SUPREMATIST KIT
FOR FC VITEBSK

As part of the #UNOVIS100 project
More about the project

THE UNIFORM

The uniform kit design is an artistic reconsideration of the famous work by El Lissitzky "Beat the Whites With the Red Wedge!" first published in Vitebsk in 1920.
The unique project that has no analogues in the world was implemented due to the partnership of the Belarusian-Jewish Cultural Heritage Center with Daniil Chalov and the creative football company "Nothing Ordinary". With the support of the Vitebsk Art School History Museum and FC Vitebsk.
[ about the project]
In celebration of three major anniversaries of 2020: 100 year of UNOVIS, 60 years of FC Vitebsk and 130 years of a prominent artist and architect El Lissitzky - a unique uniform kit in the spirit of the suprematist ideas and the Vitebsk art school has been designed and presented to the football club.
The uniform kits have complemented the collections of the Vitebsk Art School History Museum and one of the largest museums for contemporary art - Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, Netherlands.


In October 2020 the unique football kit was handed over to museum collections. The Van Abbemuseum director Charles Esche, the Russian art department curator Willem Jan Renders and the Head of Office of the Netherlands Embassy, temporary charge d'affaires of the Netherlands in Belarus, Erik Jan van Oosterhout, took part in the ceremony online.
«This project is a story that shows that time and circumstances mean nothing for a real masterpiece. Even 100 years after its birth, art can live on adapting to the context of contemporary culture, and every time gain a new life and a new value».
Daniil Chalov, initiator of the uniform kit design project, ex-player of FC Vitebsk
«We are striving to create projects that celebrate Belarus and its cultural heritage all over the world, finding new forms to present this heritage to make it live on, and not just remain a still monument. Such level of recognition of the projects created here is another proof of the professionalism and potential that we have in our country».
Maya Katznelson, founder of the Belarusian-Jewish Cultural Heritage Center
INTRESTING
[ to read ]


«Football players are like canvases. 11 easels stood before the whole world showing what kind of great things used to happen in Vitebsk».


«There is a fine line where art and football merge. Both are a game that hides a lifetime inside».
«The strip is a tribute to suprematist artist El Lissitzky's 1919 poster, Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge».

MASS MEDIA

[ thanks for the support ]
«Until his last days El Lissitzky wouldn't stop improving. He treasured every moment, was eager to live his life to the fullest, saying: "...but this is a crime against the time. We don't have too much of it and it must be used for persistent study of the living experience that is being constructed in contemporary times, and not in the romantic escape from today…". What was helping him to feel alive was his art and the endless energy of his talent that he was generously gifted with by the Universe. This project, to my mind, is exactly this - a living experience built into the modern day, as an answer, or maybe even a challenge, busting the stereotypes».
«To return to the example of Vitebsk, it's easy to see the brief moment of UNOVIS as a great football squad coming together and breaking up. Pen, the distant mentor and supporter, at the beginning; Chagall as a genius player-manager whose relationship with his star player, Malevich, broke down irretrievably in bitterness and acrimony; Lissitzky the grafter and producer, who would later move and achieve much bigger fame abroad before returning to Russia; it's not a cheap parallel to apply these kinds of relationships in a football context».
Valeria Lissitzky, great granddaughter of El Lissitzky
Vitebsk City Portal
read
Jon Blackwood, Curator of Contemporary Art, Writer
Jonblackwood.net
read
«Chagall and Malevich in art are like Messi and Ronaldo in football. Malevich is Ronaldo - he has the system of suprematism, manifests, the clarity of ideas. Chagall is Messi. A pure talent, a man from space - you look at his paintings and feel like you're on a different planet».
Daniil Chalov, initiator of the uniform kit design project, player of FC Vitebsk.
Sports.ru
read
«Van Abbemuseum for Contemporary Art in the Netherlands has highly appreciated the project and expressed the desire to add the kit to its collection. The museum director Charles Esche noted that "one of the most powerful drawings that El Lissitzky made in Vitebsk was the poster "Beat the White With the Red Wedge!". The uniform for FC Vitebsk is a link between the avant garde and the pop culture».
Arguments and Facts
read
«A unique project has become possible due to the partnership of the Belarusian-Jewish Cultural Heritage Center and the company "Nothing Ordinary" with the support of the Vitebsk Art School History Museum and FC Vitebsk. The uniform kit has been presented to the club as a gift».
Chrysalis Mag
read
«FC Vitebsk players get a tailored uniform kit. The kind nobody has ever had in the history of football».
TUT.by
read
VIDEO
[ to watch ]
TV-channel Belarus 5

FC Vitebsk on fleek.

Watch
Vitebsk TV & radio company

Stylistics of the suprematist ideas. FC Vitebsk presents the new kit.

Watch
Kit design: Vladimir Gorz
Image photoshoot: Daria Eremeeva
PROJECT PARTNERS
FC Vitebsk
Vitebsk Art School History Museum
PROJECT ORGANIZERS
Belarusian-Jewish Cultural Heritage Center
Creative Football Association "Nothing Ordinary"