视觉艺术家探测足球的社会影响力

Vik Muniz has made images out of everything from sugar to confetti to trash. With World Cup fever reaching a rolling boil in his native Brazil, it was just a matter of time before the celebrated artist turned his attention to the object of his nation's collective obsession - the soccer ball.

Muniz, who starred in the Oscar-nominated 2010 documentary "Waste Land," about his project in a Rio de Janeiro landfill re-creating painting masterpieces out of garbage, makes his directorial debut with "This Is Not a Ball." It's a documentary that chronicles his quixotic quest to "draw" with soccer balls.

Shot in nine countries over nine months, the film is a meditation on the creative process, and an intellectual inquiry into the history of the ball and the role it plays in societies across the globe.

The idea behind the project was to place 10,000 soccer balls on the pitch of Mexico City's legendary Azteca Stadium in such a way that when photographed from air they'd form a recognizable image.

"Somebody was asking me, is this a movie about balls? No, It is a movie about curiosity and how it manifests and sometimes it's just connected in eratic ways," Muniz said.

Although soccer has a global following that compares only with the great religions, Muniz said, it's all but absent in fine art.

The movie explores sport as a vehicle for social change, examining the role of organized soccer fan clubs in Egypt's revolution and the massive street protests that swept Brazil during last year's World Cup dry-run, the Confederations Cup.

"They will take advantage of the limelight that the World Cup will provide and will come to the streets to manifest - pacifically or violently, I don't know, but within these protests there will be the sad voice that they (the protestors) are going against something that is so dear to them and such a subject of pride - football - something that normally unites Brazilians and has united them against a government that's not doing its job," Muniz said.

"This Is Not a Ball" premieres on Brazilian, Latin American and U.S. Netflix on June 13.