On June 14th, the first UEFA EURO 2024 football match took place in the Olympic Stadium in Berlin. The German capital will be immersed in four weeks of European football. And it’s not just about playing. Numerous other cultural events will take place throughout the city, including the “Radical Playgrounds” art trail around the Gropius Bau and “WINNER”, a film installation by Marianna Simnett.

“WINNER” is a three-act dance film told through the lens of football, displayed as an immersive installation at Hamburger Bahnhof Museum in Berlin. Shot on 16mm, the film explores football as a metaphor for the intense societal pressure to perform, our expectations of ourselves and others, and a pervasive emphasis on winning and losing. This film is performed by a group of contemporary dancers who play hooligans, ticket officers, wardens, and fouling footballers, and is based on some of football’s most iconic fouls, radically transformed through dance, art and music.

We had the pleasure of talking with Marianna Simnett, the director of the project.

How did you feel when you got the call for making a film for the 2024 Euro Cup ?

“When the directors of Hamburger Bahnhof called me and asked if I wanted to make a football project related to the Euro Cup I felt flattered and surprised because I am an unlikely candidate to speak about this topic. I was not a part of the football world but this also allowed me to see it with fresh eyes. Whilst this project greatly honors the sport, it also speaks to wider topics about our humanity such as love, passion and violence.” 

What was the inspiration behind WINNER and how did you decide to explore the themes of football through the artistic work?

“I was interested in two main stereotypes: the fact that football is mostly associated with masculinity; and Ultra culture, extreme fans often associated with hooliganism. I wanted to explore the very reasons why I felt rejected from this male-dominated sport and investigate what makes fans go to such extremes to show their devotion. I was also interested in the way football players dealt with weakness, failure and injury; so I got super interested in iconic fouls, referee training, and the performance of bravado on the pitch. Referees don’t really get a big name in sport, and the media always portrays them as men. So I wanted to foreground this figure who’s at the center of the game but isn’t normally the one who is celebrated.”

How did you challenge yourself to reinterpret some iconic football moments, like when Zidane headbutted Materazzi’s chest and other famous ones through dance and performance?

“I researched the most iconic fouls from football history. Of course I had to include Zidane. I also got very into Cantona’s kick, Schumacher vs Battiston, Ewald Lienen and many more. I was really interested in recreating these moments of impact, but through the language of dance, transforming something violent into a fluid movement. So myself and the choreographer, Ben Duke, studied the football fouls again and again, watched exactly how they were filmed, which angle and how they’re presented in the media. Then we recreated it through a combination of dance and camera work. We also used a lot of long lenses to emulate some of the camera work on the field and filmed it in slow motion, so you really see every minor detail.“

In your works you usually try to take common perceptions or social status and reverse them, or at least explore them in a different way. For this work, you took the most common perceptions of football: a male sport, a sport with lots of fouls, and the win-or-lose mentality, and put it in a social perspective. How did you manage to spotlight these aspects of our society through football?

“The work’s title, “WINNER”, also relates to my art. It’s not an easy career. It’s very competitive. “WINNER” holds a mirror to society, and is for football and non-football fans alike. In both Art and Sport, there is a perpetual craving for validation sought by others. But no matter how fast you run, the goal post is always moving.”

“As well as focusing largely on the fouls, the film is based on a short story called “The Destructors” written by Graham Greene in 1954. I used the metaphor of destruction to comment on our desire to win, and how winning can paradoxically also sometimes feel like losing.”

And how do you see “WINNER” contributing to building this conversation about the intersection of art, sports and life and this aspect of winning that brings everything together?

“I just try to create a universal feeling within my audience, something that feels both familiar and strange. I also highlight typically ignored characters such as the referee and the hotdog seller but making them the central protagonists. The discrepancy of income between a football player getting paid millions and a hotdog lady getting basic wage is arbitrary. They are both integral parts of the experience of going to a game.”

“Working with extraordinary people, such as Robbie Ryan BSC, Bendik Giske, Lydia Lunch, Sybella Stevens, Brendan Feeney at Wave Studios, Vers, and a village of talent, made my work easier. We just all got together in a room and made magic happen. When a lot of amazing people come together and work towards a shared goal, it’s a winning formula.”