Abstract
With the emergence of stickers as a quick and inexpensive medium of (public) art and expression, graffiti tagging has been largely replaced by soccer supporters. Engaging communities at home and far away from their stadiums, supporters create and participate in public discourse by placing, editing, and removing stickers in countless spaces. The accessibility of stickers invites not only the creation of public art but also interaction with it as audience and creator on varying levels of complexity. Informed by historical and theoretical studies on public art, netnographic analyses of fan forums and discussion boards, as well as our survey data (fan clubs, Ultra sections, clubs and fan coordinators), this paper shares research findings on the practice of graffiti style slapping of stickers in public places in Germany as promotion of soccer supporter’s club allegiances. On this most basic level, stickers can be seen as an avenue through which participants assert that ‘they were here’ and, with them, their club. While this study’s focus lies on what (quasi-artistic) practices of stickers reveal about aesthetics as equally important as ideological and legal considerations for the ‘artists’/vandals, we look at how fans’ local pride is promoted through their rebellious use of stickers. Stickers speak to “territorial demarcation” (Orla Vigsø 2010) as a central principle in German soccer, but also shed light on deeper social forces, showing stickers at once as an extension of the existing battlefield for supporter dominance and more revealing glimpse into complex matters of political ethics, identity, and belonging.
Presenters
Arne KochAssociate Professor of German, Department of German and Russian, Colby College, Maine, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Sporting Cultures and Identities
KEYWORDS
Soccer stickers, Soccer, Germany, Aesthetics, Identity, Supporters, Public Art
