Coup de Tête, the sculpture installed on the Corniche.
Coup de Tête, a sculpture by the noted Algerian artist Adel Abdessemed, has been installed by Qatar Museums Authority (QMA)’s Public Art Department on the Corniche. It has been brought from the Pompidou Museum in Paris.
The 5m bronze sculpture references the moment when French football hero Zinedine Zidane head-butted Italian player Marco Materazzi in the 2006 World Cup final during the former’s last professional match.
Zidane was sent off, and minutes later, Italy won the cup.
QMA director of public art Jean Paul Engelen said: “Adel Abdessemed’s sculpture tells a 21st Century story in a 19th Century style. It looks to the ancient Greek tragedies to trace doomed heroes and the frailties of human nature. In our world we look to football players as superheroes, almost gods, but like their classical forebears, ultimately they display the same faults and defects we have and particularly when family honour is at stake.”
Mathaf, the Arab Museum of Modern Art, is presenting the exhibition L’âge d’or (Golden Age) of works by Abdessemed, from October 6 to January 5, 2014.
Abdessemed, based in New York and Paris, transforms materials and imagery into unexpected and sometimes provocative artistic declarations, using a wide range of media, including drawing, video, photography, performance, and sculpture.
Abdessemed’s inspiration comes from many sources – personal, historical, social, and political – and his work is sensitive and controversial, radical and mundane.
His art describes the effects of the globalised society on an individual, sometimes using personal experiences to express his thoughts through art.
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