Futbol seems to have been a big theme at Art Basel in Germany this round. With the European Championship about to hit, there quite some art dedicated to the sport. SHOWstudio partners with NIKE to challenge established and emerging artists, designers and creatives to devise new work inspired by the relationship between art and football.

A team of 11 selected artists from around the world, including Gareth Pugh, Alice Hawkins, Sølve Sundsbø and Rebecca and Mike, have been invited by SHOWstudio and Nick Knight to create new artwork that represents ‘the art of football’.

And the winner was a project called :
THE CORE by Patrik Soderstam

The Core is a sculpture of a man I have done. He is dressed in a bomber jacket made up like a classic football. From his head, his mind comes footballs that rise up towards the upper corner of a room.

The footballs symbolizes the mans spirit and soul.

The stigmata wounds on his hands symbolize the almost religious experience of football.

The jacket and the shirt is my design and I have made them myself.

The upper corner symbolizes for me a gateway to another dimension. Here we can experience things we are not able to do in the reality we live in.

The sculpture visualises the true state of mind the man is in. He lives for football – it is his passion, his love and religion – his meaning of life.

My idea is for people to see and feel how serious and important football can bee. Football is one of the things in our age of time that is a substitute to religion, a place where we can find the meaning of life, where we can feel at home and somewhere for us to escape to.
one final winner’s work will be featured on a new, limited edition series of Nike Dunks.