Alvaro Barrington: Football City, Art United Group exhibition at Manchester International Festival 2025

Football City, Art United is an ambitious group exhibition for MIF25, presenting brand-new artworks created by 11 legendary footballers and 11 contemporary artists. Together, they explore what happens when two worlds known for flair and imagination – both on the pitch and the studio - come together.

Inspired by the boundary-pushing creativity of the trequartista - football’s visionary playmaker - each artist-footballer duo has produced a new work for this unique show, including a work created by Alvaro Barrington in collaboration with Brazilian footballer Raí Vieira. 

Conceived by World Cup and Champions League winner Juan Mata, curator and Serpentine Galleries Artistic Director Hans Ulrich Obrist, and curator, writer and filmmaker Josh Willdigg, the project invites its creative teams to step into one another’s fields and ask: what can art and football learn from each other?