MAKING USE. LIFE IN POSTARTISTIC TIMES IS AN EXHIBITION AND PUBLIC PROGRAM FEATURING MORE THAN ONE HUNDRED PARTICIPANTS

Match 3.0

April 30, 2016
Match 3.0

Three-sided football workshop conducted at the First Intergalactic Conference of the Association of Autonomous Astronauts in Vienna, 1997, photo courtesy CC BY 2.5.

Match 3.0
Saturday, April 30, 2016, 2PM
Plac Defilad in Warsaw

The curatorial team of Making Use: Life in Postartistic Times invite all interested individuals to attend a three-sided football match on Plac Defilad in Warsaw.

This intriguing sport, promoted among others by the Association of Autonomous Astronauts, is based on a concept described by the Danish situationist Asger Jorn in his 1962 book The Natural Order. It is a kind of philosophical and political game (alluding to three-valued logic and Marxism), where the teams represent various social classes, the referee is a negotiator between the competing teams, and the winner is the team that “wins” by virtue of having the fewest goals scored against it. The creator of the contemporary rules of the game is deemed to be Luther Blissett, a fictional artist whose identity has been appropriated by dozens of artists, writers, and activists. Three-sided matches have been played from time to time in many countries, but the main centers for the sport are Italy, Austria, Serbia, the UK – and Poland.

The three 6-person sides taking part in the match in Warsaw will meet on Plac Defilad, on the site of the future buildings of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw and Teatr Rozmaitości. The commentator for the match will be philosopher Michał Kozłowski, and the referee’s duties will be performed by usology theoretician Stephen Wright. Players are being recruited from among any and all genders, political views, and class affiliations, but for obvious reasons an eagerness for philosophical sparring may overwhelm physical brawn.

Applications should be submitted to zapisy@artmuseum.pl by 22 April 2016.

A three-sided match rewards a sense of humor, an essential element in the practice of many of the participants in the Making Use exhibition. Absurd ideas, confabulations, and nonsensical behavior often serve as the fuel driving political imagination.

Match 3.0

Design courtesy Krzysztof Pyda