Museu do Futebol [Football Museum]`s Presentation

South American football is a passion.

A passion that disregards borders and adversity pulsates through the streets, echoes through our homes and stadiums, and spreads across dirt fields and pitches in big cities. How is it possible that only one part of the world gave rise to soccer giants like Pelé, Maradona, Marta, and Messi, among others? What makes our relationship with football so special? Is it the South American ability to imbibe in the game, irrespective of the actual score? Or is it the talent to condense all the joy and pain of our lives into 90 minutes?

¡Cancha Brava! Futebol Sudamericano en Disputa, curated by Luiza Romão, Matias Pinto, and Gisele de Paula, is an exhibition that responds to this challenge by highlighting the contradictions that define this region—colonialism, racism, inequality, and violence—and presenting football as a means of collective creation, resistance, and celebration. The exhibition presents the centrality of the sport as a shared ritual among the diverse identities that make up South America.

Here, more than Portuguese or Castillian Spanish—the languages of the colonizers—we all speak football, this living and plural language that takes on unique contours as it embraces indigenous, African, and foreign identities, like a huge banner of voices, bodies, and stories.

The exhibition explores the scars and wonders of this football-mad territory through archival images, literary texts, works of art, and installations. It invites the public to step onto the pitch and experience the memories, emotions and struggles of people who resist—also—by playing.

With ¡Cancha Brava!, our museum envisages a South American continent where sport builds bridges and transforms realities. On the pitch, in the stands and in everyday life, football remains a powerful means of fostering a culture of peace.

Museu do Futebol [Football Museum]

Curator´s Presentation

Passion, fanaticism, fighting spirit, determination, artistry, sweat, celebration

Perhaps these are the first things that come to mind when we talk about South American football, a game that arrived here over a century ago and, since then, has mobilized fans, sportspeople, journalists, artists and even detractors.

Renowned internationally for its creativity both on and off the pitch, football on our continent is a party, a carnival, a frenzy. It is a celebration that fills the streets and stands with joy, chants, murals and banners. But it is also a constantly disputed territory, a field full of tensions and rivalries.

In short, we are a cancha brava.

Cancha is a word of Quechua origin that means both ‘popcorn’ and ‘field’. And Brava means both ‘angry’ and ‘great’. Together, they describe the fans who support and follow their teams intensely and unconditionally, everywhere, through thick and thin (or, rather, en las malas mucho más). !Cancha brava! is thus a synthesis of the history of our football, comprising a lot of passion, peculiarities and fifty-fifty balls.

In this exhibition, we invite you to join us on the pitch. Travelling from Argentina to Venezuela via Uruguay, Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, Ecuador, Brazil and Colombia, we will discover more about the history of our continent and the ten countries that comprise the South American Football Confederation (Conmebol). Through characters, music, documents, images and unforgettable moments, we hope to share the most vibrant, contradictory and enchanting aspects of South American football. Dale?

Gisele de Paula, Luíza Romão and Matias Pinto

Curators of the !Cancha brava! exhibition

On literary texts

Across the continent, football has inspired poems, chronicles, novels, and short stories. From Colombian Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez to the irreverent Argentine short story writer Fontanarrosa, the passion for football has produced spectacular literary goals, including the writing of Blanca Varela (Peru), Fernanda Laguna/Dalia Rosetti and Franco Rivero (Argentina), Mário de Andrade (Brazil), and Eduardo Galeano (Uruguay). Various artisanal techniques celebrate the words of these poetic trapos with the visual power of Letter Openers, Arpilleras, and Embroiderers.

Mujeres Arpilleristas Collective

Eduardo Galeano Flag, 2025

Arpillera

Linhas Nove Collective

Blanca Varela Flag, 2025

Embroidery

Linhas Nove Collective

Roberto Fontanarrosa Flag, 2025

Embroidery

Luís Junior

Franco Rivero Flag, 2025

Abridor de Letra

Luís Junior

Mario de Andrade Flag, 2025

Abridor de Letra

Marina Ceglie da Silva

Dalia Rosetti Flag, 2025

Acrylic paint on fabric

Marina Ceglie da Silva

Roberto Fontanarrosa Flag, 2025

Acrylic paint on fabric

Be.e.PH

Pedro Lemebel Flag, 2025

Paint and embroidery

Be.e.PH

Gabriel García Márquez Flag, 2025

Paint and embroidery

On club flags

Banners – or, as they are called in Spanish, trapos – are an essential part of the carnival atmosphere in South American stadiums. Whether nailed to fences, carried on fans' backs or waved when goals are scored, they travel miles and miles, expressing unconditional passion for the club, paying tribute to historical figures, marking territory, and establishing alliances. To welcome you to our ¡Cancha Brava!, we have trapos from Brazilian fan clubs based in other South American countries, as well as fan clubs from other South American countries based in São Paulo. After all, when the fans say, “I’ll follow you everywhere,” a whole network of connections across the continent is set in motion!

Racing Club Fan Club Flag, São Paulo branch

Print on fabric

Private collection

Club Atlético Boca Juniors Fan Club Flag, São Paulo branch

Print on fabric

Private collection

Club Atlético River Plate Fan Club Flag, São Paulo branch

Print on fabric

Private collection

Fluminense Football Club Fan Club Flag, Uruguay branch

Print on fabric

Private collection

Club Atlético Talleres Fan Club Flag, São Paulo branch

Paint on fabric

Private collection

Embaixada do São Paulo Futebol Clube Fan Club in Buenos Aires Flag

Print on fabric

Private collection

América de Cali’s Barón Rojo Fan Club Flag

Print on fabric

Private collection