A World Cup made of oil: Andrei Molodkin's protest against the World Cup in Qatar

A replica of the World Cup , the one that will be awarded to the winners of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, with a special feature: it is filled with oil. This is the work that Russian artist Andrei Molodkin (read an interview with us here ), a 20-year resident of France, imagined to denounce the choices that led to the Asian country as the venue for this edition of the World Cup. The work is called The dirtiest cup ( “The dirtiest cup”) and is a faithful reproduction of the trophy designed in 1971 by Italian sculptor Silvio Gazzaniga, made, however, of Qatari oil instead of gold, the traditional material with which the cup is made every four years.

“The World Cup,” Molodkin said, “is the icon of an empty victory. Because the only victory that the petrocracies understand is that of blood and oil,” Molodkin denounced. The idea came about after the artist accepted a challenge issued by Líbero, a Spanish sports periodical, to create a work of art denouncing what the magazine calls the “hijacking” of the World Cup by oil powers through bribes, as revealed by the FBI in 2015 during an investigation that led to the arrest of most of the 24 FIFA executives who chose Russia and Qatar as the venues for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

The investigation, led by U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, detailed that the total bribes were estimated at $150 million. And that is the symbolic price Molodkin put on his new work and the starting price when it goes up for auction on the online art platform Apolitical. The sculpture is the cover of the next issue of Líbero magazine dedicated to World Cup 2022. The new edition, available at newsstands and on revistalibero.com starting Nov. 14,

The work was created in Molodkin’s workshop in Maubourget, France, where Líbero filmed and photographed the production process. The work is made from methacrylate, wax, and Qatari oil, certified by the Institut Français du Pétrole with which the artist collaborates.

A World Cup made of oil: Andrei Molodkin's protest against the World Cup in Qatar

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