Lavinia Parlamenti and Manfredi Pantanella

Sweden, Ostersund, June 2014.
Ostersund Arena, view from the media area in the late afternoon. Summertime in the north of Sweden is a 24 hours daylight.

TRNC (Turkish Republic of North Cyprus) , Girne, June 2017.
Karl Morling, Ellan Vannin supporter and father of Joey
Morling, player of the Manxx Team.

TRNC (Turkish Republic of North Cyprus) , Lefkosa, June 2017.
Padania's team is the winner of the second edition of the Conifa Eurocup. The final was played against the North Cyprus team at the Ataturk Stadium.

Sweden, Ostersund, June 2014.
Darfur United�s team training for a match in the Ostersund Arena.

Sweden, Ostersund, June 2014.
Ellan Vannin's players celebrate a victory in the changing rooms

Sweden, Ostersund, June 2014.
Ellan Vannin's team group picture before a match.

Hungary, Debrecen, June 2015.
Interior of the bar of the stadium

Hungary, Debrecen, June 2015.

A supporter of Felvidek's team during a match.
Felvidek is a region located in upper Hungary

TRNC (Turkish Republic of North Cyprus) , Girne, June 2017.

Szekelyland's players celebrate a victory in a nightclub in Girne

Hungary, Debrecen, June 2015.

Coming back home with the Padania Team, winner of the first european cup

TRNC (Turkish Republic of North Cyprus) , Girne, June 2017.

The medals

Sweden, Ostersund, June 2014

A player of South Ossetia is seen while partying in a nightclub in Ostersund after a match

Sweden, Ostersund, June 2014.

Celebrating the end of the tournament at the lake.

Sweden, Hungary, TRNC, June 2014-16-17.
Maps drawn by members of the national teams showing how they perceive their own country to be placed in the world.

Sweden, Hungary, TRNC, June 2014-16-17.

Portraits of the players and trainers of the various teams

I KICK, THEREFORE I AM

What if you were the best football player in your homeland, but you had no chance to confront international players?

CONIFA (Confederation Of Independent Football Associations) was founded on the 7th of June 2013, and its members are football teams representing unrecognized states, ethnic groups, islands and “frozen conflict” zones from all over the world. It organized the first World Football Cup in June 2014 in Ostersund, Sweden. Some of the teams want to raise awareness of their unique culture, while others hope for greater autonomy and perhaps, one day, even a nation of their own. In this sense, having a football team is one of the first steps toward their goal - and also the only opportunity to play in an international tournament. Since 2014, Parlamenti and Pantanella have been following the everyday life of the Confederation, focusing on the paradoxical effects generated by geopolitics, with the intention of exploring the imaginary border between what does officially “exist” and what doesn’t, using sports as their main narrative device.

Lavinia Parlamenti and Manfredi Pantanella

Lavinia Parlamenti and Manfredi Pantanella met each other in Tahrir Square at the end of 2011, during the second wave of the so called egyptian Revolution. Their collective research mainly focuses on geopolitical paradoxes and aims to combine documentary photography with the dimension of surreal and fantastic. Meeting point of their different personalities is, with no doubts, a common ironical approach to life (therefore to photography) and the great value that they give to imagination inside reality. Their first collective project, “Roundabout#Cyprus” (2012), has been exhibited in several Festivals and photobook festivals across Europe (Roma, Paris, Riga, Kassel, Athens). In the last years, Lavinia and Manfredi also realized several editorial works in Italy, Europe and the Middle East, collaborating with newspapers and magazines as LaRepubblica, Le Monde, The New York Times, Time, Internazionale, IoDonna, Vanity Fair, Panenka football magazine.