Football art drawing crowds in Warsaw

The Polish capital has been celebrating UEFA EURO 2012 with a host of cultural activities, with an exhibition at the city's Museum of Caricature and Cartoon Art showcasing an array of exciting artistic visions of football.

'The Ball is in Play' brings together the winning cartoons of a competition organised by the gallery, which received nearly 1200 entries from countries like Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Costa Rica, Indonesia and the Philippines as well as the nations competing at UEFA EURO 2012. An international jury chose the best of those submissions for the final exhibition, which covers all aspects of the game.

"Sport is an integral part of life, and a means of conveying ideas: fair play, striving for perfection, overcoming one's weaknesses, or crossing boundaries," explained museum director Zygmunt Zaradkiewicz. "Football is one of the most popular sports; a match provokes incredibly powerful emotions. Fans and players experience the joy of victory or taste the bitterness of defeat. The emotions – euphoria, despair – can be unbelievably strong.

"We hoped to see artists reflect on the role of football in normal life, its lightness and shade, laughter and tears, the emotions aroused by the leather ball," he added. "Who else but these cartoonists could comment upon, and commemorate, this aspect of humanity."

Judging by the comments in the guest book, the cartoonists have hit their mark: "Beautiful, accurate and funny"; "I personally do not like cartoons but these were excellent"; "It's fun to look at football from a different angle." The Museum is located on Kozia 11 near Warsaw's Castle Square.