World Cup and Champions League winner Juan Mata at the launch of Manchester International Festival 2025
World Cup and Champions League winner Juan Mata at the launch of Manchester International Festival 2025
It's not often that you'll get Juan Mata and Edgar Davids in the some room, never mind the dulcet tones of Eric Cantona over the speaker system, but on Thursday morning (July 3), that's exactly how it played out as Manchester International Festival got underway.
Running for 18 days, the 2025 edition of the international biennial festival, presented by Factory International, takes place across Manchester and beyond until Sunday 20 July 2025, with world premiere work presented every day.
This year's festival opens this evening with a public artwork on an unprecedented scale, as The Herds, a monumental migration of life-sized puppet animals, , taking over the streets of the city on their way from the Congo Basin to the Arctic Circle.
As well as the world premiere of a new stage version of A Single Man, a partnership with the Royal Ballet and featuring music by John Grant, and the first showing of Liberation, a powerful play commissioned and staged 80 years after the Fifth Pan African Congress took place in Manchester in 1945, this year's festival will feature exhibition dedicated to the beautiful game.
is an ambitious group exhibition for MIF25, presenting brand-new artworks created by 11 legendary footballers and 11 contemporary artists.
Housed at Aviva Studios, the home of Factory International, the works explore what happens when two worlds known for flair and imagination - both on the pitch and the studio - come together.
Conceived by World Cup and Champions League winner Juan Mata, curator and Serpentine Galleries Artistic Director Hans Ulrich Obrist, and curator, writer and filmmaker Josh Willdigg, the project invites its creative teams to step into one another’s fields and ask: what can art and football learn from each other?
Speaking about the exhibition, 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.”
Seeking inspiration from the boundary-pushing creativity of the trequartista - football’s visionary playmaker - each artist-footballer duo has produced a new work for this unique show.
Ahead of the launch, visitors had been told to expect sound installations, play arenas, paintings, drawings, animation, sculpture, film and genre-defying collaborations - and that's what this launch exhibition delivers.
The exhibition kicks off with an installation that takes the form of a tunnel where sound, vibration and light transport visitors to the world between the locker room and the pitch.
Designed by American sculptor and video artist Paul Pfeiffer and Dutch ex-footballer and photographic artist Edgar Davids, 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.
Audio is further utilised by French footballer, actor, musician and Manchester United icon Eric Cantona who, alongside British conceptual artist Ryan Gander, explores the effects of fame on players.
Their work 'Privileges of Hindsight' is comprised of three distinct parts - the first being an automated spotlight that randomly selects and follow an audience member as they make their way through the exhibition.
The second, Le Temps Passe, is a song written by Cantona and translated into English from French, while the latter part will see a limited number of match tickets from Cantona's final Premier League appearance for Manchester United at Old Trafford in 1997 handed out to every 100th visitor, each inscribed with a message written by Cantona.
On entering the warehouse space it's hard to miss what resembles a football-style soft play area designed by Italian footballer Sandro Mazzola and architect and urbanist Stefano Boeri.
The interactive installation is made up of a constellation of pods, tunnels and holes inspired by Mazzola’s 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.
Meanwhile, The Berlin and London-based artist collective Keiken has teamed up with Manchester United and England star Ella Toone to explore what football means to her.
Visitors are invited to step onto 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.
The exhibition also includes a a piece by Brazilian footballer Raí and London-based artist Alvaro Barrington in the form of a 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.
American artist and educator Suzanne Lacy, Manchester City and Netherlands star Vivianne Miedema and Angel City FC and New Zealand captain Ali Riley have also created a new short film exploring football's complex relationship with gender.
And not to be missed, 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.
The exhibition will run from 4 July until 24 August at Aviva Studios.
Prices are £15 for a ticket, while concessions are £7.50, Aviva £10 are available to and children Under 16 go free (valid with an adult ticket holder only). A booking fee of £1.50 applies to all tickets.
North Warehouse, Aviva Studios, Water Street, Manchester, M3 4JQ
Football City, Art United is a group exhibition for MIF25, presenting brand-new artworks created by 11 legendary footballers and 11 contemporary artists 1 of 24
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Football City, Art United is a group exhibition for MIF25, presenting brand-new artworks created by 11 legendary footballers and 11 contemporary artists (Image: Kenny Brown | Manchester Evening News) 2 of 24
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Football City, Art United is a group exhibition for MIF25, presenting brand-new artworks created by 11 legendary footballers and 11 contemporary artists (Image: Kenny Brown | Manchester Evening News) 3 of 24