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No football? European Fields Unlocked!

No amateur football, no professional football, no Champions League, no UEFA Euro 2020….. For over a century, football has brought people together. Now, ‘the most important side issue in life’ has come to a grinding halt.

European Fields by Hans van der Meer, a project including a book and a travelling exhibition, shows the primal form of the game: twenty-two players on a pitch, no matter their talent, no matter where. Passionately playing together, in a setting far away from the Champions League. His observations of life at the bottom of the football pyramid show not only how football is part of the landscape, but also how deeply the game and its rituals are rooted in human culture. With mild irony, Van der Meer demonstrates the mismatch between human ambition and the effective result, between an individual’s ‘inside’ perception and a more objective, distanced view of our behaviour. Amateur football as the perfect metaphor for life at large.

The European Fields exhibition showed a number of video observations as well as photographic football landscapes. These were shot across Europe: from Belgium to the UK, Portugal, France and Italy. As part of the cultural programme surrounding Euro 2000, the first one Vlaamse Velden (Flemish Fields), dates back to exactly 20 years ago. In these days of social distancing, Paradox and partners, ranging from the world of football as well as the arts, wish to share these short films with you including written introductions from sports journalists, writers and media personalities: Jan Mulder, David Winner, Matteo Dore and more.

We will be launching five ‘matches of the week’ on consecutive weekends on our YouTube Channel, starting from today with Vlaamse Velden (Flemish Fields). Click the link below to watch the films and subscribe.

Be sure to also follow us on social media where we will announce the films to come. Spread the word and enjoy while staying safely at home!

watch the films on Youtube

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To all of you: be safe, be strong

To everyone who has contributed to Paradox projects, our venue partners and sponsors, the photographers, filmmakers, writers, designers, editors, service providers, co-publishers, book sellers, interns, staff and board members, and of course our audience: we hope that you and your loved ones stay safe and healthy. Our hearts go out to those affected by the virus and we stand in solidarity with everyone around the world – working in the visual arts and beyond – whose livelihoods are now at risk.

For cultural organisations, especially smaller ones like ours, the future is uncertain but our mission and values remain steadfast. Now more than ever ‘the interaction between complex cultural, economic and technological facets of society and the recording of history as it unfolds’- as our mission statement puts it – is vitally important to help us make sense of the world.

We’re sorry to hear about museum and gallery colleagues who have had to close their doors and cancel events. World Press Photo, ImageSingulières and the Rencontres d’Arles to mention just a few dear ones. Looking forward to seeing you all back in good shape next year! But how wonderful to see the resilience and creativity of individuals and cultural organisations worldwide. Follow the links in the sidebar to view three of our favourite examples.

In memoriam: Willem Woudenberg

On April 28, former long-time Paradox supervisory board member Willem Woudenberg passed away at the age of 66. His obituary in De Volkskrant and NRC characterised him as an ‘analytical adventurer’. Willem had been partner and CEO of Eden Design & Communication (formerly BRS Premsela Vonk) until 2010. In 2011 he founded Brand Dialogue, an independent marketing and brand design agency, located in Mumbai, Delhi and the Netherlands.

As a policy officer and researcher for the Federatie van Kunstenaarsverenigingen (Federation of artist unions) in the early 1980s, he contributed to the vast transition the cultural sector was going through at the time in the Netherlands, resulting in the structure with cultural funds at arm’s length of the Ministry of Culture. These changes also opened the door to the recognition of photography as an integral part of the cultural arena. The Federatie, represented by Willem, played a key role in developing a strategy to find support for a badly needed infrastructure.

Willem became a board member of Perspektief, the centre and magazine for photography in Rotterdam in the second half of the 80s and joined the supervisory board of Paradox ten years later. A role he fulfilled until two years ago.

We wish to thank him for his friendship as well as the valuable contributions he made over the years to the world of photography and design and Paradox in particular. And we wish his beloved partner Madhuri Dass, his son Wouter, his friends and relatives all the strength they need. He will be remembered.

Paradox: 25 years of documentary photography productions

Paradox was founded in 1993, the first projects – including The Neighbour Next Door with Shimon Attie – were launched in 1995. European Fields Unlocked is a project in the framework of X25. More projects reflecting on the past and future of visual storytelling will follow!