the match

sculpture / assemblage / burning object: mixed media
2014
80 x 6 x 6 cm

The assemblage „the match“ was created in 2014 against the background of the football world cup in Brazil. The object is highly ambivalent. A torch made of a baseball bat, combining the raw power of a sports tool that can be uses as a weapon with a strong symbol of the Olympic games. It makes a special reference to mass events in sports, a sphere where fairness, health and a fun experience are promoted as positive values, contrasting a reality of violence, exploitation and power games before and around the event, if not in it. The torch in fact was introduced to the Olympic games by Joseph Goebbels and never revised since then, so on one side of the sculpture is written "seit 1936" (engl.:„since 1936“).

The riots that accompanied the world cup in Brazil light the match in a special way, playing with the word´s twofold meaning as “game” and “matchstick”. The object embraces a complex field of problems with a simple yet potent aesthetic. It creates a direct access, and at the same time induces an intuitive interpretation of the different symbols alone and in their interplay.

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