Once Upon a Field
El Universal

 

In an interview with Marisol Rodríguez, curatorial director of the gallery, for El Universal, Frida Juárez discusses Once Upon a Field, an exhibition that uses football as a lens to explore childhood, emotion, imagination, and collective experience. The show places the football fan at its center, framing the sport as a space where joy, memory, and identity intersect, particularly within diasporic narratives and global cultural exchange.

 

Rodríguez explains that the curatorial approach returns to football’s origins as a simple game, while also acknowledging its capacity to hold deeper social meaning. “We are interested in fandom, childhood, and imagination, but also in seeing football as a space of struggle, rebellion, and where things beyond the game itself are at stake,” she says. The article highlights works by Clotilde Jiménez, Ian Michael, Salah Elmur, Raphaël Barontini, Slimen Elkamel, and Peter Robinson, whose practices span collage, painting, textile, and photography, collectively capturing both the intimacy of childhood play and the broader cultural and political dimensions of the sport.