Sports Being Illustated

Harold Edgerton's stroboscopic photograph
Football Kick, 1938

Creator David Little says his inspiration for "The Sports Show," at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts came when he saw a Paul Pfeiffer exhibition at the hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin. “I walk into this completely spare gallery with just these beautiful wood floors and barely perceptible speakers around the room, and the sound of this crowd,” he says. “Without being corny, it was one of those spine-chilling moments.” Little had just discovered The Saints, 2007 sound and video about the 1966 World Cup battle between Western Germany and England. A video played footage of one English soccer player running around while the audio put the audience in the middle of what was happening.

It was really primal, in the way that sports becomes this ritualistic, political event,” says Little.. There was only one microphone on the pitch at the actual game, so Pfeiffer outsourced the cheering coming from the crowd to the Philippines. Philippines, filling the actors with Red Bull and firing them up with video of Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao. He then had them chant, “We won the war.”