Pro Evolution Soccer

NEWS: ART IS A GAME NOT EVERYBODY CAN PLAY (LET ALONE WIN)

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VRAL is currently exhibiting Juan Obando’s Pro Revolution Soccer, a modded version of PES celebrating a counter-historical event: a match between Inter Milan and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation soccer team that never took place. Today, we are presenting another example of video game-based art created by hijacking, appropriating, and recontextualizing Konami’s popular soccer game, The Cool Couple’s Emozioni Mondiali (2018-ongoing) through the lens of Sarah Thornton’s notion of subcultural capital. Previous episodes in this series include Miguel Gomes, Marta Azparren, Gweni Llwyd and Owen Davies

Nicolò Benetton and Simone Santilli aka The Cool Couple, are known for their astute artistic interventions which often incorporate video games, as in the case of Flyin’ High (2021), a machinima created with(in) Microsoft Flight Simulator. Emozioni Mondiali (2018-ongoing) skillfully combines the domains of sport, politics, and art. Described as “an expansion kit” for the immensely popular football game Pro Evolution Soccer 2018, the work is an ironic and provocative arena that encourages user, pardon, visitor participation. Specifically, each museum goer is invited to engage in situ with a special edition of Konami’s simulation featuring customized athletes/artists belonging to distinct movements spanning from the Renaissance to the present day. Notably, among these teams are the duo themselves.

Executed with meticulous care and a deep respect for the evoked artists, events, and movements it represents – e.g., the Renaissance, Baroque, Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Impressionism, Futurism 1909, DADA, S.F. Surrealiste, Abstract Expressionism, Fluxus, Pop Art, Conceptual Art 1961, Art Informel, Land Art, Arte Povera, Young British Artists, Dreams and Conflicts – Venice Biennale 2003, Photo-Legends, Post-Internet, Documenta (13) –, Emozioni Mondiali is a mischievous examination of the symbiotic (parasitic?) relationship between art and sport, and vice versa. The work has been exhibited as an interactive installation running the customized iteration of Pro Evolution Soccer 2018, and it is complemented by abstract paintings based on the teams’ jerseys and uniforms patterns.

Emozioni Mondiali is both an exercise in skinning – i.e., the process of altering the visual look of game elements like characters, vehicles, or weapons of a video game without changing their underlying mechanics or gameplay functionality – and extreme customization. As most gamers know, skins are applied as textures, materials, or mesh overlays that give models a new surface look. Creating skins requires graphic design skills and often advanced 3D modeling knowledge to make the assets fit the game’s visual style. Moreover, skinning allows the most skilled players to put their own visual stamp on games in a way that shows off their style, skills, or status in the community and it could be considered an example of what art critic Sarah Thornton calls subcultural capital in her 1995 book Club Cultures, which refers to the social status, knowledge, and cultural competencies that confer prestige within certain subcultures. Subcultural capital can be converted into economic capital: unsurprisingly, the most sought out skin artists often provide their services to other gamers – and artists, why not? – for a price.

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Matteo Bittanti

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NEWS: DA MAN! SCORES!

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VRAL is currently exhibiting Juan Obando’s Pro Revolution Soccer, a modded version of Konami’s popular soccer game celebrating a counter-historical event: a match between Inter Milan and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation soccer team that never took place. Today, we are presenting another example of Game Art made by hijacking, appropriating and recontextualizing Pro Evolution Soccer, Gweni Llwyd and Owen Davies’s Becoming a Legend (2020), which was originally exhibited on VRAL and it is now available on the artists’ website In this article, we revisit Becoming a Legend and we discuss the difference between avant-garde and vernacular machinima through the lens of Rebecca Cannon’s seminal essay, Meltdown (2006). This article is part of an ongoing series.

In a 2020 interview with Luca Miranda, artists Gweni Llwyd and Owen Davies discuss the creation of Becoming a Legend, whose genesis was inspired by their love for football video games and their inspiration from documentaries and other machinima works. The artists explain their use of Pro Evolution Soccer as they felt it was better suited to their original concept. Among other things, they preferred the mechanics of PES’s replay camera and found its visual aesthetic to be more otherworldly compared to the stricter dedication to realism of Konami’s main competitor FIFA, EA Sports’s popular football game. They also mentioned that using an out-of-date version of PES, the 2015 edition, gave the footage a slightly nostalgic feel, which aligned with their artistic vision. Furthermore, the artists appreciated the lack of licensing in PES compared to FIFA. They found it intriguing to have the action take place around fictional teams with strange names, which added a mythical quality to their artwork. This choice allowed them to create a unique atmosphere and contribute to the portrayal of their godlike, menacing but also comic-like figure, Da Man!.

Llwyd and Davies also examine the culture of football and the obsession with physical optimization, which is reflected in their portrayal of the grotesque character Da Man!. They explore the concept of self-optimization and its connection to neoliberalism, highlighting the constant pressure to improve and be productive. The artists suggest that video games, including football games, contribute to this ideology by rewarding player participation with symbolic rewards.

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Matteo Bittanti

This is a Patreon exclusive content. To access it consider joining our growing community.

NEWS: MACHINIMA, ART, AND SOCCER: ON MARTA AZPARREN’S THE GOLKEEPER AND THE VOID

Marte Azparren, El Portero y el vacío, machinima, 3’ 56”, 2009, Spain

VRAL is currently exhibiting Juan Obando’s Pro Revolution Soccer, a modded version of Konami's popular soccer game celebrating a counter-historical event: a match between Inter Milan and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation soccer team that never took place. Today, we are showcasing another example of Game Art made by hijacking, appropriating and recontextualizing Pro Evolution Soccer, Marta Azparren’s El Portero y el vacío (The Goalkeeper and the Void, 2009). This article is part of an on going series.

Spanish artist Oscar Marta Azparren, a graduate of Madrid Complutense University with a degree in Fine Arts, has garnered international recognition for her eclectic body of work, which spans video art, visual arts, and net.art. Exhibiting her creations in key venues and events worldwide, Azparren’s artistic prowess has mesmerized audiences at festivals and retrospectives, solidifying her place in the contemporary art scene.

Azparren’s seminal work, El Portero y el vacío (The Goalkeeper and the Void), was featured in the 2016 exhibition GAME VIDEO/ART. A SURVEY. In her machinima, Azparren appropriated Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer in order to explore the relationship between football and sculpture, paying homage to the renowned Basque sculptor Eduardo Chillida (1924-2002), who made significant contributions to the field of modern and contemporary art. Born in San Sebastián, Basque Country, Chillida initially pursued a career in professional soccer, playing for the Real Sociedad team from 1942 to 1943, when he was very young. He later retired because of a knee injury and turned his attention to art. His novel journey began with studies in architecture, but he soon shifted his focus to sculpture.

Chillida’s sculptures are characterized by their monumental scale, organic forms, and the exploration of space and material. He worked primarily with iron, steel, and stone, creating massive structures that often incorporated voids and negative spaces. His works embody a sense of harmony between the natural and the man-made, blending organic shapes with a modernist aesthetic. One of Chillida’s signature techniques involved carving directly into granite or alabaster, allowing the natural qualities of the material to guide the creative process. His sculptures often conveyed a sense of weight and tension, evoking a profound emotional and physical presence…

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Matteo Bittanti

This is a Patreon exclusive content. To access it consider joining our growing community.

NEWS: MIGUEL GOMES’S ALGORITHMIC BALLET ON THE SOCCER PITCH

Miguel Gomes, Pro Evolution Soccer One Minute Dance After a Golden Goal in the Master League, 2004

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Patreon-exclusive content 〰️

VRAL is currently exhibiting Juan Obando’s Pro Revolution Soccer, a modded version of Konami's popular soccer game celebrating a counter-historical event: a match between Inter Milan and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation soccer team that never took place. Today, we are showcasing another example of Game Art made by hijacking, appropriating and recontextualizing Pro Evolution Soccer, Miguel Gomes’s Pre Evolution Soccer One Minute Dance After a Golden Goal in the Master League (2004). This article is the first of a series.

In a delightful diversion that lasts a mere minute entitled Pro Evolution Soccer One Minute Dance After a Golden Goal in the Master League (2004), Portuguese filmmaker Miguel Gomes (b. 1972, Lisbon) playfully explores Konami’s popular soccer game Pro Evolution Soccer, infusing it with a captivating dance of joy that follows a triumphant goal. The viewer is invited to witness a symphony of robotic movements, as players Takemitsu, Berardo, Ringo Starr, Tomasson, Arnold, and Bonga grace the virtual field. Through skewed perspectives, uncanny choreographies, and a peculiar routine of replays, Gomes invites us into a world where algorithmic exultation reigns supreme, accompanied by the resounding clatter of a projector (!).

Unbeknownst to some, Miguel Gomes stands as one of the most accomplished Portuguese directors of our time, his cinematic prowess evident in his magnum opus, the epic Arabian Nights (2015). This monumental work — a visionary reinterpretation of the beloved tale One Thousand and One Nights — unfolds over an astonishing 382 minutes, masterfully set against the backdrop of contemporary Portugal. It comes as no surprise, then, that Gomes embraces a mantra that encapsulates his creative ethos: “Cinema is a game.” Trained at the esteemed Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema (Superior School of Theatre and Film Lisbon), Gomes initially carved his path (1996-2000) as a film critic and prolific author of insightful theoretical treatises on the art of cinema.

Originally commissioned by the revered Rotterdam Film Festival and showcased at prestigious cinema-based events worldwide, including the Austrian retrospective Viennale and the Sao Paulo Film Festival, Pro Evolution Soccer One Minute Dance After a Golden Goal in the Master League is almost twenty years old. This production coincided with the release of Gomes’s debut film, A Cara Que Mereces, in Portugal — a film that heralded his arrival on the directorial stage. Notably, Pre Evolution Soccer One Minute Dance… was five years prior to the pioneering work of Spanish artist Marta Azparren, who harnessed the same game fondly known among enthusiasts as PES, to craft the esteemed machinima The Goalkeeper and the Void (2009) which was shown, among others, in the context of the 2016 exhibition Game Video Art. A Survey at IULM University.

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Matteo Bittanti

This is a Patreon exclusive video. To access the full content consider joining our growing community.



EVENT: JUAN OBANDO (JUNE 30 - JULY 13 2023, ONLINE)

Pro Revolution Soccer

Custom PC, modified game, two controllers, two custom-made gaming seats, sound system, projector, and vinyl screen structure, 2019 hereby presented as a gameplay video (1920 x 1080), color, sound, 21’ 23”, Colombia, 2019

Created by Juan Obando

Pro Revolution Soccer is an interactive installation that deftly reimagines the popular football simulation Pro Evolution Soccer (PES). Drawing inspiration from the profound bond between the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) and the Italian soccer club Inter Milan, this artwork ingeniously introduces the EZLN as an enthralling new feature within the simulation. Evoking the enigmatic essence of a mythical football match, the work unfurls an intriguing narrative where EZLN daringly challenges the Italian team, forever suspended in the realm of imagination. Originally presented as an interactive installation based on a modified version of Konami’s soccer simulation, the artwork is presented on VRAL as a one channel gameplay video.

Juan Obando is an artist from Bogotá, Colombia, specializing in interventions within social systems. Through video performances, post-digital objects, and screen-based installations, Obando explores the collision of ideology and aesthetics, sparking the emergence of speculative new worlds. Obando’s work has garnered international recognition, with exhibitions held in Mexico, France, Colombia, Germany, and the United States. Notable solo shows include “Fake New” at General Expenses (Mexico City, México), “Summer Sets” in Faneuil Hall (Boston, MA, 2022),  “DEMO” at Museo Espacio (Aguascalientes, MX, 2022), and  “La Bodeguita de La Concordia” at Galería Santa Fé for the Luis Caballero National Art Prize (Bogotá, Colombia, 2021). Selected group exhibitions include First Place In The Table? (Trafo, Szczecin, Poland, 2022), Game Changers (MAAM, Boston, 2020), Video Sur (Palais de Tokyo, France, 2018), La Vuelta (Rencontres de la Photographie,  Arles, France, 2017), and MDE15 (Medellín, Colombia, 2015). Obando was also awarded a Rhizome commission from The New Museum in 2012, a MassArt Foundation grant in 2017, and an Art Matters fellowship in 2019.