Too many balls on the pitch? Naked football performance kicks off Euro 2024

Eddie Peake, Portent (2024)
Photo: Jamila K. Grote/HKW
Football fever is growing as the Euro 2024 tournament progresses (c’mon England—if they can be bothered). But the footie action is not just taking place across Germany’s stadia—the art world is also taking to the pitch with a new iteration of Eddie Peake’s five-a-side naked football performance piece (Portent) drawing crowds last weekend at Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) in Berlin. “Portent extends an invitation to engage critically with the both seriousness and silliness of masculinity, and the multiple possibilities around sex, sexuality and gender that a stereotypical male, macho, and heteronormative space like football traditionally offers,” says a project statement. Only the socks and trainers distinguish the teams by the way (this really is a birthday suit presentation). The dextrous nude work was funded by the Euro 2024 Football & Cultural Foundation and the German Federal Government as part of their programme Ballet of the Masses–On Football and Catharsis. On the head lads (or the butts).

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