Football isn’t that sport that at all costs brings two teams to face each other in order to try and throw a ball into the other’s net. Well, OK, yes, football is just that, but only if we stick to it’s most literal definition. Because the truth is that, more than a sport, football is a culture. And, as such, it is a type of cement that brings people together around several shared rituals that don’t change much from country to country. There’s the rite of attending the field with other enthusiasts. And there’s also another rite that involves clinking beers, cigarette butts and bodies that have little to do with the athletic sportsmen that are in the playing field.
GORDOPELOTA, PAINTING TRUE FOOTBALL
Football is much more than just a sport: it is a culture that brings together a whole group of fans in the practice of several different sacred rites. So, football as a culture (especially as part of Argentinian culture) and not so much to do with sports, is what feeds Gordopelota’s paintings. And it’s also the perfect excuse to talk to Martín Kazanietz.
That’s what real football looks like. And that’s precisely the football that Martín Kazanietz captures in his work. His paintings are filled with bodies that are round like the balls, stuffed into their sports jerseys. The bodies normally inundate the part of the rite that is the least active and that involves, luckily, a shared kind of friendly calmness. The sweet lethargy that follows the playing field’s euphoria. His imagery is, without a doubt, the side of football that brings together fans of the sport.
Not in vain, the characters that inhabit his paintings are now widely-known as ‘gordopelotas’ (or ‘fatballs’) in reference to Kazanietz’s artistic name: Gordopelota. Very few times has a nickname seemed as eloquent when it comes to anticipating the work of an artist as it just so happens in the case of this Argentinian who possesses a universe that could challenge the cult of the body and also empower the body positivity discourse. If those were his intentions. And so we’re going to talk about all of this and much more with Martín Kazanietz.
Seriously, what is it about Argentina’s romance with football that seems never-ending?
More than a romance, I’d say it’s a complicated relationship. But the most specific answer is that football is a great space in which as Argentinians we build our identity.
Did you ever try to take on football professionally or have you always preferred to stay on the sidelines?
I never tried it professionally. In fact, I stopped playing for my club when I was really young. I also never went much to the field, so, more than being on the sidelines, I stayed at home playing with my friends and watching football from the TV.
At what point in life did you feel the artistic call and decided you wanted to paint?
It was when I was about 27 years old, after painting graffiti for many years. I had a sort of weird and intense experience on MDMA, in which I thought I was going to die. And I had a kind of awakening in which I realised I wanted to paint and draw.
No matter how football has always been linked to skinniness. Why did you choose an artistic name like Gordopelota?
They have been calling me Gordo or Gordito since before I started to paint. And a colleague called me Gordopelota. I chose it as my signature before painting things related to football.
In a moment like the present one, where we’re so obsessed with ‘body positivity’, is there a vindication in the fact that your work is filled with fat people in a football environment?
I’ve been painting characters by exaggerating their volumes since I started painting graffiti. It’s very common to sketch out letters with exaggerated volumes. Simply, because there are types of curves that I enjoy drawing and filling out. It’s more formal than conceptual to me. But if you think about it in the conceptual sense, it could be something about challenging the elite sportsman stereotype.
What’s clear is that, beyond fat people and football, in each and every one of your works of art we can see a bit of the life and the streets of Argentina. Was showing ‘Costumbrismo’ intentional on your part?
‘Costumbrismo’ sounds like a negative term, even if it isn’t. Yes, I do think that I like setting certain situations onto a specific place / time. And, for that, some elements can help out: x brand, x shirt, x field, x attitude, etc.
Precisely because of the round bodies, is your work enjoyed better (and is more impactful) on a bigger format?
I’m a lukewarm kind of person, so I’d say I prefer medium formats. Not gigantic nor minimal ones.
They also cause quite an impact on the street, in fact, you’d made a lot of street art. Do you believe that, on the street, your paintings acquire a new meaning?
More than the meaning, I prefer the ‘sense’ that always ends up being built on its context and with its audience. In the streets, like in a gallery or on Instagram.
Aren’t you tempted by the world of fashion that is always ready to recruit artists like yourself?
I already made some t-shirts. I like it because, when I worked as a designer, that was something that I would’ve liked to do but I was never given the chance.
Talking about fashion, what is your favourite garment, the one you first think of when you open the closet and from which you build your look each day?
Cotton jogging pants and tracksuits.
