Nieuwe Instituut presents SIDELINED at Concéntrico
After Venice, the collaboration between curator Amanda Pinatih and social designer Gabriel Fontana will explore new ways of sport and play at Logroño's urban innovation laboratory.
17 June 2026
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Nieuwe Instituut and the Embassy of the Netherlands in Madrid present SIDELINED: A Game to Rethink Togetherness at Concéntrico, Logroño, Spain, from 18 to 23 June 2026.
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Initially developed for the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, SIDELINED explores new, more inclusive forms of sport and play, with changing jerseys, shape-shifting fields, or without defined teams.
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For Concéntrico, Pinatih and Fontana co‑developed an educational programme, bringing together students and teachers from local primary schools to investigate the social dynamics of sports fields, and redesign these and the rules that govern them.
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At the scenographic intervention at Parque Gallarza, locals and visitors of Concéntrico are invited to explore the results and play one of Fontana’s games on selected days.
Who gets to play, and who remains on the sidelines? Nieuwe Instituut – the Netherlands’ national museum and institute for architecture, design and digital culture in Rotterdam – and the Embassy of the Netherlands in Madrid present SIDELINED: A Game to Rethink Togetherness at Concéntrico, the ‘urban innovation laboratory’ taking over the city of Logroño, Spain, from 18 to 23 June 2026.
With a scenographic intervention at Parque Gallarza and with sports as a lens, SIDELINED not only shows what happens when you hand young people the rules of the game and ask them to change them – it also invites locals and visitors of Concéntrico to actively participate.
SIDELINED at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale
SIDELINED sees curator Amanda Pinatih and social designer Gabriel Fontana explore new, more inclusive forms of sport and play. Initially developed for the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, SIDELINED presents sports as an architectural system — in the ways it regulates spaces, bodies and behaviour. In doing so, the project prompted visitors to ask: who are we cheering for? Who is represented, who controls the game, and what are the rules?
In Venice, SIDELINED transformed the Dutch Pavilion into an alternative sports bar, designed by scenographer Koos Breen and Jeannette Slütter — a playful yet critical space that questioned the rules and rituals of social interaction. Continuing the work of Fontana, the exhibition explored how spatial design can reveal and disrupt the exclusionary dynamics embedded in everyday environments, with sports as a lens. Through changing jerseys, shape-shifting fields, or without defined teams, Fontana’s work reimagines how we play, gather, and compete, changing the rules of the game.
SIDELINED at Concéntrico
Building on their previous collaboration, Pinatih and Fontana co‑developed an educational programme for this edition of Concéntrico. The programme brings together students and teachers from local primary schools. Using a toolkit and a series of exercises, students investigate the social dynamics of sports fields in the (semi-)public realm. Based on their observations, they collectively redesign the shape of these fields and the rules that govern them, imagining new modes of togetherness.
After completing their designs, participants gather at Concéntrico to present their ideas to one another, followed by a Multiform tournament. Multiform — one of the sports‑based design projects by Fontana — combines a new team game, transformable uniforms, and a three‑sided sports field. It encourages players to negotiate, resist, and reconfigure existing social power structures and body norms through embodied learning.
At the scenographic intervention at Parque Gallarza, once again created in collaboration with Koos Breen and Jeannette Slütter, locals and visitors of Concéntrico are invited to play Multiform on selected days or explore the field in their own way.
As a museum with deep roots in architecture and design, Nieuwe Instituut is pleased to present a project that examines sport as powerful spatial system that organizes bodies, builds communities, and promotes belonging. SIDELINED has developed through close collaboration between the artist, curator and various publics. We are thrilled that this iteration at Concéntrico engages primary school students in the task of reimagining public space and the rules that govern it. We look forward to seeing this work grow further as it returns to Rotterdam this summer.
Further information
SIDELINED can be visited at Parque Gallarza during the run time of Concéntrico in Logroño, Spain, from 18 to 23 June 2026. Opening hours are 10:00 - 14:00 and 17:00 - 20:00. The Multiform game will be played by local primary schools on 18 and 19 June from 10:30 - 13:30. On the evenings of these days, regular visitors will also be able to join the game from 18:30 – 20:00.
Following Concéntrico, SIDELINED will come to the Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam, where the sports bar from Venice will be recreated for a free presentation on the deck above the foyer from 11 July onwards. In Rotterdam too, Gabriel Fontana's sports will be played live throughout the summer.
Note for editors
Accompanying images are available here.
Contact: Robin van Essel, Press Officer
+31 (0)6 3803 9218, r.vanessel@nieuweinstituut.nl
This project was made possible by:
Concéntrico
Nieuwe Instituut
Embassy of the Netherlands, Madrid
Afrikaanderwijk Coöperatie - Production of Multiform garments
Red Planea - Implementation of Sidelined educational programme
Taller enBlanco - Development of Sidelined education toolkit
The students and tutors of:
CEIP Duquesa de la Victoria
CEIP Caballero de la Rosa
CEIP Madre de Dios
CEIP Siete Infantes de Lara
CRA Entrevalles
IES Tomás Mingot
IES Valle del Cidacos