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Sieg oder Niederlage |
Description of the painting
Alexandra Weidmann has explored the theme of soccer in an extensive series of drawings and paintings. Soccer is omnipresent in our society and can be regarded from many points of view. One important aspect is that photography, with its ability to take scenes from the game with short exposure times, allows it to capture incredible compositions of actors fighting for the ball.
The renowned professor of art history, Horst Bredekamp, has addressed this topic in his book "Bilder bewegen, von der Kunstkammer zum Endspiel" (Images are Moving, from the Art Chamber to the Final Match). The title of the first chapter is: "Football as the ultimate Gesamtkunstwerk." Bredekamp writes about the relationship between football and art: "Since soccer allows toughness but prohibits violence, a comparison of scenes of war with those of this sport is misguided. However, depictions of war and soccer are related in that they show people in a state of physical and psychological excitement that cannot be intensified any further. ... The images of soccer games are an archive of this extreme experience."
A comparison of soccer events with battle and court scenes in the visual arts is obvious. Such an undertaking seems blasphemous. Bredekamp writes: "In one of the last panels of his Mnemosyne picture atlas, art and cultural historian Aby Warburg ended his series of images depicting suicide and sacrificial myths with photographs of athletes, not only without hesitation, but with a sense of inner consistency. This approach is all the more relevant to photos of soccer players, as they can be considered particularly obvious incarnations of competitive dynamicists. Numerous scenes from soccer can be instinctively incorporated into the history of codified forms of excitement."
Another aspect of soccer is the worship of stars. This worship reaches religious
dimensions. So, what could be more natural than retelling religious pictorial
compositions with soccer players? The painting shown here references and modifies
traditional depictions of the crucifixion, in which Mary and the disciple John appear
alongside Jesus on the cross. As Jesus hung on the cross, he asked his disciple John
to take care of his mother Mary. This can be found in the 2017 Luther Bible in the
Gospel of John, chapter 19, verses 26-27:
“When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he
said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son!" Then he said to the disciple, "Behold,
your mother!" And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.”
At the center of the image is a soccer player jumping up with his arms spread wide. The cross is filled in, at least by trained observers. Mary, who is not sinking down unconscious, but is pointing a weapon both at "John," her new protector and patronizer, and at an older man who is taking cover behind him or snatching it away from her, is the strongest break with the traditional depiction of crucifixion scenes. Could an armed Mary have prevented the crucifixion?
Is it a victory or a defeat when acts of violence are increasingly committed by women? Or should it remain the case that women are only allowed to defend their children like lionesses?