The ‘66 World Cup Final, through 21st century eyes.
Commissioned by The Space and curated by Artangel, American artist Paul Pfeiffer’s reworking of footage from the 1966 FIFA World Cup™ final brought a whole new meaning to TV commentator Ken Wolstenholme’s famous remark: “They think it’s all over. It is now.”
Coinciding with the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, Jerusalem revisited the most famous moment in English sporting history through a pitch that appeared on a black and white screen – just as it did for 400 million viewers watching the World Cup final at home in 1966.
But this time it had transformed into a digital playing field. As the camera scanned across the stadium, figures appeared and disappeared, morphing into each other and fading away. The sound of a cheering, chanting crowd was haunted by voices from 1966: Prime Minister Harold Wilson; the President of the Royal Academy; the President of the United States; the BBC’s Alec Weeks – who was responsible for the live broadcast – and artist John Cage.
Created with machine vision expert Dr Brian Fulkerson, Pfeiffer’s Jerusalem explored the distance between a living present and a remembered past.