Play for Today
(2021)
Materials: Cold cure epoxy resin paint, metal plaque.
Installation dimensions: 1587 x 1581 cm.
Plaque dimensions: 60 x 40 cm.
Play for Today is a large-scale installation by Céline Condorelli that looks at the complex issues of inclusion through societal norms, gender bias and equality. Visitors are invited to enter various sports fields overlayed on top of each other – badminton, basketball, football, pétanque, volleyball and a running track. The field lines are painted in the official colours be they orange, red, white or yellow. Somewhere along the borders, one notices dates: 1920, 1921, 1926, 1952, 1956 and… 1977. They mark the years in which women were allowed to compete in international tournaments in the respective sport.
Play For Today addresses the question of who has the right to play. It serves as a multidirectional field for play, critical dialogue and collective action towards a more inclusive society. The work is presented for a five-year lease alongside a series of workshops on gender bias and queerness in sport that are carried out with the staff of the presenting institution.
Pétanque 1977
Women participate in a pétanque championship for the first time, in France. The women’s world championship is created in 1988.
Badminton, 1956
The first women’s world championship is organised by the World Badminton Federation in the UK.
Volleyball, 1952
The women’s volleyball world championship is created by the International Volleyball Federation,and takes place in the Soviet Union.
Running, 1926
In the UK, a woman runs a marathon recognised by theInternational Association of Athletics Federations for the first time. The International Olympic Committee bans women from running the800m in competition from 1928 to 1960.
Basketball, 1921
Basketball is played for the first time in Europe by women’s teams at the 1921 Women’s OlympicGames.
Football, 1920
The first international women’s football tournament is held in the UK between France andEngland. The following year the Football Association bans women’s football until 1971.
In 2021 the work was acquired by Frac Grand Large
