Event
Manchester International Festival 2025
03 Jul 2025 – 20 Jul 2025
Manchester International Festival 2025
Manchester, United Kingdom
-
Image: yeahnice.design
Exhibition
Football City, Art United.
4 Jul 2025 – 24 Aug 2025
Regular hours
- Friday
- 10:00 – 22:00
- Saturday
- 10:00 – 22:00
- Sunday
- 10:00 – 22:00
- Tuesday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Wednesday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Thursday
- 09:00 – 18:00
Cost of entry
Standard: £15
Affordable:
Concessions £7.50
Aviva £10 Tickets
Children Under 16 FREE - valid with an adult ticket holder only
A booking fee of £1.50 applies to all tickets.
Address
- Aviva Studios
- Water Street
- Manchester
England - M3 4JQ
- United Kingdom
Event map
What happens when artists and footballers transfer ideas? 11 new works created by pairings of artists and footballers come together in an ambitious and playful group exhibition at Aviva Studios for MIF25.
About
Both artists and footballers are known for their flair and their imagination – in the studio or on the pitch. Inspired by the boundary-pushing creativity of the trequartista player, Football City, Art United. brings together 11 pairs of artists and footballers to produce new works for a group exhibition.
The project is a collaboration between World Cup and Champions League winner, Juan Mata, renowned curator and Serpentine Galleries, Artistic Director Hans Ulrich Obrist, and curator, writer and filmmaker Josh Willdigg. Stepping into each other’s creative fields, they ask, what can art and football learn from each other?
Football City, Art United. kicked off at MIF23 with a world premiere of Tino Sehgal's joyous work, This entry at the National Football Museum and the Whitworth Art Gallery, made in collaboration with Juan Mata.
For MIF25, the project debuts its own starting 11 in a large-scale exhibition of new works. There’s something for everyone to experience – from sound installations, play arenas, paintings, drawings, animation, sculpture and film to new genre-defying artworks and collaborations.
The exhibition is accompanied by 11 video screens, showcasing the unique journey each artist and footballer have been on to create their work. Expressing the global footprint of the game and the passion and international outlook of the project, take a look behind the curtain at the making of Football City, Art United. – from Paris, to Los Angeles, to São Paolo.
Both playful and progressive, Football City, Art United. expands the worlds of art and football and the cultural contributions both make to our daily lives.
