Football City, Art United will bring together big name footballers like Eric Cantona, Edgar Davids and Ella Toone alongside artists Alvaro Barrington, Ryan Gander, Suzanne Lacy, Philippe Parreno and Rose Wylie as part of this year’s Manchester International Festival.
Together, the collaborators will step into each other’s creative fields to explore what art and football can learn from each other as part of an exhibition at Aviva Studios from 4 July – 24 August 2025.
From interactive play arenas and sound installations to manga and sculpture, Football City, Art United. expands the worlds of art and football and the cultural contributions both make to our daily lives. A wall of vertical video screens will showcase the journeys that the artists and footballers have been on to create the work, offering audiences a behind-the-scenes look into the making of the exhibition.
The project is co-curated by World Cup and Champions League winner Juan Mata, renowned curator and Serpentine Artistic Director Hans Ulrich Obrist and curator, filmmaker and writer Josh Willdigg.
READ MORE: St Andrews – Scotland’s ‘home of golf’ – undergoes brand evolution
The artists and footballers are:
- Alvaro Barrington and Raí: London-based artist Alvaro Barrington and Brazilian footballer Raí come together to explore their shared experiences of community in sport and the multi-faceted purposes it can serve. Their work is a large green felt banner that stretches between goalposts high in the gallery space, creating a sense of movement that celebrates the energy and dynamism of football.
- Stefano Boeri, Sandro Mazzola and Eduardo Terrazas: Architect and urbanist Stefano Boeri and Italian footballer Sandro Mazzola invite visitors to take on the role of the footballer in The Playmaker. The duo is joined by multidisciplinary Mexican artist and architect Eduardo Terrazas, who collaborates by designing a new work for the floor of the work. The interactive installation is made up of a constellation of pods, tunnels and holes inspired by Mazzola’s most iconic moves. Visitors are invited to take a shot to re-enact Mazzola’s career-defining goals or invent new ones – passing, shooting and weaving through the space as they choose.
- Ryan Gander and Eric Cantona: British conceptual artist Ryan Gander and the French footballer, actor, musician and Manchester United icon Eric Cantona explore the effects of fame on players. Their work Privileges of Hindsight is comprised of three distinct parts; an automated spotlight that will randomly select and follow an audience member as they make their way through the exhibition, casting them in the isolating glare of celebrity; Le Temps Passe, a song written by Cantona and translated into English from French, will play at set intervals; and a limited number of match tickets from Cantona’s final Premier League appearance for Manchester United at Old Trafford in 1997 will be handed out to every 100th visitor, each inscribed with a message written by Cantona.
- Keiken and Ella Toone: The Berlin and London-based artist collective Keiken team up with Manchester United and England star Ella Toone to explore what football means to her. Visitors are invited to step onto a podium and ‘wear’ a large hanging mask inspired by Toone’s spirit animal, the Shetland pony. When wearing the mask they will hear Toone discussing life on and off the pitch, including her thoughts on fate, connection, routine and the importance of self-reflecting as we go through changes in life.
- Suzanne Lacy, Vivianne Miedema and AIi Riley: American artist and educator Suzanne Lacy, Manchester City and Netherlands star Vivianne Miedema and Angel City FC and New Zealand captain Ali Riley have created a new short film exploring football’s complex relationship with gender. Taking a question-driven approach, Lacy filmed conversations with professional players and grassroots women’s teams in Manchester and Los Angeles, creating space for players to collectively reflect on their experiences – from workplace dynamics to relationships with fans, and the complicated visibility of women’s football within a male-dominated industry.
- Jill Mulleady, inspired by Diego Maradona: Swiss Uruguayan artist Jill Mulleady draws on her memory of meeting football legend Diego Maradona to create an installation that recalls one of football’s most controversial and mythologised moments – La Mano de Dios (Hand of God), Maradona’s goal scored during the quarter final of the 1986 World Cup between Argentina and England. Mulleady’s installation features a painting of Maradona and a holographic illusion of the footballer. Using an early optical illusion method known as the Pepper’s Ghost technique, Maradona’s apparition is framed by a painted panel, blurring the line between what is real and what is an image.
- Chikyuu no Osakana Ponchan and Shinji Kagawa: Japanese manga artist Chikyuu no Osakana Ponchan and former Manchester United and Japan player Shinji Kagawa collaborate on a manga. It blends real moments from Kagawa’s life and career with moments of fantasy and shared history, exploring the mythology of the beautiful game.
- Philippe Parreno, Marco Perego and Carlo Ancelotti: Philippe Parreno and Marco Perego will present a video game project inviting athletes and players worldwide to sketch floor plans of the homes, neighbourhoods, and spaces where they grew up. These sketches will form a collective, fragmented archive from which seemingly incoherent words and narratives emerge. Video game players will navigate these spaces through unexpected sequences of words, experiencing them as echoes of previously played worlds. As the project grows, contributions from athletes around the world will enrich this archive, enabling players to journey through layers of memory and imagination. In Manchester, Parreno and Perego will present the personal geography of Carlo Ancelotti, widely regarded as one of the greatest football managers of all time, constructed from floor plans drawn by Ancelotti.
- Paul Pfeiffer and Edgar Davids: American sculptor and video artist Paul Pfeiffer collaborates with Dutch ex-footballer and photographic artist Edgar Davids to create an installation that serves as the immersive entrance to the exhibition. The installation takes the form of a tunnel where sound, vibration and light transport visitors to the world between the locker room and the pitch. The sound is drawn from a mix of recordings from the players’ point of view, including the roar of the crowd and different football chants. The installation takes inspiration from iconic stadiums like San Siro (Milan) and explores the anticipation and adrenaline-rush of stepping onto the pitch, as well as the mental and emotional journey of individual football players.
- Bárbara Sánchez-Kane and Jorge Campos: Mexican sculptor and fashion designer Bárbara Sánchez-Kane and Mexican goalkeeper Jorge Campos have created a flamboyant mascot named Brody. Drawing from Campos’ acrobatic playing style, self-designed neon kits, and off-field passion for surfing, Brody is both a tribute to and a celebration of the irreverent spirit and visual flamboyance of 1990s Mexican football. Every detail of the sculpture, from the oversized jerseys to good-luck charms, goalkeeper gloves to Acapulco huaraches, becomes part of a visual spell, echoing the way Campos transformed the football pitch into a stage of self-expression.
- Rose Wylie and Lotte Wubben-Moy: British artist Rose Wylie collaborates with Arsenal and England defender Lotte Wubben-Moy in a creative relay between the football pitch and the studio. Wubben-Moy shares an image diary and behind-the-scenes photos from training, match days and daily life with Wylie, which are transformed into a series of vibrant paintings and drawings.
Low Kee Hong, creative director of Factory International and MIF, said: “Football City, Art United. brings together a full team of 11 pairings of footballers and artists. Sometimes playful, sometimes thought-provoking, in this exhibition Juan Mata, Hans Ulrich Obrist and Josh Willdigg have created a space for footballers and artists to get to know each others’ very unique worlds, and in doing so create new works that give audiences insight into both.”
Juan Mata, Footballer and co-curator, said: “Working with Tino Seghal as part of Manchester International Festival 2023 was an incredible experience, and I wanted more footballers to have the chance to work with artists. The result is the work in this exciting group show. The worlds of football and art can both be beautiful, complicated and powerful; something that is explored through these collaborations. We can’t wait for people to experience Football Art, City United. a real collaboration of two worlds.”
Football City, Art United. began at MIF23 as The Trequartista – Art and Football United. It featured a world premiere of Tino Sehgal’s playful performance piece This Entry at the National Football Museum, made in collaboration with Juan Mata.
