Artribune curates an Olympic video playlist of sport-inspired art

Artribune has assembled a video playlist as a tribute to the Rio 2016 Olympics, featuring works by international artists that explore the intersection of contemporary art and sport. The playlist includes Yuri Ancarani's 'San Siro' (2014), a portrait of Milan's stadium as a monumental architecture before the match; Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno's 'Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait' (2006), a 90-minute film following Zinédine Zidane during a Real Madrid vs. Villarreal game, with a soundtrack by Mogwai; Salla Tykkä's 'Giant' (2013), shot in Romanian gyms in Onești and Deva, linking gymnastic training to modernist utopia and communist ideology, featuring archival footage of Nadia Comăneci; Mark Bradford's 'Practice' (2003), where the artist plays basketball in a crinoline dress, challenging stereotypes about his black male body; Masbedo's 'Glima' (2008), set in Iceland, depicting an ancient Viking wrestling match as a primal dance between man and woman; Hilla Ben Ari's 'Horizontal Standing' (2008), focusing on a one-legged gymnast on a beam, evoking political wounds from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; and Silvia Camporesi's 'Dance Dance Dance' (2007), an underwater video inspired by swimming and a Murakami novel. The article also references historical precedents like George Bellows's boxing paintings and Matthew Barney's 'Drawing Restraint' series.