Studio Fontana

Queer Sports Workshop (2019–present)


WHAT

Through combining action and reflection, the workshop uses sport to stimulate empathy and promote social inclusion in schools.

WHY

Many children experience the sports class as a very hostile environment. Dominant ideas regarding gender, ethnicity, physical ability and sexuality are reproduced in sport and physical education. Research shows that girls, children with disabilities, children with a bi-cultural background and LGBTQIA+ children are marginalised and/ or excluded in many ways during a sports lesson. The experience of exclusion within the class extends into other parts of school and society, therefore it is crucial to challenge and change it.

HOW

The workshop presents a series of alternative team sport games, composed of new tools, rules, uniforms, props and alternative sport fields. Put together, these elements function as tools for disorientation and reorientation, providing the players with an embodied understanding of social power structures and their workings. Topics addressed through this, include gender performativity, privilege, group dynamics, allyship and processes of inclusion/exclusion. Children experience how both societal and bodily norms are constructed within sports practices, and experience what it could mean to counteract these norms that are otherwise taken for granted.

→ See projects Multiform, Anonymous Allyship and Multiplayer Mode


WORKSHOPS IN THE EDUCATIONAL SECTOR

Collège la Maillière, Noisiel (FR), January 2024.

Collège le Luzard, Noisiel (FR), January 2024.

Lycée Charles-le-Chauve, Noisiel (FR), January 2024.

Lycée Voillaume, Aulney-sous-Bois (FR), May 2023.

Lycée de Coulommiers, Paris (FR), April 2021.

Het Lyceum Rotterdam (NL), from September 2019 April 2020.

Comenius College, Rotterdam (NL), from September 2019 April 2020.

Obs Dakpark school, Rotterdam (NL), from September 2019 April 2020.

Het Lyceum Rotterdam (NL), from September 2019 April 2020.

WORKSHOPS IN THE CULTURAL AND SPORT SECTORS

REINVENTING TEAM SPORTS
Nike World Headquarters, Portland (US), Feb 2023.

SHAPESHIFTING SPORTS CAMP
BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht (NL), Jan 2023.

DRAG(UE)
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne (CH), Jan 2023.

TEMPLE OF LOVE
MAC VAL, Vitry sur Seine (FR), Jul 2022.

SNEAKERS UNBOXED
Design Museum, Den Bosh (NL), Sep 2022.

SAINT-ETIENNE DESIGN BIENNALE
Cité du Design, Saint-Etienne (FR,) Jun 2022.

OPENING OF THE INTERNATIONALE BIENNALE OF SAINT-ETIENNE
Cité du Design, Saint-Etienne (FR), Apr 2022.

TOURNAMENT OF THE UNKNOWN - TURNING TOWARDS FLUIDITY
Solo Show. Gemaal op Zuid, Rotterdam (NL), Oct 2021.

WORKSHOPS IN PRIMARY & SECONDARY SCHOOLS
Comenius College, Obs Dakpark school, Calvin Meerpaal school, Het Lyceum Rotterdam (NL), 2019-2020
Lycée de Coulommiers, Paris (FR) 2021.

QFCPSSBBXOXO:
Trainings for the Not-Yet, BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht (NL), Nov 2019.

QUEER SPORTS
Designers & Hackers Academy,
Amsterdam (NL), Aug 2019.

QUEERING NOT JUST THE
BODIES BUT THE GAME ITSELF
Willem De Kooning Academie, Rotterdam (NL), Apr 2019.

FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT
Design Academy Eindhoven (NL), Mar 2019.

POWER GAMES
Jan Van Eyck Academie, Maastricht (NL), Oct 2018.

A TEAM WITHOUT NAME
Urban Playground Festival, Hasselt (BE), Apr 2017.

SPORT, NATIONALISM & FICTION
Design Beyond Change Symposium, Basel (CH), Mar 2017.


  • Multiform game at Lycée de Coulommiers, Paris (FR), 2021.
  • Goal area, workshop at Lycée de Coulommiers, Paris (FR), 2021.
  • Introduction of the workshop by Gabriel Fontana, Lycée de Coulommiers, Paris (FR), 2021.
  • Queer Sports workshop at Den Bosch Design Museum, 2022.