documentation video of a match in Santiago, at the National stadium of Chile. The film shows the Chilean team playing a match alone, against no opponent, winning 1-0 by default. Chile was supposed to play against the USSR in a playoff to qualify for the 1974 World Cup in Germany, but the USSR boycotted the match and refused to play because of rumors that the Stadium was used as a torture camp. FIFA decided, that the match could continue uncontested in an attempt to show the world, that Chile (under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet) was in a "respectable transition". This turned out not to be true and indeed the stadium was used to torture political prisoners. While watching this video, viewers can hear Jorge Montealegre reciting his poem "Stadium", who was inside the stadium that day, as a political prisoner.
"Players" is the first stage of the exhibition, represented by the photographer Christian Rinke, from two series that he took in different countries around Africa. "About Football #1", focuses on education and social rehabilitation through football in neighborhoods as Alexandra in Johannesburg, Nairobi in Kenya and Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. His series titled "Tough Bond" portraying a football match in Mombassa, Kenya, where the players are street kids addicted to glue. In both series the players rise against adversity through the game.
Nicoló Lanfranchi’s work embodies "Referees", his installation "Dietro le sbarre" is composed of two videos that confront each other, inviting the public to the second room. In the videos we see two teams, female and male respectively, getting ready to play in a football championship in "Geraldo Beltrão" a notorious high security prison in Parayba, Brazil. The winning team of prisoners plays against the Guards in the final. In a contradictory flip, the traditional laws and hierarchy of the prison are swapped with the laws of the game. Through this competition, once a year, prisoners and guards, are equal.
"Players" and "Referees" announce the third stage of the exhibition "Stadium" that weaves and hold the meaning of both, a third look to a historical context. "National Stadium 11.09.09" is Camilo Yáñez’s video installation where the viewer witnesses the national stadium of Santiago, Chile being renovated 42 years after the coup that overthrew the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. In the video we see the field in disrepair and the bleachers in the process of demolition. The viewer sees a single sweep across the whole stadium like a victory lap around its running track. Yáñez’s work speaks volumes about the simultaneous demolition and reconstruction of history, leaving one to question, how do we build our identity and how do we write our own history?
During the opening, Harmony Molina will present his performance titled "Copa America 91" a confession of his personal history with football. Molina recalls the lead up to the Copa America in Chile with great excitement, his father was the official doctor of the championship, and he was looking forward to going with him to every game.
Artists
Harmony Molina
Christian Rinke
Camilo Yañez
Nicoló Lanfranchi
https://www.mommsen35.de/2014-bis-2015
