Remember our Fussball opening at the beginning of summer? Yes, it was loud, busy and buzzing with anticipation. Sure, everyone was excited about the World Cup kick-off, that we also screened in our SLEEK Art Space, alongside the exhibition. And yesterday evening, everything felt a little slower, warmer and more intimate. It was a wholesome moment to spend one last evening surrounded by the works of Annique Delphine, Carlo Bellmann, Julius Bauer and Tom Stechert, curated by Nisha Merit.
Over the past months, the exhibition has explored football through memory and performance, consumption and community, entertainment and political reality. What stayed with us by the end of it was that football is also about the things that keep us moving: ambition, willpower, strength, and the decision to keep going even when the goal still feels far away.
A fitting person to bring that thought into our final evening was bestselling author and playwright Moritz Rinke. He himself is a lifelong football fan and member of the German authors’ national football team. And for the finissage Rinke joined us for a personal conversation about his work, his creative process and what continues to drive him.
After the final applause, we asked Rinke what continues to inspire him: „curiosity“. A pretty fitting coincidence, considering he had no idea that Curiosity is also the theme of our upcoming SLEEK Issue #90, which is coming out this September.
Perhaps, that’s a beautiful lesson to take from football as well, because you don’t walk onto the pitch and immediately score the winning goal, right? Instead, you need to train. You try. You miss and then you get back up. Step by step, you build the strength and confidence to eventually take your shot.
“You don’t have to start by writing the big novel. You can start small, with sketches, diary entries or whatever comes naturally to you.” – Moritz Rinke
As the evening went on, our conversations were accompanied by drinks from the SLEEK Bar. And with the days getting shorter again, Berlin outside our windows was already beginning to change colour. A deep orange sunset wrapped the Art Space in its glow, bathing the works and everyone still inside in warm light. It almost felt like the exhibition was getting its own goodbye hug.
With that, thank you to everyone who was part of this.
Final whistle. Good game!
All Photography by Lilly Wetzel.