SLEEK Art Space Exhibition Explores Football as Cultural Image System

SLEEK ART SPACE in Berlin presents 'Fussball Exhibition' from 11 June to 3 September 2026, featuring works by Annique Delphine, Carlo Bellmann, Julius Bauer, and Tom Stechert. The show examines football not merely as a sport but as a cultural image system and social space of resonance, coinciding with the FIFA World Cup 2026. Tom Stechert translates football's aesthetic and emotional codes into objects bridging utility, collectible design, and sculpture. Carlo Bellmann uses visual codes of football to probe socio-political structures and cultural conditioning through reduction and formal clarity. Annique Delphine explores decontextualization and recontextualization of everyday objects, tracing the boundary between familiar and uncanny. Julius Bauer aims to make reality visible beyond abstract numbers and headlines. The exhibition is accompanied by a personal reflection from author Moritz Rinke, who recounts his lifelong relationship with football, from childhood memories of the 1976 European Championship to his involvement with the German national writers' team, encounters with figures like Hans Meyer, Horst Eckel, and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and his role as Werder Bremen ambassador. Rinke reflects on football as an endless extension of childhood and questions the sport's integrity amid FIFA's commercialization.