Mixed Doubles Chess Match
Roland Stratmann was asked by the Museum of Modern Art Liechtenstein to develop a contribution to the exhibition “Faites vos jeux ! Kunst und Spiel seit DADA”. The issue for the exhibition was to show the conjunction between Art and Game during the last hundred years. And the chess game was one of the leitmotifs of the exhibition. As Marcel Duchamp – who was an important artist and chess player as well – once said: “Not all artists are chess players, but all chess players are artists”. Stratmann kept this sentence in the back of his mind when he started to develop an idea for the exhibition. The result of his thoughts was a 7 by 7 meter big, from the museum ceiling upside down hanging chessboard – attached with 32 banners printed with chess characters. During the exhibition chess masters from four countries played a chess game via the Internet. The flags were then reassigned according to the result of the moves. Thus the space changes every day as well. Two teams were competing in the alternating correspondence chess game: Team A consisted of a player from Cuba and one from the United States of America; Team B consisted of a player from Israel and one from Morocco and in the fourth game a player from Ghana. This unusual line-up crosses political and religious boundaries and turns this strategic game into a communicative event.
Meanwhile “Mixed Doubles” has also been shown and played at the Museum of Modern Art Siegen, the Cobra Museum of Modern Art in Amsterdam and in the Museum Zwickau. Stratmann said: "I am very happy that this game for peace and friendship is still going on successfully. But all this would not have happened without the capital support from the ICCF. For this purpose I would like to thank Med Samraoui and Fritz Baumbach who helped me from the very first. Great thanks to Corky Schakel, Pablo Salcedo Mederos, Yoav Dothan, Khalid Chorfi and Dr. Ole Jacobsen who created such exciting chess games. And I am grateful to all members of the ICCF and the Museums who have been involved in this project during the last two years."
To take the thoughts up on Duchamp again: may this Museum Match originate many friends of chess and art as well to spread the spirit of piece and friendship beyond boundaries restricting human rights.
The games:
- Zwickau Match, iccf-webchess.com
- Liechtenstein Museum Match, iccf-webchess.com
- Siegen Museum Match, iccf-webchess.com
- Cobra Museum of Modern Art in Amsterdam Museum Match, iccf-webchess.com
- Corky Schakel, An article on one of the games
Read more about this topic: Yoav Dothan
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