N Football

N Football
Alexandra Pirici & Jonas Lund

Allianz Arena
2nd June, 15:30

Public Art Munich, 2018
Curated by: Joanna Warsza

A 90 minute football match following a changing set of rules and performed by male U16 and female U17 teams of FC Bayern München

Although the rules of football haven’t radically changed over time, its context has. The game could always be understood as a social field on a micro scale, with its competitiveness, emotionality, and, recently, its involvement in globalization and economic speculation. A working-class pastime played for pleasure evolved into a high-performance sport based on spending power and the monetization of star players. FC Bayern, with its home in Munich at Allianz Arena, cultivates both an image of a homegrown Bavarian base as well as a global, tactical, and spectacular winner.

N Football is a football match with a changing set of rules played by FC Bayern junior male and female teams and connected to a real-time tracking system. According to the new rules, the attackers may play against defenders or players may shift from competition to companionship. Considering the derivative economies produced, for example, by the FIFA video game, N Football attempts to make visible, within a live football event featuring future great players, what usually remains obscure: financial dynamics and a tendency toward monopoly or a business model increasingly difficult to regulate.

Football has an amazing, very positive influence on society in terms of social mobilisation or overcoming stereotypes or racist behaviour, among others. N Football stages a game as social practice in relation to its increased disembodiment, dislocation, circulation, and monetization. The question remains: Can football, with its enormous influence, still be imagined as a public good that shapes society toward fairer ends? If so, how?

Costume design: Andrei Dinu
Photography: Michael Pitzner