In SECONDARY, world-renowned artist and filmmaker Matthew Barney explores the spectacle of violence in American football and culture. This is the definitive two-volume companion to this important work. SECONDARY is a five-channel video installation, performed in Barney’s Long Island City studio in 2023, then in London, Paris, and Los Angeles in 2024. Through allusion to American sports culture, SECONDARY explores the complex intersection of violence, its representation, and its celebration. It reimagines the game through a unique movement vocabulary.

Volume 1 explores SECONDARY in depth, with contributions by Eric Banks, Jonathan Bepler, Raven Chacon, Mark Godfrey, Juliette Lecorne, Helen Marten, Maggie Nelson, David Thomson, and editor Louise Neri. Volume 2 maps the life of Barney’s former Long Island City studio, where SECONDARY premiered to the public. Both volumes are housed in a slipcase.