An exhibition on the game of soccer as an expression of individual and collective identity

The Cinisello Balsamo Museum of Contemporary Photography dedicates an exhibition to the game of soccer as an expression of individual and collective identity: it is the collective exhibition Chi non saltare. Soccer. Culture. Identity, curated by Matteo Balduzzi, an articulated exhibition project that kicks off with the unfolding of the European Football Championship and will be open to the public in the museum’s spaces from Saturday, June 12 to Sunday, October 24, 2021.

The exhibition investigates the role of soccer in Italian culture by presenting an overview through images of its presence in the society, landscape, memory and culture of our country. Protagonists of the exhibition will be the works of more than twenty artists, from different generations, disciplines and languages (including photographs, installations and videos), presented in dialogue with the Museum’s collections, some recent artistic productions, anthropologically oriented image collections, and participatory projects.

The artists in the exhibition are Andrea Abati, Gianpietro Agostini, Giovanni Ambrosio and Sébastien Louis, Autopalo/The impresarios, Davide Baldrati, Olivo Barbieri, Gabriele Basilico, Walter Battistessa, Ruth Beraha, Gianni Berengo Gardin, Mario Cattaneo, Giovanni Chiaramonte, Cesare Colombo, Mario Cresci, Matteo de Mayda, Emilio Deodato, Paola Di Bello, Vittore Fossati, Federico Garolla, Ando Gilardi, Carlo Garzia, Giulia Iacolutti, Giuseppe Iannello, Mimmo Jodice, Martino Marangoni, Paola Pagliuca, Piero Pozzi, Marco Previdi, Daniele Segre, The Cool Couple, Hans van der Meer, Fulvio Ventura, Manfred Willmann.

Many intellectuals, from Jean-Paul Sartre to Umberto Saba, from Dino Buzzati to Carmelo Bene or writers of our time such as Stefano Benni have taken an interest in the game of soccer as a living, breathing expression of society. Among them, Pier Paolo Pasolini is probably the one for whom the sharing of this popular passion was so authentic and ancestral that it led him to juxtapose it with representations of the sacred in contemporary society. At the same time, Pasolini did not miss an opportunity to take off his jacket and personally throw himself behind a ball in impromptu matches with boys in suburban playgrounds or at more official gatherings characterized by great organization and agonism.

The exhibition Chi non salta intends, therefore, to analyze the game of soccer in relation to the construction of individual identity - the formation of the person, the sense of the group, the team - but also to a more collective dimension, where cheering contributes to defining the sense of belonging and at the same time provides a representation of it that is always in tension between two poles: the worlds of “actors” and “spectators,” of daily practice and of more or less organized cheering. Beginning with this suggestion, the exhibition opens with an introduction devoted to the relationship between art and soccer, and then continues with two main sections: soccer watched, as cheering and representation of a collective identity in the room on the second floor; soccer played, as practice, a moment of encounter and formation on the second floor. The exhibition project is completed by an outdoor exhibition dedicated to soccer in the city of Cinisello Balsamo, the result of a special project produced for the occasion and a specific and participatory research activity carried out in the area.

The project intersects two of the Museum’s privileged lines of research: the enhancement of the collections and the relationship with the public, putting in dialogue with each other works that are different in nature (artistic, anthropological, cultural) and languages, always in a logic of active participation of the Museum in the life and dialogue with the territory. In an idea of the Museum as a place of experimentation and relations between the public, artists, community and territory, the exhibition is also the nucleus from which a series of participatory and shared projects come to life, including educational/sports workshops on soccer and photography, educational proposals for young soccer players, guided tours, bookshop dedicated to the relationship between art and soccer, meetings, talks, and presentations. The busy program of activities related to the exhibition will be possible thanks to the collaboration of numerous national and international entities, including: MUCEM Marseille; Fondazione Nuovi Mecenati; Institut Français Milan; Municipality of Cinisello Balsamo; B-R-U-N-O Venice; Codici Ricerca Sociale Milan; Associazione Culturale Antermoia (Trento); Brera F.C. Milan. For all information visit the Museum of Contemporary Photography website.

Image: Ando Gilardi, Albano di Lucania, 1957

An exhibition on the game of soccer as an expression of individual and collective identity

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