Pro Revolution Soccer
Custom PC, modified game, two controllers, two custom-made gaming seats, sound system, projector, and vinyl screen structure, 2019 hereby presented as a gameplay video (1920 x 1080), color, sound, 21’ 23”, Colombia, 2019
Created by Juan Obando
Pro Revolution Soccer is an interactive installation that deftly reimagines the popular football simulation Pro Evolution Soccer (PES). Drawing inspiration from the profound bond between the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) and the Italian soccer club Inter Milan, this artwork ingeniously introduces the EZLN as an enthralling new feature within the simulation. Evoking the enigmatic essence of a mythical football match, the work unfurls an intriguing narrative where EZLN daringly challenges the Italian team, forever suspended in the realm of imagination. Originally presented as an interactive installation based on a modified version of Konami’s soccer simulation, the artwork is presented on VRAL as a one channel gameplay video.
Juan Obando is an artist from Bogotá, Colombia, specializing in interventions within social systems. Through video performances, post-digital objects, and screen-based installations, Obando explores the collision of ideology and aesthetics, sparking the emergence of speculative new worlds. Obando’s work has garnered international recognition, with exhibitions held in Mexico, France, Colombia, Germany, and the United States. Notable solo shows include “Fake New” at General Expenses (Mexico City, México), “Summer Sets” in Faneuil Hall (Boston, MA, 2022), “DEMO” at Museo Espacio (Aguascalientes, MX, 2022), and “La Bodeguita de La Concordia” at Galería Santa Fé for the Luis Caballero National Art Prize (Bogotá, Colombia, 2021). Selected group exhibitions include First Place In The Table? (Trafo, Szczecin, Poland, 2022), Game Changers (MAAM, Boston, 2020), Video Sur (Palais de Tokyo, France, 2018), La Vuelta (Rencontres de la Photographie, Arles, France, 2017), and MDE15 (Medellín, Colombia, 2015). Obando was also awarded a Rhizome commission from The New Museum in 2012, a MassArt Foundation grant in 2017, and an Art Matters fellowship in 2019.
Becoming a Legend
Gweni Llwyd and Owen Davies
May 28 - June 10 2021
Introduced by Luca Miranda
vral.org
The practice of customizing characters and assets in video games has a long tradition within vernacular as well as avant-garde subcultures. In fact, artists have often pursued this route to create their artworks. Few, however, reach the meta playful levels of Becoming a Legend which introduces the imperious character of Da Man!, a post-human, virtual übermensch, a diabolical, green-haired “divin codino”. Created with/in the popular video game Pro Evolution Soccer, Da Man! embodies the notion of toxic masculinity and the neoliberalist mantra of self-optimization.
Gweni Llwyd (she/her) is a Welsh artist based in Cardiff. Her practice reflects on a human condition caught between tactile physicality and intangible digital realms. Predominantly working in video, 3D animation, and installation, Gweni creates abstracted rhythms and narratives, mirroring the often chaotic, disjointed nature of the contemporary world by collecting, modifying and rearranging the most disparate sources and materials, including first hand and found footage, game engines and concrete artifacts. She is also co-founder of RAT TRAP, a collective of artists and musicians that find their own routes through the maze of protocols and ways of doing things.
Owen Davies (he/him) is a Welsh filmmaker based in Cardiff. Mainly working in live-action narrative film, his work revolves around the limits of human connection and interaction. Owen’s upcoming short film Arwel’s House, funded by Ffilm Cymru and the BBC, is shooting in July and will air on BBC4 in the UK later this year. The film follows the mother of a dead YouTube star as she gives tours of his childhood home in South Wales to fans from around the world. In 2018, he was shortlisted for the Armani Laboratorio where judge David Kajganich (Suspiria, The Terror) described his script Money Now as “just fantastic — a kind of moral emergency for the modern age that left me both queasy and totally fascinated.”
