Perfect pitch Artists and footballers match up in Manchester

"Everybody needs his own ritual or way of preparing," says the former Dutch footballer Edgar Davids. "Those minutes that you're in the tunnel is where we're going to start."

- Lanre Bakare

Davids is talking about a piece he has worked on alongside the artist Paul Pfeiffer in which the pair recreate the tension of the tunnel before a big game. The work will serve as the passageway into Football City, Art United - the "set piece" of this summer's Manchester international festival where the beautiful game is moving off the pitch and into the artist's studio.

"It's now more important than ever to bring things together," says Hans Ulrich Obrist, who has co-curated the exhibition alongside Josh Willdigg and the former Manchester United midfielder Juan Mata. "There's a lot of separation, and it's important to connect worlds that wouldn't necessarily talk to each other. It's exciting to do it with sport."