Michaël Zumstein - Aka Zidane

Exhibition from 16 to 20 November 2022
Guigon Gallery
39 rue de Charenton 75012 Paris

November 16, 2022 at 6pm
Opening

AKA Zidane is a photographic project carried out in Africa. An unusual inventory shown through the “football jersey” worn every day by thousands of young Africans as a costume of contemporary heroes who project themselves into lives other than their own.

“Who are the Ronaldo, Messi, Zidane that I meet in Africa?
By juxtaposing these doubles of world-famous footballers with the ordinary or tragic situations of several countries on the continent, the photographic series Aka Zidane (Also Known As Zidane), tells us that other games are being played there. Ronaldinho, the Brazilian striker, is in the hospital in Bangui where his friend has just died in his arms. In Libya, Olivier Giroud, the Arsenal striker, is imprisoned before he can board a plane to Europe. Under these fictitious names, and by subverting the codes of journalistic narration, Aka Zidane shows the place and scope of the lives of men and women hidden under the football shirts. – Michaël Zumstein