Originally scheduled for 21 July, it was a case of rain stopped – or at least postponed – play for artist Craig Coulthard’s Cultural Olympiad event, Forest Pitch. The excessive downpours earlier in the summer made the pitch in the Scottish borders unplayable and the decision was made to reschedule for Saturday 25 August.
Which means, of course, that the four teams taking part (two male, two female) will have had extra time to prepare, discuss tactics and be imbued with the Olympic spirit – just in time for the beginning of the Paralympic Games in London.
Coulthard’s project, Scotland’s Artists Taking The Lead winner, celebrates both art and sport. The action will happen in the middle of a non-indigenous, commercially grown spruce plantation a few miles from Selkirk, where trees have been cleared in the centre of the forest to make space for a full-sized football pitch, complete with penalty spots, goal posts, corner flags and match officials.
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The pitch will play host to two matches at 12noon and 3pm. Local visitors will be led through the plantation to the pitch on foot, musical performances will take place before and after each match, and a commentary will be broadcast on the Internet, for the ears of an international audience.
Named after the four locations of the Panhellenic Games in ancient Greece, the inspiration for the modern-day Olympics, the teams – Delphi, Corith, Olympia and Nemea – are made up of Scotland-based amateur players over the age of 18, all of whom have gained British citizenship or been given Leave to Remain in the UK since 2000.
Coulthard was born in the UK and has Scottish parents, but spent much of his life in Europe, including Germany where he played for a German football team. How we approach and talk about nationality is a driving force for Forest Pitch, and the work aims to celebrate the diversity of Scottish communties.
After the matches, seedlings of trees native to Scotland will be sown into the pitch’s white lines, before more spruce is planted to reclaim the land in-between. The intention being that a remarkable plantation of indigenous trees will make their own roots, commemorating the games in years to come.
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From the a-n archive:
Video guide to Site Specific Art
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