The theme of the exhibition “Thrillos,” 2000 was football, not so much as a game or sport, but as a major gathering that supersedes all the rest. Through her piece Match Maria Papadimitriou found a way to slip into an exclusively male world. She invited the captain of Olympiakos, one of the most renowned clubs in Greece, to a game of “backgammon” (traditionally male games played in the locales for men only) in his own territory – the stadium’s locker rooms! The challenge was too great for the symbol of male power to ignore.The process was as important as the final result, as it happens. A cinema crew and the artist together with assistants entered the sanctuary of masculinity, the changing rooms of the team, after a casual day of training. The captain covered in sweat and a bit confused sat to play but when the dice started favoring the artist, he became passionate about the game. The result, a fast rhythm edited version of the whole endeavor, reached one of the major points of post-feminist thought: the power of female laughter.

Marina Fokidis
Excerpt from “Thrilos 2001,” in exh. cat. Thrilos 2001, p. 22.