The FIFA World Cup in Qatar ends tomorrow with the final match, Argentina v. France. This edition of the football event will go down in history as the most controversial one: the World Cup was indeed overshadowed by the fact that Qatar has a bad record when it comes to human rights violations, ranging from the mistreatment of migrant workers to the discrimination that people from the LGBTQ+ community have to face and to the repressive laws curbing the freedom of expression.
Besides, while the event is coming to an end, investigations are currently continuing about the large sums of money and gifts offered by the Gulf country to members of the European Parliament to influence European decisions. Greek MEP Eva Kaili, her life partner Francesco Giorgi, an aide to a senior member of Parliament, and two others were recently charged with participation in a criminal organisation, corruption and money laundering.
Art-wise, this World Cup can be summarized with a piece created by Andrei Molodkin. The Russian-born artist is known for his works integrating oil and blood that he considers as "currencies" in war and genocide. As a protest against the invasion of Ukraine, Molodkin created a portrait of Russian president Vladimir Putin filled with blood donated by Ukrainian soldiers before going to war (View this photo). In 2009, Molodkin represented Russia at the Venice Biennale with a piece entitled "Le Rouge et Le Noir" in which he used Chechen oil and Russian blood.
In August Spanish football magazine Libero contacted Molodkin and their collaboration resulted in "Fifa World Cup Filled With Qatari Oil (The Dirtiest Cup)". The latter looks like a replica of the famous trophy, but it is actually a glass block with a hollow trophy inside that slowly fills with crude oil, a reference to the fact that Qatar has the third largest oil and natural gas reserves in the world. Indeed, there isn't any gold in this trophy: if you look at the pictures of the artwork a bit better, you'll realise that what looks like gold is actually a stain left by the liquid falling to the bottom.
The trophy has a symbolic price - $150m - a reference to the amount of money Qatar allegedly spent on bribes to Fifa officials, according to US criminal investigators in 2015. The price tag is symbolic, but money from the sale of "The Dirtiest Cup" will be used to support the families of the workers who died building the infrastructures for the World Cup in Qatar.
Since Qatar was awarded the tournament in 2010, thousands of migrant workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka died (over 6,000 according to surveys), or were injured, exploited, lived in squalid, filthy and overcrowded accommodation, suffered abuse, ended up working 14-18 hours a day for roughly $300 a month, and often without paid overtime. Many of them also had to pay a recruitment fee (now illegal) to get these jobs, a fee that generated high debts for them and for the families of those workers who died. Among the latest victims, there is a 24-year-old Kenyan security guard who fell to his death last week falling from the 8th floor of Lusail Stadium.
"The Dirtiest Cup" will be on display tomorrow in London at the Bacon Factory, while an augmented reality version of the artwork is also available.