Football landscapes
May 15th – June 2nd 2013
"In this exhibition, we approach football as part of landscape and urban space, the cultural stratification of football and landscape. We have sought milieus to be photographed for example with the aid of maps and webcams. Football is a wonderful game; as its simplest its beauty is expressed in goalposts made of sand on a beach, or a goal made of birch trunks. We hope that our photographs present the poetic beauty of football and the landscape, while reinforcing our awareness of the game and its cultural meanings."
- Mikko Auerniitty and Harri Heinonen
"Photographic artists Mikko Auerniitty and Harri Heinonen have worked for years on football related teams, both jointly and separately, approaching the world of this sport in quite unconventional ways. Auerniitty and Heinonen often turn their viewfinders to places that may seem untypical but upon closer inspection will turn out to be highly typical. The trained eye may see in a brick wall a chalked and long since faded goal, and, looking up, there may be flag or some other symbol on a balcony in a deserted street telling of the local culture of football fans. Small stickers on lampposts and drainpipes also mark social boundaries – it’s we who rule here."
- Otso Kantokorpi
Photographers Mikko Auerniitty and Harri Heinonen contemplate football as an integral part of the landscape and cityscapes, as they assess the cultural layers of football and landscape. This exhibition is the story of how football became a part of the landscape, the city and our daily lives.
These pigment ink prints were taken in different countries across Europe between 2006 and 2013.
The exhibition, Football Landscapes, was first shown at the Sports Museum of Finland in Helsinki in the fall of 2011 at the same time as the book Football Landscapes was published. During the year 2012, the exhibition toured at the Estonian Sports Museum and the Swedish MOVE Film Festival in Umeå, among other places. This year, and prior to coming to Jyväskylä, the exhibition also toured at the Mikkeli Art Museum and the International Football Film Festival in Berlin.
This exhibition project is the recipient of support from the Finnish Cultural Foundation, the National Council for Photographic Art, the Arts Council of South-Savo and the Arts Council of Central Finland.