Juan Mata, a former Manchester United player, will pick an international team of football’s most inventive players to collaborate with renowned artists to commemorate the beautiful game.
The World Cup champion is collaborating with eleven players on artworks that pay homage to “artists on the pitch.”
Mata and performance artist Tino Sehgal will launch the project in Manchester this summer. In 2025, it will culminate in a huge exhibition in the city.
The Spanish midfielder expressed his eagerness to “return home” and assemble a team of playmakers he admires for the Manchester International Festival (MIF).
Mata, who now plays for Galatasaray in Turkey, told BBC News:
“From my perspective, it was all about recognizing players from the present and the past.”
“In my opinion, they appear to be artists on the field. By observing a player, you may tell he or she is unique by the way he or she moves and touches the ball.
Eric Cantona, Dennis Bergkamp, and Roberto Baggio are the types of players the 34-year-old hopes to sign.
The title of the project is The Trequartista: Art and Football Together. The trequartista, or “number 10” to modern British football fans, is frequently the most creative player on the field.
Mata stated,
“So many of the players I adored as a child used to play that position, and they typically played with a great deal of talent so that they could make a difference in the game.”
‘Rebels and heroes’
He played the position for United, Chelsea, and Valencia, and he stated that modern football has “developed into a different kind of pace,” thereby rendering such free-roaming offensive players extinct.
“I believe we are observing this position less frequently,” he remarked. “Thus, the purpose of this exhibition is to continue the debate about these players, many of whom were in a sense rebels, who made a difference on the field.
“They have a personality and a character that made them heroes to many people, so it’s great that we can bring them back into the conversation about football today.”
This Entrance is the title of Mata’s collaboration with Berlin-based Sehgal, which is defined as “a joyful choreographic interchange between a soccer player, violinist, biker, and singing dancer.”
During this year’s festival, it will be displayed in the National Football Museum and the Whitworth art museum; the remaining 11 works will be displayed at the 2025 MIF.
The concept was conceived during what co-curator Hans Ulrich Obrist characterized as a “great dialogue” with Mata at the 2021 MIF.
They discussed how to “combine art and football,” and “the idea developed” from there. Today, he is “eager” to facilitate “a dialogue” between the two fields.
John McGrath, creative director of the MIF, stated, “To link with Manchester through football is fundamental.” And it’s something Hans and I have frequently discussed wanting to accomplish, so when Juan came to visit the poet-artist exhibition [in 2021] and that dialogue began, it felt like a gift.”
Mata is an art aficionado who has also spearheaded charity fundraising efforts.
Gary Neville, another former United player, serves on the board of the arts festival.
The project was presented on Tuesday alongside the festival’s whole lineup, which runs from 26 June to 16 July.
Maxine Peake will perform in a production based on the rediscovered dystopian novel They from 1977, and artist Ryan Gander will mint and hide 200,000 coins throughout Manchester.
An exhibition of Yayoi Kusama’s inflatable polka-dot sculptures will inaugurate Factory International, the £211 million flagship site of the festival.
In addition, vocalists Janelle Monae, John Grant, and Angelique Kidjo will perform, while the Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto will perform a mixed reality concert.
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