The Chosen Few - Aesthetics and Ideology in Football Fan Graffiti and Street Art

Just a game? This intriguing visual title looks deep into the underbelly of football (soccer) fandom, featuring a vast photographic archive of fans' graffiti and street art captured by a pioneering 'graffitologist'. At the intersection of the street and sport we find themes of the day: how racial, ethnic, and class tensions play out in visual culture.

On the fringe of sports culture are the Ultras, the football fans whose pyrotechnics, chants, wildly creative stunts, and hooliganism are infamous. Using selections from his archive containing hundreds of photographs of Ultras' street art and graffiti, including everything from elaborate murals to stickers to "scratchitto" incisions and spray-paint duels, award-winning author Mitja Velikonja introduces readers to the visual iconography of a fascinating underworld.

The Ultra subculture is built by "no-bodys," the anonymous (primarily) men whose attachments to their teams, specifically in Europe and post-socialist states, sometimes cross the lines into nationalist sentiments and militaristic "Blood and Soil" extremism. After examining general themes and trends in street art and tifo club graffiti, Velikonja embarks on a case study of fans from his native Slovenia and touches on the roles of neighboring football fans in the Balkan Wars. He continues with an analysis of political and socially progressive graffiti, local trends and circumstances, as well as its role in the United States. As he peels back layers of misinformation and misrepresentation, he cues our understanding of factional mindsets within histories of political instability, arguing for dissensus being a critical element to democracies. In the end, we understand that while always under siege, the ultra-fans require nothing less than fidelity and devotion, but precisely to what can be determined — it's anyone's game to call.

About the author

Dr. Mitja Velikonja is a Professor for Cultural Studies and head of Center for Cultural and Religious Studies at University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. Main areas of his research include contemporary Central-European and Balkan political ideologies, subcultures and graffiti culture, collective memory and post-socialist nostalgia. His monographs include Rock'n'Retro - New Yugoslavism in Contemporary Slovenian Music (Sophia, 2013), Titostalgia – A Study of Nostalgia for Josip Broz (Peace Institute, Ljubljana, 2008), Eurosis – A Critique of the New Eurocentrism (Peace Institute, Ljubljana, 2005) and Religious Separation and Political Intolerance in Bosnia-Herzegovina (TAMU Press, 2003). He is co-author of the book Celestial Yugoslavia: Interaction of Political Mythologies and Popular Culture (XX vek, 2012), and co-editor and co-author of books Post-Yugoslavia - New Cultural and Political Perspectives (Palgrave, 2014) and Yugoslavia From A Historical Perspective (HCHR, 2017). He was a full-time visiting professor at Jagiellonian University in Krakow (2002 and 2003), at Columbia University in New York (2009 and 2014), at University of Rijeka (2015), at New York Institute in St. Petersburg (2015 and 2016), at Yale University (2020), Fulbright visiting researcher in Philadelphia (2004/2005), and visiting researcher at The Netherlands Institute of Advanced Studies (2012) and at the Remarque Institute of the New York University (2018). For his achievements he received four national and one international award (Erasmus EuroMedia Award by European Society for Education and Communication, 2008). His last monograph Post-Socialist Political Graffiti in the Balkans and Central Europe (Routledge, 2020) was awarded as one of the most important scientific achievements of University of Ljubljana for the year 2020.

Summary

Just a game? This intriguing visual title looks deep into the underbelly of football (soccer) fandom, featuring a vast photographic archive of fans' graffiti and street art captured by a pioneering ‘graffitologist’. At the intersection of the street and sport we find themes of the day: how racial, ethnic, and class tensions play out in visual culture.

On the fringe of sports culture are the Ultras, the football fans whose pyrotechnics, chants, wildly creative stunts, and hooliganism are infamous. Using selections from his archive containing hundreds of photographs of Ultras' street art and graffiti, including everything from elaborate murals to stickers to “scratchitto” incisions and spray-paint duels, award-winning author Mitja Velikonja introduces readers to the visual iconography of a fascinating underworld.

The Ultra subculture is built by “no-bodys,” the anonymous (primarily) men whose attachments to their teams, specifically in Europe and post-socialist states, sometimes cross the lines into nationalist sentiments and militaristic “Blood and Soil” extremism. After examining general themes and trends in street art and tifo club graffiti, Velikonja embarks on a case study of fans from his native Slovenia and touches on the roles of neighboring football fans in the Balkan Wars. He continues with an analysis of political and socially progressive graffiti, local trends and circumstances, as well as its role in the United States. As he peels back layers of misinformation and misrepresentation, he cues our understanding of factional mindsets within histories of political instability, arguing for dissensus being a critical element to democracies. In the end, we understand that while always under siege, the ultra-fans require nothing less than fidelity and devotion, but precisely to what can be determined — it's anyone's game to call.

Foreword

• International Print and Broadcast Campaign: reaching out to sports writers and broadcasters with an interest in race/ethnicity in sport


• Reviews expected from International Soccer Network and several freelance soccer journalists
  
• Social Media Campaign and copromotion of ebook
• DRCs available through Edelweiss


• Aiming for a joint promotion with Kicking and Screening Film Festival (NY, September)


• 
  The book launch in mid-September 2021 coincides with the first matches of the UEFA Champions League with soccer fans pumped and primed for soccer-themed material.

Teams included in the book are some of the European Cup favorites: Juventus, Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich, AFC Ajax, Celtic, Liverpool, Manchester United, as well as some of the scrappiest. The author also explores a host of teams from Central Europe and former Yugoslavia making their bids to join the international leagues.

• We will capitalize on publicity associated with a recent research trend highlighted on NPR (eg. Jan 28, 2021) and in the NY Times (July 2021) that examines the effects of fans on the success of teams and how individual players actually play. The pandemic “ghost games” provided a unique way to study this, showing racial disparities: players of African descent performed notably better without the fans heckling them.


• Outreach to design blogs. Unique font design updates the Ultras' font: Ultras Liberi, a version of the fasciofont popular with left-wing and right-wing extremists since the early 20th century in Europe. This version will be released as an open-source free font timed with the launch of the book, providing another marketing angle.

Additional text

Remarkable DIY designs are featured in Mitja Velikonja's scholarly illustrated book. [...] Velikonja's analyses are an essential addition to any discussion about the connection between football and graffiti, as well as its effect on social affairs in the streets.
—Anthony Ausgang, Artillery

Product details

• Authors: Mitja Velikonja
• Publisher: Ingram Publishers Services
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 12.10.2021, delayed
• EAN: 9781954600027
• ISBN: 978-1-954600-02-7
• No. of pages: 176
• Illustrations: over 150 full color illustrations
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Plastic arts; HISTORY / Europe / Eastern, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social, ART / Graffiti & Street Art, Sociology: sport & leisure, Graffiti & street art