Top football players are pairing up with major artists for a soccer-tastic exhibition due to launch at this summer’s Manchester International Festival. “What happens when artists and footballers transfer ideas?” ask the organisers of the Football City, Art United exhibition at Aviva Studios (4 July-24 August), which will include 11 new works co-created by the footie-art partners.
The Manchester City and Netherlands star Vivianne Miedema has teamed up with the US artist Suzanne Lacy on a short film exploring football’s complex relationship with gender, while the England soccer star Ella Toone is working with the artist collective Keiken. “Audiences can experience an intimate sonic journey, and hear directly from Toone on her inner world,” say the organisers. The UK artist Rose Wylie will collaborate with the Arsenal and England defender Lotte Wubben-Moy.
The most intriguing duo must, however, be Eric Cantona and Ryan Gander, who have devised a piece that tracks visitors’ movements. “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,” add the festival organisers.
We caught up with the former Dutch midfielder Edgar Davids at the festival press launch. He gave us a flavour of his joint work with US conceptual artist Paul Pfeiffer, revealing that their immersive installation takes the form of a tunnel. The piece invites 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”.
Davids also highlighted his graffiti art past. “I’m a photographic artist but sometimes the brush comes to hand and I spray paint—I’d play on the streets when I was young [in Amsterdam] and there were street artists who inspired us,” he says.
Davids and Pfeiffer will present their work under the watchful eye of the exhibition co-curator and Spanish world cup winner Juan Mata, who helped devise Tino Sehgal’s This entry performance piece which premiered at the National Football Museum in 2023. Hans Ulrich Obrist of London's Serpentine Galleries and the writer Josh Willdigg are co-curating Football City, Art United with Mata.