Eric Cantona turns spotlight on fans in Manchester art exhibition

Eric Cantona is to give football fans a taste of what it feels like to be in the spotlight as part of a new art exhibition created by players about their experiences of the beautiful game.

The Manchester United legend is alongside Dutch master Edgar Davids, England’s Euro 2022 winner Ella Toone and Spanish World Cup winner Juan Mata in a squad of creative players who have been paired with artists for the show.

Cantona and contemporary artist Ryan Gander will highlight the effects of fame on players with an art installation that literally puts a spotlight on visitors and follows their movements through the gallery.

The Frenchman famously felt the pressures of the spotlight when he kung-fu kicked a rival fan in 1995.

Cantona and Gander’s installation will “playfully explore the effects of fame on players”, organisers said.

“The new work will see a spotlight randomly pick a visitor and follow their movement around the exhibition until they leave the space, continually repeating the process and selecting a new subject to shower with attention.”

It will be part of the Football City, Art United exhibition in the city where Cantona made his mark on the pitch, at this summer’s Manchester International Festival.

He has remained a hero at Old Trafford, and since retiring from the pitch has dabbled in a range of creative pursuits including acting and singing.

Other players taking part in the exhibition include Manchester City and Netherlands star Vivianne Miedema, who has teamed up with US artist Suzanne Lacy to show a short film “exploring and questioning football’s complex relationship with gender”.

Former Ajax and Juventus midfielder Davids is working with US sculptor and video artist Paul Pfeiffer to exhibit a tunnel inspired by those players walk through before a match.

It will invite visitors to “step into the thoughts, feelings, and rituals players experience as they move through the sacred space between the dressing room and the pitch”.

There will also be artistic creations by Brazilian World Cup winner Raí, England defender Lotte Wubben-Moy, and former Mexico goalkeeper Jorge Campos.

Mata, who is co-curator of the exhibition, said: “The worlds of football and art can both be beautiful, complicated and powerful; something that is explored through these collaborations.”

Football City, Art United will run at Aviva Studios in Manchester in July and August.

It will be one of the centrepieces of the Manchester International Festival, which happens every two years and stages an array of events spanning art, music, theatre and dance.

It will run from 3 to 20 July and other highlights, announced on Tuesday, will include:

• The Herds will open the festival with more than 100 life-size animal puppets reaching Manchester on a trek across Africa and Europe, with performances to “vividly dramatise the climate crisis”
• A stage adaptation of Christopher Isherwood’s 1964 novel A Single Man will feature the Royal Ballet with former principal Ed Watson, and US musician John Grant
• Rapper and choreographer Blackhaine will stage the premiere of And Now I Know What Love Is, inspired by the “seemingly desolate” Lancashire landscapes where he grew up
• The play Liberation will mark the 80th anniversary of the Fifth Pan African Congress, which was held in Manchester in 1945 and was a key moment for independence movements
• In A Symphony of Flesh and Bones, artist Juliet Ellis is inspired by her world champion bodybuilder father and former cage fighter brother
• The Beginning of Knowledge will be the first international solo exhibition by Santiago Yahuarcani, an artist, activist and leader of the Uitoto people in northern Peru