The Bread and Football Project
A powerful artistic series on football and politics, by Iranian visual artist and poster designer Behnam Raeesian, who works at the intersection of political urgency and symbolic minimalism.
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BREAD AND FOOTBALL is a critical poster series that examines football as a global spectacle shaped by power, distraction, and controlled emotion.
Through seven minimal visual metaphors, the project questions how the World Cup can move beyond sport and become a mechanism of mass attention: a beautiful trap, a ritual of applause, a toxic atmosphere, a controlled signal, and finally, a diversion that silences other urgent realities.
The series does not reject the game itself. Instead, it looks at what gathers around it: violence disguised as celebration, loyalty shaped by spectacle, and entertainment used as a soft instrument of political control.
01. HOME GROUND
A stadium becomes a landmine, suggesting that even the safest-looking ground can hide violence beneath the game.
02. APPLAUSE FOR BLOOD
The football field becomes a bullring, where violence is not hidden, but watched, cheered, and turned into spectacle.
03. THE BEAUTIFUL TRAP
The pitch becomes a mousetrap, showing how football can capture public attention while other realities disappear.
04. SPECTATOR SPECIES
A chameleon with a football eye reflects how spectators can change with every spectacle, adapting to whatever they are shown.
05. TOXIC MATCH
A gas mask breathes through a football, suggesting an atmosphere where the game becomes part of what poisons the air.
06. UNDER CONTROL
A corner flag becomes a television antenna, turning the field into a tool for broadcasting controlled stories.
07. DIVERSION
A football becomes a mouth gag, showing how entertainment can distract people until silence feels normal.
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