Art of Football (Credit:Tom Wood)
Another month of art and cultural events kicks off this month and Getintothis’ Sinéad Nunes has the pick of the best as well as details of a massive footie-related treat heading our way this summer.
With two Bank Holidays in May and the weather finally turning, apple blossom on the trees and blue skies overhead it’s time to fire up the barbeques and enjoy the start of summer.
It’s also time -as ever- to run down the cultural delights which lie ahead of us. This month we’ve got a diverse choice of what’s happening as well as details of a huge range of football-related cultural events announced to tie in with this years World Cup.
So without further ado, let’s kick off this game of two halves…
Larry Achiampong & David Blandy: Finding Fanon
Wednesday 9 May / 7pm / FACT
David Blandy and Larry Achiampong’s work explores friendship, and wider issues of empathy, race and power, through film, performance, and socially engaged practice.
Their work FF Gaiden: Control was commissioned as part of FACT’s Criminal Justice programme, and used the “director” mode of the popular video game Grand Theft Auto to create an animated film in collaboration with incarcerated military veterans.
Join the artists for a short and intimate audio-visual performance exploring the main themes which run throughout the Finding Fanon series. The project is also part of current exhibition States of Play.
DJ Workshop for Women 002
14 May, Melodic Distraction Studios, 6pm – 9pm (booking required)
Ever wanted to jump on the decks but didn’t quite know where to begin?
Melodic Distraction are working to encourage more female-identifying DJs to get started on the Liverpool scene over 2018. Whether you’re a complete beginner or already finding your feet, local DJs M T HALL and Lupini (AKA Nina Franklin) will be providing demos and answering questions to help you find your feet behind the turntable.
Pay what you feel and don’t forget to bring your own music!
Liverpool Light Night 2018: Transformation
18 May, 5pm – 2am, places and spaces throughout the city
Unlocking the doors of Liverpool’s best-loved and lesser-known arts, culture and heritage venues late into the night, Light Night invite you to take part on a culture crawl like no other.
Presenting new and ambitious artistic commissions amidst a vibrant programme of more than 100 events including everything from concerts, exhibitions, hands-on workshops and dance to street performance, theatre and talks, there’s something for every age, interest and ability including the annual ceilidh at St. George’s Hall, and music in the Cathedral. There’s also an afterparty at Constellations with an all-female DJ line up – not to be missed!
Egon Schiele, Self Portrait in Crouching Position 1913. Photo: Moderna Museet / Stockholm
Life in Motion: Egon Schiele/Francesca Woodman
From 24 May, Tate Liverpool, £12.50
The radical protégé of Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele is known for his intimate, honest and unapologetic portraits, which look beneath the surface to capture their subjects’ emotions. Schiele’s (1890–1918) drawings are strikingly raw and direct, using quick marks and sharp lines to portray the energy of his models. His works often capture candid moments of raw sexuality, pushing the boundaries of figurative painting toward expressionism with his contorted figures and expressive line work.
Asian Dub Foundation x La Haine (Live Soundtrack)
25 May / Invisible Wind Factory / £18
Asian Dub Foundation celebrate cult film La Haine with an exclusive live soundtrack set. Bringing a live reinterpretation of the original soundtrack to this screening event, they will highlight the rawness, violence and tension of the film with a booming audio-scape.
Released in 1995, La Haine stars a young Vincent Cassel in the film that made him famous. Shot in stylised black and white, reflecting the bleakness of street life in a dystopian Paris, the movie conveys rising tensions after a man is killed by French Police.
Ms Bloomsbury’s Storytime
28 May / Sefton Park Palm House / £3 kids and £1 adults
We know drag queens love to READ one another, but has one every told you a story?
Ms. Bloomsbury, green fingered botanist explorer and effervescent resident of the Palm House, stages an interactive feminist retelling of popular fairy tales suitable for adults and children alike.
Performed by experienced story teller and clown Brendan Curtis (Cabaret from the Shadows), the event promises to take visitors on an audio visual journey using the the Palm House’s plants to ignite imaginations and stimulate interest in the beauty of the natural world.
The Art of the Football Shirt
Forthcoming this summer – City gets set for massive Cultural kick- off:
The Beautiful Game is to be celebrated with a special season showcasing how football is one of the world’s biggest and most unifying conversations.
Coinciding with the greatest footballing event across the globe, the 2018 FIFA World Cup, The Art of Football will see Liverpool host three major exhibitions, a symposium, pop-up cinema, a music festival as well as stage a call out for community groups to take part in a football parade with a difference – all in celebration of the creative culture and social fabric which underpins football.
The Art of Football season forms part of the Liverpool 2018 programme which celebrated ten years since Liverpool’s transformational tenure as European Capital of Culture. The football-inspired project has been curated by Bido Lito! in collaboration with Foto Octo and Laces Out.
Bido Lito! Founder and Art Of Football Lead Curator Craig G Pennington, said: ‘During the World Cup, when football takes an international centre stage, we have an opportunity to examine the way football is a prism through which we can explore, dissect and understand the great debates of our often confusing and contradictory times. A city such as ours, where football is absolutely at the core of our being and central to the way we see ourselves and the way the world sees us, is the perfect host for this project.
Through this project, we are working with a team of fantastic partners to present a series of projects that explore and distill challenging and contradictory ideas into a celebration of the often overlooked unifying power of football. A festival of the culture surrounding football, to coincide with the greatest football festival in the world.’
Assistant Mayor and Cabinet Member for culture, tourism and events, Councillor Wendy Simon, said: ‘Football is intrinsically linked with Liverpool, and we wanted it to be a key element of the programme which marks this milestone year for the city.
Although it coincides with the World Cup, it’s not just a simple retrospective of the game. The season delves deeply into how this seemingly simple game infiltrates so many aspects of our lives and has a direct impact on the world around us – regardless of whether you’re a fan of the beautiful game or not.
It’s a diverse programme ranging from exhibitions and parades, to world music and even an insight into the lives of former players who have first-hand experience of the power of football. With the buzz around the World Cup, football fever will undoubtedly take over the city and this will prove to be a highlight 2018 for many residents and visitors.’
Taking place from Thursday 15 June to Sunday 15 July, the programme includes:
Common Ground
June 14 to July 15 / Albert Dock Colonnades, Free exhibition
Opening times: Tuesday to Sunday, 10am – 5pm
This exhibition seeks to explore the ritualistic behaviour of football fan culture and its development from the game of the working class in the 1980s to the riches of the Premier League today.
Curated by Foto Octo, it captures the work of three photographers across different decades and offers a unique insight into how the community has evolved alongside the might of the now multi-million pound football industry.
The photographers are Tom Wood whose retrospective spans 40 years, Ken Grant who has been capturing football inspired images since he was a teenager and Tabitha Jussa who examines what it means to be a football supporter in Liverpool.
Art of Football (Credit:Tom Wood)
The Art of the Football Shirt
June 14 to June 28 / Camp & Furnace, Free exhibition
Opening times: One hour before kick off on all World Cup match days
Curated by fashion historian Neal Heard, The Art of the Football Shirt explores the relationship between football and popular culture.
Showcasing a curated selection of over 100 sartorially sound, obscure and vintage football shirts, it will show how team kits of previous generations have gained iconic status and how they have crossed paths with the worlds of music, fashion and politics. In the exhibition, Heard shares his vast knowledge, passion and enthusiasm to tell a story that goes beyond the realms of the beautiful game.
I Don’t Love Soccer Because Soccer Has Never Loved Me
June 29 to July 15/ Camp & Furnace, Free exhibition
Opening times: One hour before kick off on all World Cup match days
This work takes a critical look at “the beautiful game” through the lens of graphic design and illustration.
The exhibition presents artwork from an international selection of graphic artists made in response to an essay entitled The World Cup and Its Pomps written in 1978 by the famous Italian semiotician, intellectual and writer, Umberto Eco.
Produced by Liverpool John Moore University’s Liverpool School of Art & Design, confirmed artists include world renowned designer and typographer Jonathan Barnbrook (David Bowie’s Blackstar and Damien Hirst publication I Want to Spend the Rest of My Life…), Brendan Dawes (digital artist and designer who has work in the permanent collection at MoMA, NY) and Kat Gibb (long time Chemical Brothers collaborator).
Terrace Tapestries
Workshop dates: 12 and 19 May, from 10am at The Florrie / Parade date: June 14
City centre and the Martin Luther King Building
The launch event for The Art of Football Season, this project will draw on the longstanding, international tradition of banners at football matches as a vehicle for collective expression.
Long established and revered Liverpool banner artist Peter Carney will lead this large scale project, working with residents, community organisations and schools across the city to design and produce a series of new banner artworks.
Each of the 32 participating World Cup nations drawn will be represented, and a series of workshops will take place to produce the banner artworks, showcasing the world in one city.
Working with a team of illustrators and designers, the artworks will be presented as part of a large parade through the city, to mark the start of the Art of Football project and the 2018 World Cup. The banners will then go on display at National Museum Liverpool’s Martin Luther King building in Liverpool’s Albert Dock, for the duration of the World Cup.
Soccerama Symposium
July 12 & 13 July, 7pm / Liverpool Central Library, ticketed event
Featuring guests from across the world of football, media and academia and hosted across two evenings at Liverpool Central Library, Soccerama is a symposium to explore football through a new lens.
Via a series of conversations and debates, it will unpick football’s interwoven relationship with the key global debates of our times; women’s rights, nationalist populism, LGBTQ, consumer culture, class politics and race.
Thursday 12 July will be dedicated to the topic ‘Football: The not-so beautiful game’ and Friday 13 will be ‘From outside the box’.
Disco Sócrates
June 30 / Constellations, £10 ticket
In honour of the ultimate anti-footballer, socio-political activist and godfather of football cool, Disco Socrates is an exploration of music culture and its social and political impact around the globe. Anchored around a one-day festival, it will see live performances from artists drawn from the participating World Cup nations, reflecting the power of musical movements to affect change around the globe.
The international line-up includes Nigerian born, Berlin based soulful jazz vocalist Wayne Snow, Oko Ebombo who fuses beats, Parisian jazz and performance art, Cairo’s Rozzma will bring his own blend of beats, psychedelia and traditional Arabic music and Iranian MC Gomnam.
Green Screen Community Cinema
Prenton Park – 1 July / Isla Gladstone (Stanley Park) – 9 July / Free event
This project will see a series of pop-up cinema screenings take place at the heart of the communities which can be found in the modern game’s backdrop.
Featuring radical and challenging football cinema and documentaries, the project is designed to explore and showcase alternative interpretations, debates and ideas around football.
The cinema will be set within the grounds of the Isla Gladstone in Stanley Park – flanked by Goodison and Anfield – and Tranmere’s Prenton Park, the events will see the screening of two deeply moving films; Forbidden Games: The Justin Fashanu Story and Football Rebels.
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