INTO THE PAINT | Debut
“I need the Game more than it needs me,” John Edgar Wideman says in Hoop Roots, a memoir meditation that places the Game in relation to some of humanity’s most enduring forms of thought and expression.
The court is understood as a space through which experience discloses itself, and every gesture carries the cognitive, imaginative, and mnemonic density long associated with art. Within that horizon lies one of the Game’s intrinsic vocations: to bring singular perception into shared sensibility through limitless reinterpretation.
Into The Paint studies this crossover. A series devoted to the Game as artistic matter, and to art as another way of experiencing the Game.
In this episode: Debut, from Argentina.
[Overseas] What are your first visual memories and feelings related to basketball?
[Debut] “My first visual memories of basketball were drawings made by my brother Manuel. I remember the Chicago Bulls logo perfectly drawn on a white piece of cardboard, alongside some other random drawings. At that time, I had already heard about basketball. I knew Jordan existed, and that was pretty much it. Everything else kind of went unnoticed back then.
Much later, around 2014, I started noticing it on sports channels. I remember the first team I saw was the Lakers, with that bright yellow contrasting with the purple, and then the Spurs, very understated in white, black, and gray. That was when I started to develop a real interest in the sport, without knowing absolutely anything about it, its rules, or its culture. But there was something about it that caught my attention, and at that moment I didn't really know what it was.
Then I saw Steph Curry, the Chef, play. Immediately something clicked. He reminded me of my favorite football player, Messi. He was small, skillful, and hypnotic.”
[O] How and why did the Game become part of your creative practice/art?
[D] “It all started from the need to grow my design skills. At that time, I had this wrong idea about illustration. I felt like I didn't have the ability to illustrate, that it was a skill I was missing as a designer. Right at that moment, I was trying to find a creative direction, a design direction, and I felt that basketball was the medium to do it, and design was the medium to understand basketball.
I started illustrating random basketball situations, drawings traced from photos. Then I thought:
how can I start representing what basketball represents in a different way? Something more abstract, more artistic? That was the moment when I changed the way I was thinking and started trying to go beyond that, thinking about how I could mix design and basketball in a different way.”
[O] In what ways do your country of origin and cultural roots shape the way you interpret basketball?
[D] “Honestly, my country of origin didn't influence that interpretation much, if at all. Basketball isn't a very developed sport here. But I think that was also positive for me, because I wasn't influenced by anything. It was a blank canvas.”
[O] Which logos, teams, symbols, or players have inspired you—and still instinctively inspire you today—when you think about basketball in the context of your work?
[D] “As a player, it has been Curry. That joy he brings, his competitiveness, discipline, and above all, that element of surprise that amazes you. As a team, ever since the moment I fell in love with basketball, it has been the Warriors. But I think the main element is the basketball itself. Yes, the basketball. I think it's a very powerful element, and aesthetically, it's really beautiful. It has been the fundamental pillar for expressing the delirious ideas of Debut.”
[O] Which of the various basketball-related projects/artworks you’ve created have excited you the most, and why?
[D] “I couldn't really say that I have works that have excited me more than others. I feel like they all contribute a little bit to that excitement as a whole, because every series or piece was created at a specific moment in the studio.”
[O] In basketball, people often talk about getting in rhythm—finding a flow. The same can be said for creative flow. What sensations or emotions do you experience when you enter that state while creating art?
[D] “I think that's the hardest part of the process: finding that flow and rhythm so you can keep expressing what Debut is and what it wants to be. But I think there's always this feeling of staying connected to the concept of the brand, to the philosophy we've built over these years. The name Debut represents that inexperienced side of basketball, but at the same time, it represents continuing to learn and grow.”
[O] What do you hope your visual language can bring and add to the way basketball is seen, remembered and represented?
“I think what Debut can bring is fun. That absurd and spontaneous expression in the work, which is equivalent to that feeling of enjoying the game.”
