{"id":895866,"date":"2026-10-27T01:54:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T01:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/895866\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T01:54:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T01:54:17","slug":"paul-pfeiffer-on-the-spectacle-of-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/895866\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Pfeiffer on the Spectacle of Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Interview<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cPerhaps the stadium is actually the replacement for the UN as a symbolic gathering point to conduct world politics,\u201d the artist told Hyperallergic in an interview.<\/p>\n


\n \"Brian
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"Portrait of Paul Pfeiffer (photo Claire Dorn, all photos courtesy the artist and Perrotin)<\/p>\n

LOS ANGELES \u2014\u00a0In the early 1990s, Paul Pfeiffer began producing a series of striking interventions in found video footage, often featuring celebrated sports figures, to highlight the effects of media and fame on not just individuals but also the larger body politic. Using innovative post-production techniques, he removed key elements from scenes of professional boxers and basketball players, isolating them in various arenas, teasing out the uncanny undercurrents in such late modern spectacles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pfeiffer\u2019s work further heightened the stakes of these scenes of pop culture by invoking art historical figures from classical sources, including caryatids from his eponymous 2003\u20134 series,\u00a0and modern painting, as seen in his 1999 digital video installation\u00a0\u201cFragment of a Crucifixion (after Francis Bacon).\u201d He has also developed a wide-ranging practice of drawing and sculpture, as seen in his series of sculptural maquettes and imagined plans for a million-seat stadium, all named some version of Vitruvian Figure, and woodcarvings of pop singer Justin Bieber in the style of Jesus on the Cross \u2014 \u201cJustin Bieber Legs Crucified (Seville)\u201d from 2026 \u2014 which feature in his current exhibition at Galerie Perrotin in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

\"\"Detail of Paul Pfeiffer, “Justin Bieber Ecce Homo I (Seville)” (2026), cedar wood, paint, and metal armature (photo Paul Salveson)<\/p>\n

Hyperallergic: What do you think about the scaling up of mass culture in recent generations, and how it creates collective affects that can be appealing, but also lead to dystopian outcomes? I\u2019m thinking of the quote, \u201cA million Elvis fans can’t be wrong\u201d \u2014 would a billion Swifties gathering be a stadium too far?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Paul Pfeiffer: There’s a proliferation of stadiums, often connected to cyclical events like the World Cup or the Olympics, traveling from city to city, such that the architecture mirrors this kind of rhythm.<\/p>\n

If we think about soft power and the amount of politics conducted through the World Cup, and the listlessness and questionable effectiveness of the United Nations now, perhaps the stadium is actually the replacement for the UN as a symbolic gathering point to conduct world politics. It certainly hides as much as it reveals, but has become a staging ground for political pronouncements. In that way it\u2019s beyond symbolic \u2014 the athletes’ bodies move beyond the agonistic encounters in the stadium.<\/p>\n

H: I think about Iranian athletes who trained outside the United States border<\/a> during the World Cup due to the US government\u2019s unwillingness to host them overnight, and faced this greater adversity just getting to their jobs. I think also of those people marching out of the UN assembly<\/a> during Netanyahu\u2019s speech, who voted with their bodies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

PP: For me, it’s the play of the visible and the invisible, or the facade and the informal production scheme behind the facade. This is present in the ways politics are conducted through culture now, a formal symbolic aspect that carries a certain kind of weight. I agree about the spectacle of so many delegates walking out on Netanyahu is heartening \u2014 a bit of agency when we needed it.<\/p>\n

\"\"Paul Pfeiffer, “Vitruvian Figure (Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum)” (2026), digital video (color, silent) and custom LED display<\/p>\n

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