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‘Fandom as a universal language’ is a non-commercial initiative created in Krakow, Poland. The aim is to show football supporters in a different light than they are presented in daily media coverage. Fandom is not hooliganism, it’s passion expressed in numerous ways by millions every week.
The project is ran by Michał Karaś and Anna Chodacka, two football fans from south-eastern Poland. It wouldn’t have happened without the great financial support of Football Supporters Europe and hospitality of cultural institutions in Krakow – Galeria 2 Swiaty and Pauza club. Then there is the amazing effort by Sendsport.pl, the first Polish sports publisher, who released ‘Fandom as a universal language’ as a 96-page high quality album. We also need to thank masz.in studio for help with photography selection, Press Factory for media coverage and numerous other partners, which are all listed in this website’s footer.
The will to show a different image of fans is why we organised a photo exhibition in cooperation with Galeria 2 Swiaty and masz.in studio. The idea is simple – we asked fans and photographers from around the world to share one or more photos they made during football games and trips. This resulted in a unique set of 28 photos from 16 countries, each telling a different story about football supporters. To see the full list of photographers, please follow this link >>>
Most photographers have presented their work at flickr.com, which allowed us to build links between places as distant as Argentina, Italy, Great Britain, Ghana, Rwanda, Indonesia or Japan. We are very happy that the vernisage of our exhibition has been successful, with two of the presented photographers in attendance – Adam Adamus and John Hall. We are extremely grateful to both of them for the interest and commitment!
The exhibition so far:
10.09.2010 – 22.09.2010. Galeria 2 Swiaty, Krakow.
01.10.2010 – 30.11.2010. Wola District Culture Centre, Krakow.
06.2011. Kino Kosmos / Silesian University, Katowice. This time our (actually, your!) photos are used as background for a scientific conference „Sport and social discipline” with Mario Orellana’s photo being the main motive for the whole conference.
On September 9th Pauza club in Krakow was host to a unique debate divided into two parts. First one was devoted to football fandom in Krakow with Michal Bialonski (head of sports at Interia.pl, one of Poland’s leading portals), Barbara Janik (Krakow president’s adviser for sports), Dariusz Olszówka (city councillor) and Mariusz Potaczek (head of police football liaison officers).
After over an hour of heated discussion voice was given to sociologists Radosław Kossakowski and Tomasz Sahaj, coordinator of Wroclaw’s fanproject „Kibice Razem” Jakub Kurowski and Adam Gliksman, vice president of Hutnik Krakow, club rebuilt by supporters following experience of AFC Wimbledon, FC United of Manchester, etc.
As mentioned before, along with the exhibition a quality album was released with several sociological and journalistic articles and all photos presented at the exhibition. The 96-page book is available only in Polish.
