“Surely, Anadol could not have been expected to bottle the essence of live football into a work of art like a fragrance.”
– Critic
Valentina Di Liscia, offering a minor concession in a pointed critique of
Refik Anadol’s
Living Memory: Messi—A Goal in Life (2025), an immersive installation recreating
Leo Messi’s favourite goal from his career. Di Liscia argues that some experiences—the roar of the stadium, the tension of live football—resist translation. “Perhaps Anadol’s gravest error was attempting to harness something too real to code, and unlike Messi, he missed the shot.”