Living in the Penalty Area
Exhibtion view, Living in the Penalty Area, 2008 
Exhibtion view, Living in the Penalty Area, 2008 
Exhibtion view, Living in the Penalty Area, 2008 
Exhibtion view, Living in the Penalty Area, 2008
A project by qujOchÖ for the UEFA Euro 2008
From 7 to 29 June 2008 the football European Championship takes place in Switzerland and Austria. In this context, the exhibition Living in the Penalty Area by the Linz artist group qujOchÖ at the Lentos attempts to intervene in this gigantic football machinery. Even though this enormous spectacle penetrates deep into everyday life, Living in the Penalty Area will concentrate on the essence of football: moves and strategies – in short: what actually happens on the playing field. Video projections of important games will be created using aesthetic reduction, minimalist representations of complex game plays and movements, with network analyses, statistical data and depictions of compressions and energy.
Throughout the duration of the European Championship 2008, it will be possible to experience Living in the Penalty Area both in and around the Lentos. The 60-meter long open space cut out of the Lentos building will be adapted as playing field and defined as “penalty area”. With a length of 60 meters, this spaces corresponds to the space of half a football field. In this “penalty area” there will be performative interventions on the one hand, on the other the utilization concept and the spatial architecture of this artificial football field will be actively used in the form of an inviting football living room for interested passers-by and visitors.
Under the covered open area of Lentos, several deciding scenes from past matches will be replayed on each of three days:
– Austria – Croatia (performance at the opening of the exhibition on Thursday, 12 June 2008, beginning at 6 p.m.)
– Netherlands – France (Sunday, 15 June 2008, 2 to 5 p.m.)
– the winner of Group B against the second from Group A (Sunday, 22 June 2008, 2 to 5 p.m.)
In a roughly one-hour performance, a team of surveyors will place markings on the playing field indicating the decisive game moves from the previous game.
The game then begins when the referee blows the whistle. A marking cart driven by a groundskeeper, normally used to draw the markings in the playing field, traces the movement of the ball in game-deciding plays on the grass. The course of the cart exactly follows the plays in space and time. The result is an abstract image of lines. The work of the survey team and the groundskeeper will be carried out by the artist group qujOchÖ (Doris Prlic, Martin Böhm, Andre Zogholy, Magnus Hofmüller, Johannes Dichtinger, Andreas Reichl, Andreas Kurz, Thomas Philipp).
The content and theme of the “penalty area” are linked with the exhibition inside Lentos. The exhibition includes documentation of the performative interventions (visualizations) and single works by artists (installations, video works, experimental art):
turntable soccer (qujOchÖ)
Soccer TV Test Pattern (Siegfried A. Fruhauf)
Red Peaks and Green Spotted Ball (Karo Szmit)
Bist du zu lieb, bist du verloren (Taife Akca/Thomas Philipp)
The past of the future (Christine Pilsl/Mika Satomi/Stefan Schilcher/Ingo Randolf)
Ein österreichisches Fußball-Orakel: Die Prohaska-Schneckerl (Mario Sinnhofer)
Der Zeitmesser (Leo Peschta)
qujOchÖ are Martin Böhm, Johannes Dichtinger, Magnus Hofmüller, Andreas Kurz, Thomas Philipp, Doris Prlic, Andreas Reichl, Lydia Thanner and Andre Zogholy.