OOF / 10

Forget individuality, forget independence and selfhood: true joy can only be found in the collective, in the crowd. That's what issue ten is about: the collective experience, the overwhelming power of losing yourself in the group. Robert Davies' photos of iconic World Cup moments – screenshots before screenshots were a thing – capture single tiny instances of immense cultural importance; Gareth Nyandoro paints the football shirts that hang in markets in Harare just like they do in the shops of Paris; Noa Klagsbald finds unity in the midst of the conflict; Jamie Holman reveals his infatuation with the cool kids on the terraces; Mark Titchner speaks words of wisdom and heartbreak; Bob Thomas surfs a wave of humanity in an undulating photo of a stadium; and then, there's some football scarves. It's all about the ecstasy of collective emotion. That's football. That's life.

 

___

 

FOOTBALL IS the quintessential communal experience. Across the world - in stadiums, bars and living rooms - countless milions of people experience collective emotion through the teams they support. And because it plays such an important part in the everyday life of so many people, it has been a recurring topic in fine art for centuries. The artists featured in OOF peel back the layers of meaning in this obsessive sport, and help us make sense of something bigger and more ungraspable in the process.