L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, APRIL 17, 2014 The art of football – The Beautiful Game's significance in societies around the world on view at LACMA Curated by Franklin Sirmans and organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Fútbol: The Beautiful Game decomposes, reconnects, enclos- es and celebrates all the emo- tions, the feelings and the impli- cations of the sport most loved by Italians and many other popu- lations around the world. On view until July 20, prints, photographs, paintings on can- vas, video installations, sculp- tures and other artworks all con- nected by a unique single wire, all different, yet with something in common: football. When entering the main hall of the exhibition, the sudden real- ization that football is no longer a sport, it is no longer a game. It is not a match played and watched on a Sunday afternoon. It is a deep introspection of mankind and all its emotional facets and characteristics, yet the contemplation goes far beyond. For the first time the role and the influence of football are researched, analyzed, studied and used as a synonym of social impact, cultural identity, anthro- pological behaviours, and psy- chological reactions. In preparation for the upcom- ing 2014 FIFA World Cup, offi- cially beginning in Brazil on June 12th after four years of waiting, Fútbol: The Beautiful Game is aimed to infuse with artistically and culturally valu- able knowledge not only the football junkies, but also, and most of all, the people who never thought they would find watching two teams playing a football match something inter- esting or fascinating. The exhibition features the art- works of thirty different artists who come from all over the world—just like the teams play- ing at the world cup— and from different historical periods and backgrounds. From the leg- endary Andy Warhol with his portrait of the magical Pelè from the late '70s based on a polaroid snap aimed to research the social impact of pop culture, through upcoming artists like Carolyn Castaño whose work on display contemplated Latin narcotraffic influence. Her work is the fruit of a collaboration between LACMA and Selph Help Graphics & Art, a non-profit organization devoted to art and L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, APRIL 17, 2014 www.italoamericano.com 4 the Latin American community in Los Angeles. Her serigraph portrays Andres Escobar, a play- er of Colombian origins. Escobar scored an auto goal dur- ing the '94 World Cup match of Colombia against the United States. That auto goal costed the elimination of Colombia from the competition and might have been one of the causes of Escobar's brutal murder, due to the allegedly revenging behav- iours from the game gambling loss and interconnected drug cartel wars. Football balls suspended as balloons forming an arc, foos- ball tables, DVD of historic matches on flat screens and even a collection of football shirts created with boxes of cigarettes: everything converges to a single reality that is universal and has at its center football players who are venerable as much as the Virgin Mary and Jesus. Immortalised and idolized because football is also faith, in every sense and at 360 degrees, and footballers in Italian and in many other culture are the true heroes of the country, they are martyrs. From Michelangelo's Pietà portray and interpretation through a football piety of reli- gious inspiration that keeps anchored to itself exterminated green fields translated in paint- ings and oversize photographs while ultras roars from the video installations that provoke souls grinning. Among the images more dra- matic and striking on view, those of Lyle Ashton Harris that he studied with the boys of Football the masses, the mas- culinity, the drama and power. Photographic prints in black and white that instill a strong sense of nationality as it does the portrait of a great defender as national Paolo Maldini in an affectionate gesture. Or as it Father, Husband, Veteran, Entertainer, Elected Business Manager grew up in El Sereno and was a graduate of Wilson High School. As a professional actor/ musi- cian he shared the stage with acts such as Little Richard and The Standells. Served in the Navy on the USS Kitty Hawk. UCLA Alumni, he loved his family, music, travel, food, event plan- ning and the L.A. Clippers (sea- son ticket holder). He held positions in manage- ment with Local 18 IBEW, DWP, and SEIU. Post retirement, he held posi- tions including President of the Italian Catholic Federation, and the AMVETS Irwindale post. Very involved with several charitable organizations includ- ing the Boys and Girls Club and ELENA VIPERA Chris Beas, The Kidd's Alright, 2008 In the 4/10 edition, the article "16th Annual Scalabrini House Seminary Fundraiser Banquet" by Rosalba Boccato refers to future events, but the verbs in the first paragraph were mistakenly changed in the past tense during editing. We apolo- gize for the error to the author and readers. Errata Corrige Ronald K. Ferrara 12-16-41 4-9-2014 City Of Hope does Verona #1, where a crowd of infinite fans at a football game reinterprets soccer as something cosmic, a vortex dan- gerous that can ingest the whole humanity and make it disappear in delirium, accompanied by confusion, turmoil, distress, through the facial expression of an Italian policeman, Polizia (Mille Luce). But not all of the facets of the soul of man are visible through the boys of Italian football: a double video installation assem- bled from 17 different cameras synchronized around the field of game of the 2005 Real Madrid against Villareal never detaches from every gesture, gaze, reac- tion and expression of Zidane, Zizou, a portrait assumes the form of a psycho-artistic docu- mentary reminding all of us that football gives so many different emotions. But football is not just pathos, fear, or inquietude. It is also unbounded and slow- ly endless joy, Celebracions, or fiction, or better deceit, as it is possible to observe in the triple video installations in slow motion, Caryatid. Celebracions offers a com- pletely different view from that of a normal video with regular speed would provide: hugs, kiss- es, happiness, and gratefulness are hypnotizing, intoxicating, fragments that stretch almost into erotic scenarios. Caryatid instead, showing in slow motion the birth of a foul, or better yet, just a fallacious desire, sham, that narrates how humankind can be exceedingly theatrical and dramatic wishing to reach a perfect balance between the ability to play according to and against the rules at the same time, a dilem- ma that Italy and many other countries have yet to resolve, a metaphor of the human condi- tion. Wounded Warriors and U.S. Veterans Son of Dominick and Celia Ferrara, he leaves behind his Wife Deanna and Sons Nicholas and Vincent. In Lieu of flowers the Family has created the Ron Ferrara Find a Cure Memorial Fund http://ourhope.cityofhope.org/ron ferrara

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