In football many things are forgotten or lost.
Be it stadium, terracing, playing kit or footballer the pace of change can be brutal both from a human and structural perspective. Many facets of a clubs history are often lost to the passage of time; due to player turnover or thanks to club branding or marketing change.
While change in football can be rapid, an ignorance of the past can never be something that is thrown at football fans especially when it comes to their own club.
A sense of collective passion in football encompasses a knowledge for the now and well as the historic past.
Many supporters these days, do, however, face challenges in attempting to hold onto a sense of club history. The biggest clubs have turned 100 year old stadia into barren corporate zones. These days even the simple souvenir of a paper match ticket can be hard to attain and retain.
Graffiti or wall art, for some, can often be seen as a wanton act of destruction even by those within a club. For each person who sees it as something so valuable there will be those who decry its presence.
Murals as a form of self-expression has been around since the invention of writing. In football its absence can be a sign of a lack of permission or fading patronage but its presence can be the sign of a club where fans and the owners work together.
For fans the motivations behind the best art can range from boredom, a sense of self-expression, prestige, memory and fame. The worst meanwhile can often be a sign of a sense of defiance in club authority, a hostility to owners or anger at things that have gone wrong.
Graffiti in general, as an artistic expression, tends to only represent a tiny percentage, but in football fandom it generally represents the whole. It often marks the boundaries of claimed jurisdiction or “territory” (turf) and furthers a sense of time and place whether using words, colour or image.
In Odense, located on the Danish Island of Funen the local football team are Odense Boldklub. Home is Nature Energy Park named as such due to naming rights being acquired by Nature Energy, a Danish energy company with its HQ in Odense.
It has however been known by other names including Fionia Park; TRE-FOR Park and EWII Park. It is also known under its original name, Odense Stadium or the Folkets Teater ‘The People’s Theater‘ a compact football ground in the Bolbro district of the city.
Behind one goal is the Richard Møller Nielsen Tribune – a dedication in itself to a club legend – and just behind this is a selection of murals dedicated to the club.
Many of the streets and avenues in the vicinity of the Odense stadium are named after old Nordic gods and kings. Inside the stadium is no different with Norse symbolism playing a part in bringing both colour and historic context to the club and this city.
The team’s success meanwhile was built on many talented Danish players, the most prolific OB player of whom was the goalkeeper Lars Høgh. He played a club record of 817 total matches for the first team and played at the 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico taking over in goal from Troels Rasmussen. He then served as an understudy to Peter Schmeichel alongside Mogens Krogh.
Lars Høgh died a few years ago but his image is there – in colour and detail. A place of refuge, memory and dedication to a legendary one club man.
Copenhagen is readily regarded as a Danish fairy tale city yet the birthplace of the author Hans Christian Andersen is actually here – Odense.
With its core of atmospheric neighbourhoods and lush green areas Odense has underwent a huge amount of transition in recent decades. With lively neighbourhoods stretching from the inner harbour area out to the more traditionally working class Bolbro, the art at Odense Boldklub is only a small part of the city yet a memorable one not least for football fans.