Football, boxing, dance… Emmanuelle Luciani likes to mix sport, particularly popular sport, and art. To her credit, the exhibition curator gave a conference “Football and sacredness” with the philosopher Thibault Leplat, produced an exhibition on the famous Argentine footballer Diego Maradona in 2019 in Paris. “He has become a kind of flagship in Naples like Bernard Tapie has been in Marseille since he allowed Olympique de Marseille to win the Champions League in 1993 against AC Milancomments the curator. There is a fusion of secular and sacred when it comes to football in the South, and particularly in cities in crisis because these icons become a kind of dignity for people. Tensions of the order of David against Goliath are replayed at the stadium with the clasico, a history of the struggle in the Jacobin state.“
“OM plays the role of peacemaker”
When in the 1980s-1990s, the economic crisis hit Marseille, OM played “the role of peacemaker, link between communities“, recalls the Marseillaise. At the same time, Emmanuelle Luciani has been working on funeraries, since her dissertation on paleo-Christian sarcophagi, numerous for example at the abbey of Saint-Victor. “Funerary art says a lot about a society and it is also the basis of the history of art.continues the artist. What we know about Egyptian civilization is thanks to the sarcophagi.”
“An investigation into a dozen cemeteries in the city”
With the idea of merging these two research subjects, she suggested to photographer Émile Barret to go to all the city’s cemeteries, starting from “the incredible tribute paid to Bernard Tapie upon his death. He is buried next to the Vélodrome, in the Mazargues cemetery, and my grandfather – I am from this neighborhood.”Together, they will go in search of all the marks of homage to OM on the tombs of the city. Balloon sculptures, drawings, tributes and epitaphs from supporter clubs are immortalized to show their solidarity with the deceased and his family. “Like at the stadium, which sometimes serves as a cathedral in my opinion – Tapie’s coffin was shown even in the enclosure -, where these clubs honor their dead with minutes of silence and banners. A sacredness that is lost in our societies.”
We can read, on the photographed graves, inscriptions such as: “To our grandpa, Marseille supporter. Munich 1993, I was there.”We discover, among all the anonymous people, the grave of René Dufaure de Montmirail, who founded OM in 1899.
Like resistance
In the same room of the Southway Pavilion, the exhibition Funeral football brings together two books listing photographs and other relic sculptures: OM scarf in cast plaster, “Droit au aim” engraving, club logo. On the wall, a wallpaper displays the montage of a large part of the photos; prints on metal and t-shirts, manufactured pennants complete this small exhibition, which is certainly meaningful for many Marseillais and OM supporters. All these items, some of which could find their place in the collections of the City or the Mucem, are for sale. “We surveyed a dozen cemeteries, like anthropological research, and we realized how important this passion for football is in people’s lives.”
And faced with globalization and the standardization of funerary objects, the art historian sees these links to football, these sensitive and popular tributes, as resistance.
This Thursday, December 19, Emmanuelle Luciani and Southway Studio will be among the guests of theAfter foot of RMCrelocated to Marseille, in the premises of Provence (from 9 p.m.). There they will notably meet several personalities linked to the history of OM and its supporters, including Valeilles de Montmirail, great-grandson of the club’s founder, Rachid Zeroual, figure of the South Winners, Guy (known as Manitou), member of the Fanatics and the origin of the supporter’s museum opposite the Vélodrome. To follow live on RMC.
