I would recommend anyone who watches a lot of football on television who also sometimes wonders how the unruly spectacle of 80,000 people gathering in a concrete stadium to watch 22 men play the game of football is assembled into a coherent narrative to take a visit to Sligo to experience Czech artist Harun Forocki's video art piece 'Deep Play' at the Model Niland. If nothing else, it's a chance to watch the 2006 World Cup final again in full.
Forocki's subject in the piece is of course the infamous match of Zidane's headbutt, arguably the most seen moment - in terms of pure views - in sports history. 'Deep Play' features 12 different video screens, all providing a different take on the match. One screen shows the main FIFA video feed of the match with subtitled audio of the TV producer's communications with his cameramen. Another features rotating CCTV coverage from the stands and the carpark. Another tracks an Italian player's movements. Another tracks a French player's movements. Another features a static outside shot of the Olympic Stadium. Another features a fixed shot of either Lippi or Domenech on the sideline. Another features a digitized, PS3 style version of the match that plays in sync with the real match. Another features footage of two statisticians compiling the game's pass statistics. Another graphs each team's movements when they have the ball. You get the idea. There's also piped-in crowd audio.
The piece intrigued me on two levels. Firstly, the multiplicity of camera angles made it completely impossible to focus on the narrative of the match. You gain a true respect for television's art of thrusting any kind of logic onto a sporting event, seeing that there are thousands of other smaller competing stories taking place in a stadium while this match of football is taking place. 'Deep Play' simultaneously helps you see the game as raw data. It helps that the World Cup final in question is so boring that you can give each screen equal time. Sit in the gallery long enough and you inevitably question the fixity of meaning in a general sense.
Football fans will appreciate 'Deep Play' on another level. I'd never had an opportunity to rewatch France-Italy. I arrived halfway through the first half and there was nothing to look forward to until extra time. The match itself is so underwhelming and disappointing. Thankfully, the intense surrounding stiumuli distracts you from the utter boredom that football can inspire. I mostly prepared for the Zidane headbutt on Materazzi. The legacy of the headbutt, combined with work like 'Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait' (another work of art featuring a Zidane red card) give the impression of Zidane as a post-modern antihero, full of genius but ultimately self-destructive. It is an image that undermines the entire mission and purpose of sport, which is focused on the concept of purpose and victory as the absolute goal. In 'Deep Play', the screen with the FIFA producer is probably the most captivating to watch as features the voice of God, an all-seeing, multi-lingual conductor of the chaotic orchestra of live football. Interestingly, Forocki cuts the subtitles during extratime. He wants to free the headbutt from all attempts at meaning. The France playercam was fixed on Zidane in the minutes before the headbutt. I had forgotten just how close Zidane was to scoring with a laser of a header only minutes before the red card. That miss seemed to stick with him. As replays have already shown, there is no great derision between Zidane and Materazzi in the build-up to the headbutt. Some words are exchanged, Zidane changes course and blasts his forehead into Materazzi's chest. I knew it was coming and even though I've seen the incident countless times, I still howled. It was shocking. Afterward, play briefly went on. As medics cared for Materazzi, the stadium filled with whistles as replays of the incident were shown. Zidane stood still, dispassionate. He fiddled with his captain's armband. Buffon, who saw the incident in real time, was the first to confront him. Gattuso, after seeing the replay, got in Zidane's face. The linesman passed the word to the referee, who quickly revealed the red card. Zidane turned and trudged off the pitch. He handed the captain's armband to Wally Sagnol. As he walked down the steps away from the pitch, he was verbally abused by Italian fans. All of these details might mean something or nothing to you.
I didn't stay around to rewatch the penalties. I did walk away with a new outlook on how football is presented as a spectacle and how one of the most controversial moments in football history went down.
Deep Play runs until August 20 at the Model Niland
