Zidane, A 21st-Century Portrait

Soccer player Zinédine Zidane was a member of the French national team that won the 1998 FIFA World Cup and the European Championship in 2000. In Zidane, a 21st-Century Portrait, internationally renowned artists Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno deploy contemporary conventions of mass media both to "paint" a portrait of the soccer star, while exploring the creation of heroes and icons and our fascination with them. For this film, shot in real time during a championship game on April 23, 2005, the artists and their crew used 17 cameras to film Zidane throughout the match. The resulting installation is a complex juxtaposition of clips from the various cameras. Examining the cult of celebrity and the image as an object of consumption, this intense portrait plunges the viewer into the intimate space of the sports hero.