Josef Dabernig, Wisla, 2000 © Manifesta 3 / Josef Dabernig

Video

This film by Austrian artist Josef Dabernig had two male actors playing the role of coaches following the progress of a fictional football match. The camera focused on them exclusively, as they sat in the coach’s box at the stadium of Wisla, gesticulating like two men involved in a conflict and from time to time approaching the sideline and trying to interfere in the game. The actors’ gestures became a metaphorical and ambivalent expression of conflict and impotence.