Bread and Soccer, In the Arena of the Arts, Austrian Cultural Forum NY, curated by Trevor Smith and Jürgen Weishäupl, 2008, pdf version of catalog
RUND, Exhibition “im Marmorsaal”, Hofburg, Austria, 2007
Spielboden Dornbirn, FC Lustenau, Austria, 1998
Academie of Fine Arts, Austria, 1997
Semperdepot, Austria, 1997
Wuzeln is what Austrians call foosball. Monika Wührer’s Wuzler is a kind of amateur tournament staged around a portable foosball table. This table, built to strict Austrian foosball standards, folds up to become a flight case, convenient for transportation to the ‘away’ games held at alternative arenas such as galleries, parks and even the parking lot of Giants Stadium prior to the opening of the exhibition. The concentric circles of arena seating are echoed as spectators gather around and cheer. Once the games begin, the action builds into a competitive frenzy complete with stars, fans, media attention, heartache and glory. These “away games” culminate in tournaments held at the Austrian Cultural Forum where fans can test their skills against the stars of Red Bull New York who, while pros on the real field, are their equals on the foosball table. Wührer is also producing a shop where she will trade her custom designed sports gear for the fans’ own hats, scarves, and shirts. As the exhibition continues the stock of fan wear dwindles and is replaced with the clothing and accessories of visitors.
Monika Wührer was born in 1971 in Dornbirn, Austria and lives and works in New York City. Her first foosball project was realized in 1997/98 when she and Frank Scheiderbauer built their first foosball table together and toured it around Austria. This represented the culmination of a year that Wührer spent as a die-hard soccer fan, meeting teams, coaches and power-players in the industry whose connections she later leveraged in the staging of her tournaments. Her work has been seen in exhibitions in Japan, the United States and throughout Europe.
text by Images by Miho Suzuki and Anja Matthes.
About Bread and Soccer:
Throughout much of the world, soccer has long been more than just a sport. It is a cultural phenomenon, an arena in which local rivalries and national dramas have been played out long before satellite broadcasting made it possible for games to be beamed around the world and experienced simultaneously by hundreds of millions of viewers. Even as professional baseball, football, basketball and hockey attract bigger audiences in the United States, there is nothing that compares with soccer as a game that is truly played around the world.
In June 2008, Austria and Switzerland play host to the European championship soccer tournament UEFA Euro 2008ª. On this occasion, the Austrian Cultural Forum has commissioned an exhibition Bread and Soccer: In the Arena of Art that explores not only the magical flowing rhythm of the game itself but the unique energy and identity that soccer fans have brought to the sport. Eleven artists (like the eleven players on a soccer team) present works that suggest ways in which the cult of spectatorship meets the culture of participation.