Architecture of the Masses

The development of infrastructures in Antiquity for holding sports events or spectacles for crowds to enhance the collective experience led to the invention of stadiums.

Paul Pfeiffer’s works Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2000–ongoing) and Red Green Blue (2022) bring to the fore the relationship and role of the heroes, the public, and the architecture of sports events, posing several questions: How would a player feel if left alone and isolated in the court of a full stadium without other players? What would the audience perceive if the music and the sounds from the crowd were eliminated?

“I think of the stadium as one of the oldest architectural types in the Western building tradition. For me it’s a way to think about mass viewership through the ages, from Classical Greek Antiquity to the present and into the future. I also think of the stadium as a reflection of the larger social environment. All the conditions that shape the viewing experience of spectators in a stadium are equally active in the daily lives of people outside the stadium.”

—Paul Pfeiffer

In this context, a mass phenomenon took place in Bilbao in April 2024 when, motivated by a common cultural identity and their love for the sport, over a million people of all ages gathered to celebrate the Athletic Club soccer team winning the Copa del Rey championship for the first time in 40 years. Driven by feelings of anticipation, communion, unity, and exhilaration, the fans overflooded the Athletic Club’s stadium, also known as “The Cathedral,” and flocked along the Nervión estuary to cheer on the team on their fluvial parade.

Pfeiffer’s artworks invite us to reflect on how the power of images has an impact on the construction of individual and collective identities, transcending time and place.