Ever wondered what the future of football might look like? Well it just so happens that the creative minds at Fly Nowhere have done just that, imagining what football could be in a dystopian, post-apocalyptic world, and it’s being displayed at the 13th edition of the contemporary art biennial Manifesta.
Fly Nowhere, known for the avant-garde in the realm where football meets art and culture, have taken the discipline of kit design into uniquely experimental territory for their latest project, having designed and produced a series of conceptual goalkeeper uniforms for an exhibition titled The Keepers by Russian artist Arseny Zhilyaev.
The installation presents fragments of a museum exhibition from a potential future, and Zhilyaev tapped Fly Nowhere to work on a costume display that commemorates a football match in a dystopian Marseille, with an imagined ultra-defensive version of the game that looks like a cross between the game we know and rollerball (look it up if you’re unfamiliar), featuring only goalkeepers, and played between groups in social conflict — police, residents, activists, and artists. To complete the costumes, Fly Nowhere engaged Milan-based studio Phiware for Jacquard fabrics and Brooklyn-based goalkeeper equipment brand Storelli for components. Can imagine Arturo Vidal leading a band of Mad Max-esque warriors into action. Looks like madness. We’d watch it though…
Manifesta 13 Marseille is running now until 29 November.
