M With a sports bar on the grounds of the Architecture Biennale, few people probably expected that those who set out for Venice this year would end up there. Upon entering the bar, some of the well-meaning visitors looked quite puzzled. They may have previously learned about sustainable building projects in Spain. Or they were driven into climate panic in the German pavilion in light of the extreme heat on display there. Perhaps they have reflected a little on Karl Popper’s quote, which was placed above the Egyptian visions for a life of wind and water: “The future is wide open. It depends on us. On all of us.”
Now they stood in the purple-dyed pavilion of the Netherlands before a gigantic curved foosball apparatus for at least ten players, all standing on one side. They could sit on bar stools and follow records of sports events that ran on the screens mounted above. One could also reach for a newspaper presenting ideas for a solidaristic sport. Signed jerseys and scarves adorn the walls in the sports bar, and visitors can marvel at trophies made of foam rubber. There are no cold metal trophies for winners on display here, but soft awards to cuddle – for the “directionless catcher,” for example.
A truly different sport is being presented there, a diverse one, an inclusive one. “Sidelined” is the project by curator Amanda Pinatih and designer Gabriel Fontana, who have developed three sport games meant to break up the rigid team structures of the well-known disciplines. “Anonymous Allyship” is one of these games, where participants of all ages wear the same jersey and must look for hidden clues to figure out with whom they are likely to play on a team. The aim is to make inclusion and exclusion tangible, to reveal the effects of social bonds or alienation in society. When he presented the game during the Olympic Games in Paris last year on the large stage in front of the town hall, people reacted quite perplexedly to the performance.
One could also pick up a newspaper that presented ideas for a solidaristic sport.
In the dark corner of the Internet, she became the laughingstock
They had indeed come to watch classic sports on the large screens, to celebrate the winners, and to congratulate themselves for coming from the same country as the champions. Perhaps there they in Paris witnessed how Australian breakdancer Rachel Dunn delivered a memorable performance. She received not a single point from the judges for her display, in which she mimicked kangaroo hops and crawled like a crab.
In the dark corner of the Internet, she had thus become the laughing stock. Her reaction to it testifies to a sports image that could indeed have a place in the Dutch vision of a Sports Bar, which is still on display in Venice until November 23. “In breaking, it is primarily about positivity,” she said after the shitstorm she had fallen into. “We lift each other up. I know that for people on X it is hard to understand a world where you do not try to tear each other down.”
In the USA, trans athletes are currently feeling what it is like to be brought down by the highest state authorities. The entirely positive approach of the sports bar at the Biennale stands in contrast as a warmly humane counter-model. It is queer-positive to begin with. It is more than a cute gimmick. It is an alternative blueprint that deserves to be taken seriously.
