6750
THIS IS 6750.
This is the number of humans that died building the World Cup 2022 stadiums.
In 2021, The Guardian newspaper exposed how, since it won its World Cup bid in 2010, Qatar’s infrastructure plan for 2022 has cost the lives of 6750 migrant workers.
Created by Accept & Proceed, 6750 is a self-initiated art activation that serves as a memorial to these thousands to ensure that, though nameless, they are not forgotten.
The installation establishes a correlation between the number of programmed minutes of World Cup football played and the number of migrant worker deaths exposed. This data dramatisation piece aims to encourage a timely cultural reflection on this year’s edition of the World Cup - one of the most controversial in recent memory.
Found football footage is filtered through a 6750 pixel LED matrix screen, each pixel representing an individual to illustrate the scale of loss. In tribute to each life lost within that inconceivable number, one light is turned off for every minute of football played. As the tournament progresses, the football on screen will be increasingly obstructed by dead pixels, making for a poignant finale of only a fraction of pixels left glittering or an entirely dead screen.
Our motivation is first and foremost tribute, memorial and remembrance. Each minute of World Cup football we watch in what should have been an event of global celebration, has instead become about mourning death.
This must be the last time this happens.
