Probably by virtue of its tentative position half way up a steep hill, I’ve never really felt like the Adam Art Gallery is part of the Saturday Morning gallery walking circuit. So it was great to see it descend into town last Friday for a one-off screening of Philippe Parreno and Douglas Gordon’s Zidane, 21st Cnetury Portrait., fairly accurately billed as “Halfway between a sports documentary and a conceptual art installation.”
It’s a rare playing field where art and sports mix (the list of NZ artists I can name who have dealt with rugby culture for example don’t even fill one hand), so it was great to see such a capacity crowd of both soccer fiends and art-world a-listers. This may have been a result of a clever marketing – I liked the group discounts for teams of 11 (and would be fascinated to know how many art groups organised themselves as such).
It’s a rare playing field where art and sports mix (the list of NZ artists I can name who have dealt with rugby culture for example don’t even fill one hand), so it was great to see such a capacity crowd of both soccer fiends and art-world a-listers. This may have been a result of a clever marketing – I liked the group discounts for teams of 11 (and would be fascinated to know how many art groups organised themselves as such).
There was a tense moment when both the young guy in front of me, (with Zidane screen saver on his cellphone) and the strip wearing supporter next to me (who slept through the second half) simultaneously realised they were at an art event. Fortunately they countered this by making a swift trip to the bar, rather than a full-scale riot. This was during the opening credits.
I’m looking forward to seeing more of the Adam, in a cityscape that’s been largely crowded out by Team Massey of late. Still not a huge fan of the 9,000 pixel wide website though.
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