Gabriel Fontana – Transforming Norms Through Play

Imagine a playing field where the rules are constantly shifting, where alliances change, and where bodies and movements shape one another in the moment. Here, it is not about winning, but about understanding — about encountering one another in new ways. Gabriel Fontana’s work challenges our ideas of identity, community, and belonging, opening up a world where sport becomes a tool for social change.

A French designer and educator in social design, Gabriel Fontana views the world through the lens of sport. In a time marked by growing polarization, his strength lies in how he uses design as an effective tool to influence the ways we interact with one another. His methods offer a playful way to experience and reflect on prevailing norms around identity, community, and inclusion — and how these norms can be transformed. Fontana uses sport as a powerful metaphor for society, where the idea of playing against one another is often taken for granted.

What happens when we stop playing by the rules?

The work Fluid Field, presented in this exhibition, is a clear example of Fontana’s vision. The playing field is in constant transformation, and participants must read one another, adapt, and move in response to shifting conditions. It is a game — but also a powerful challenge to the norms that have traditionally divided us into fixed categories: men or women, adults or children, “able-bodied” or disabled.

Through his internationally recognised works — played in schools across Europe and presented at venues such as the Olympic Games and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) — Fontana demonstrates how human interaction can evolve when we create space for play, dialogue, and mutual adaptation.

Here, the boundary between the individual and the collective is constantly negotiated — and the space for change emerges precisely here: in the game.

Video: Stimuleringsfonds, 2021.