BASQUETBALL
Mission Dolores Park, San Francisco, 10.2009
Basquetball is a combination of basketball with a Basque styled throwing game.
The Basques, like almost every Southern European culture, have their own ball
tossing game called Bola Jokoa, which is quite similar to skittles (if that helps at all).
In Basquetball, players compete to throw a men’s basketball into a circular ring on the
ground. Each basketball successfully thrown into the ring garners one point.
Players can try to bounce the other basketballs out of the ring with their
balls. The main rule however: one must wear a beret when he or she plays.
The main innovation of Basquetball is the use of large throwing objects.
While most ball throwing games, i.e. Bocce, Petanque, use small balls that
are easily transportable and convenient, Basquetball does not, making the
game a logistical pain in the ass. Not surprisingly, Basquetball has only
been played once, on Halloween, 2009, in Mission Dolores Park as part of a
residency with The Lab, an experimental art space in San Francisco. The most
challenging part of organizing a basquetball game is acquiring eight
basketballs in pairs of matching colors. One thing the Institute does
not recommend is spray painting the basketballs, as was done for this
event. The basketballs become very sticky, smell of noxious odors, and
leave paint stains in one’s car. As well, its even harder to convince
players to play a new game wearing berets in public when the balls leave
sticky residue on their hands. As well, in our empirical observation
groups of people wearing berets in Mission Dolores Park are often
approached to try to be sold marijuana.
