Sophia Ehrnrooth’s films 900 Footballs (featured image), Dream off Championship and A Musical Space – an étude for 4 pianos and 3 players are featured in LABOCINE’s July 2026 issue Fields of Play. In sync with the FIFA 2026 World Cup, Fields of Play explores the field as a space of collective movement, unity, and belonging — where bodies come together through play.
900 Footballs (2020) is a short documentary about creativity, resilience, and the unexpected teamwork that emerges when plans fall apart. When a storm threatens a football-themed art installation on the outskirts of Rome, Finnish visual artist Sophia Ehrnrooth finds unexpected help from a group of immigrant youth living at MAAM—a contemporary art museum and refuge housed in a former meat factory. As thunder, language barriers, and cultural misunderstandings disrupt the original structure, the project evolves into an unscripted, participatory experiment. Through open-ended collaboration, the installation takes shape in ways the artist never imagined, proving that the truest creative processes happen on the sidelines.
The process of making this film became as unscripted as the installation itself. It is born out of a moment where control was entirely lost. We let the installation and camera to adapt to the environment rather than forcing the environment to adapt to us. This collaborative fluidity mirrors the immigrant experience: navigating unfamiliar terrain, building bridges across language gaps, and finding a collective footing on shifting ground.This film is an open-ended exploration of what happens when we let go of our expectations, trust the process and let a deeper human connection emerge.
Dream of Championship (2017) brings together a group of ordinary Scandinavian boys who are tasked with a singular, monumental ritual: reciting the names of global football players from memory. Challenged to name at least 200 players, each boy successfully achieves the goal in one single, uninterrupted shot. This documentary short explores the psychological intensity of sports fandom, mapping the fixations young people develop around celebrity culture and athletic heroes. Through this hypnotic, almost devotional recitation, the project examines sports fandom not merely as entertainment, but as a driven obsession and a piece of contemporary digital folklore. What emerges is a striking look at how young identities are affected by their personal dreams of becoming one of these heroes, by football gaming platforms, and by the mythologies of the global game.
This work has also been exhibited in museums and galleries as a multi-screen installation under the title “879 Heroes by Heart”, most recently at the Coventry Biennial 2025-26 The genesis of Dream of Championship lies in the artist’s personal experience of observing her son’s intense passion for the sport at a very young age.
A Musical Space – Etude for 4 pianos and 3 players (2021)
The piece explores themes of aggression and frustration as well as playing together as a team against a classical instrument. Here, the piano acts simultaneously as an adversary and a goal marker—erupting into sound whenever a ball strikes its keys.
It is a tribute to the perseverance of young footballers. Its rhythm emulates the relentless echoing of thousands and thousands of kicks rehearsed again and again and again—in any place, against any surface, ceaselessly, without any guarantee of a future with the game.
LABOCINE
July 2026: Fields of Play
July 1–31, 2026
Online
More information: July 2026: Fields of Play
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