Disappearing into thin air ...
QUESTION
On the seafront in Marseilles, there are two bronze statues of men carrying briefcases with a chunk of their bodies missing. Who designed them and what do they mean? These are the works of the French artist Bruno Catalano, part of a series of ten gravity-defying bronze sculptures called Les Voyageurs that depict human workers with parts of their bodies missing.
Viewers are left scratching their heads as to how these sculptures, dotted around Marseilles, can stand on their own.
They were commissioned to celebrate the French port’s status as european Capital of Culture 2013.
Catalano was born in Morocco to sicilian parents who moved to France in 1970. Catalano travelled the world as a sailor before opening his first art studio in 1985.
In 2004, one of his sculptures, Cyrano de Bergerac, began to disintegrate. scooping out the body gave him the idea for his later works.
his cosmopolitan upbringing inspired his work. he said: ‘I have travelled a lot and I left Morocco when I was 12. I felt that a part of me was gone and will never come back.
‘From years of being a sailor, I was always leaving different countries and places. It’s a process we all go through.
‘I feel like this occurs several times during life and, of course, everyone has missing pieces in their life that he won’t find again. so the meaning can be different for everyone, but to me the sculptures represent a world citizen.’
Catalano’s works have been exhibited worldwide, from China to Belgium, via spain, the U.s. and switzerland. Amy Smith, Luton, Beds.
QUESTION What is the oldest football chant?
The Norwich City anthem On The Ball, City is regarded as the oldest recorded football chant in the world. It was written in the 1890s by Albert T. smith and so is older than the club, which was founded in 1902.
It was probably penned for Norwich Teachers or Caley’s FC in the 1890s and used by clubs such as swifians and Norwich CeYMs (Church of england Young Men’s society). When smith became a director of Norwich City, the club adopted his song. The lyrics are: In the days to call, which we’ve left behind/Our boyhood’s glorious game/ And our youthful vigour has declined/ With its mirth and its lonesome end;/You will think of the time, the happy time,/Its memories fond recall/When in the bloom of your youthful prime/We’ve kept upon the ball. Kick off, throw in, have a little scrimmage,/Keep it low, a splendid rush, bravo, win or die;/On the ball, City, never mind the danger,/ Steady on, now’s your chance,/Hurrah! We’ve scored a goal. Let all tonight then drink with me/To the football game we love,/ And wish it may successful be/As other games of old,/And in one grand united toast Join player, game and song/And fondly pledge your pride and toast Success to the City club.
revisions, With a few including minor the chorus home addition ground is still today. of sung ‘City! at the City! Carrow City!’, Road the
written Another by sir early edward football elgar, anthem the classical was music enigma composer Variations more and famous the Pomp for And the Circumstance Marches.
he fell in love with football in February 1898 when he was in the crowd for a game between Wolves and stoke City, two of the founding members of the Football League. A newspaper reported how Wolves striker Billy Malpass ‘banged the leather for goal’ and elgar was so taken with this phrase that he set it to a short piece of piano music.
This anthem never caught on, though Land Of hope And Glory is often used as a chant. Ed Holman, Wolverhampton.
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