Ultras Youth
Sébastien Louis : Researcher
Israel Palestine Tunisia Morocco Algeria Indonesia
We need no education
We need
no education
Football Stories
How football passion shapes cities and people
Israel Al-Khalil Algiers Casablanca Tetouan Tanger
Rabat Tunis Kairouan Sidi Bouzid Sfax Dresden Latina Liège Lens Calais Duisburg & Dusseldorf Lyon Paris Lisboa Marseille
Films
Football Portraits
Football landscapes
Ultras Youth.
Documentary collection.
A journey through Ultras football supporters groups in Europe, in cities of Asia and in countries of mediterranean and atlantic Africa.
A distant proximity with young people sharing the Ultras way of life: from the stadium to the life in the «polis».
Collecting photos, videos, objects. An interdisciplinary documentary project: art and research, history and sociology.
Ultras Youth.
Ultras Culture.
Football supporters’ behavior and history have been analyzed for more than thirty years, however studies specifically dedicated to Ultras culture, beyond public violence, are peripheral. Disorders related to football games have been the main focus, from the tragic event of Heysel Stadium on. The European Cup final, on May 28th 1985, Juventus against Liverpool, resulted in the death of 39 supporters and radically changed the perception of violence around football.
Three decades later, radical fandom is still a key issue. While British hooligans from the 80’s are now less representative, Ultras culture, born in Italy in late 1960’s, has extended throughout Europe, North Africa and Asia, bringing together thousands of fans remarkably different from hooligans. Ultras have a colorful style and a strong commitment to their team. They organize and lead the tifo in the stadiums. While violence is not their goal, they are not entirely peaceful fans.
Ultras mouvement is the longest-running in history of youth culture.
Ultras Youth.
Distant proximity.
A collection of photos, videos, sounds and objects.
As a photographer, my aim is not to build up a monument to Ultras and Ultras Culture. Ultras themselves are absolutely able to set monuments to their way of being. They do it every time they act on the public scene.
My work is more a translation, requiring a personal gaze on the source-texte, a possible interpretation of it. As such, it is partial and temporary. And it can be inaccurate. But it should be consistent.
The most important should be a correct migration of shapes: from fragments of reality to pictures.
I am not supposed to be too much distant nor too much proximate.
Giovanni Ambrosio
We need no education
This is a specific project and collection dedicated to Ultras cultures of Asia and North Africa. Israel/Palestine, Indonesia, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia.
Football Stories
Football Stories focus ion cities in which football passion has a relevant weight. Generally we discover cities with an Ultras guide. Each city is a documentary series.
Multimedia resources
Our collection is also composed by films, videos, interviews, sounds and recorded voices of Ultras members.
Mucem Football & Identités 2014-2016
The “Football & Identities” research program covers 3 years of investigations in the Mediterranean area: Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Spain, France, Israel, Italy, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia and Turkey. 4 social scientists – Christian Bromberger, Abderrahim Bourkia, Sébastien Louis and Ljiljana Zeljkovic – a curator – Florent Molle – and 2 photographers – Giovanni Ambrosio and Yves Inchiermann – collected objects, photographs and video recordings for the museum’s public collections.
Football portraits
A series of portrait of people wearing football jerseys in public spaces in everyday life.
Football Landscapes
An anthology of games and pitches in an endless series of photos.
Giovanni Ambrosio
Visual Artist. Photographer.
His personal projects are based on formal structures of art photography allowing variations of content and argumentation. He also develops a body of works based on minimalist painting, gesture and photography. His commissioned works can also, and sometimes simultaneously, lead him to work as art director, writer and graphic designer.
His collaboration with Sébastien Louis started in 2015, for the first research mission for Mucem Marseille. A photographs collection (named after Giovanni Ambrosio) in museum’s public collection resulted from the a different missions : Israel/Palesteine 2015, Israel 2016, Algeria 2016, Italy 2016.
Born in Naples, Italy, in 1978, Giovanni Ambrosio lives in Paris and Naples. He was initiated into photography, from a perspective marked by documentary narrative, by the Neapolitan photographer Sergio De Benedittis. Later he studied at the Photography and Contemporary Art department of Paris VIII University. Previously, his studies were mainly in literature at the University of Naples Orientale. In France, he obtained the DEA Cinema, Literature and Society issued by the University of Paris X-Nanterre.
Sébastien Louis.
Writer. Researcher.
Phd history graduated at the University of Perpignan with a doctoral thesis in Ultras supporters in Italy, he turned into one of major specialists in Ultras movement in Europe and North Africa.
He regularly appears in the international press and at conferences in Europe, Asia and Africa. Along side his professional activities, he continues his research and carries on his writings. His latest work Ultras, the other protagonists of football published in 2017 by Editions Mare and Martin is a reference.
He has been collaborating since 2014 with various institutions such as UNESCO and museums (Mucem in Marseille, MHVL in Luxembourg, Musée de la vie wallonne in Liège) as an expert of football supporters and their practices. He highlights the heritage of football popular culture.