A changing room. Cramped benches on a cold stone floor, the smell of sweat and a set of jerseys in an Ikea bag on the floor. Changing, debriefing, pausing, thinking about the first game, the first time the game was abandoned, the first training session with the new team, the last time tears were shed, that feeling of having to go to the toilet again, the question of whether the club’s political orientation is also reflected in the team’s everyday life.
In the audio installation, the voices of amateur footballers form an alternative narrative to highly commercialized professional soccer. While selected European Championship matches are being played in the theater garden during a leisurely viewing, stories away from glamour and fame can be heard in the changing room.
Hieu Hoang and Kristofer Gudmundsson work mainly as theater makers. They have always followed soccer and, conversely, soccer has always followed them. So persistently that they have resumed playing soccer as amateurs after a decade-long break. “Berliner Amateur*innen” is their first joint work at Ballhaus Ost, with which they have each been associated for over ten years.
