Author: Irene Villanova
Brand-new exhibition by 13 photographers celebrates the World Cup by bringing football back down to earth, using analogue photography to capture the barrio-level sense of community that has always been at the heart of the sport.
When we think of the World Cup, everyone thinks the same thing: huge stadiums, giant brands, figures we can’t get our heads round, and a game that feels further and further away from us. Rollo Mundial was born out of the need to look somewhere else. Somewhere that actually matters.
I’m Irene Villanova, photographer and one of the minds behind this exhibition, in collaboration with Miyagi Studio, Madrid’s analogue photography lab, and Pote Café Bar, one of those places in Prosperidad that does things properly and with its own point of view. Two young, Madrid-based projects that share the same idea: everything has to be done with intention, without rushing, without showing off.
We’ve brought together the work of several photographers who look at football from a very specific place: the social one. We’re not interested in elite football, or the red-carpet version of the game. We’re interested in the people: the fans, break time, the street, friendships, the neighbourhood. The football that never makes it onto telly but is, in truth, the one that’s actually felt.
It’s the football I grew up with, and the one I’m still chasing with my camera every time I go out onto the street. As one of the photographers involved in the project puts it, “we’re not after the perfect play, we’re after the moment that feels real” — and I think that line sums up everything we are. That’s why it’s all shot on film. Rolls developed by hand, with all their grain, texture and imperfections, which you can’t fully control until you develop it.
But ‘Rollo Mundial’ doesn’t stop there. It’s a living exhibition: throughout the tournament we’re holding public screenings of the matches at Pote, cheering on the national team together. Because sometimes we forget that we’re allowed to enjoy it, that we can believe, that we can win again. We struggle to believe we’re capable of it, and yet we’ve done it before: in 2010, and more recently in 2024.
And this time I want to say it plainly: it’s time. Time to get back out onto the streets, time for hugs with strangers, time to shout for a goal like it’s the only thing that matters. Time for Spain to bring it home, and to lift the cup where it’s always truly been celebrated: in the neighbourhood, among our own.
Rollo Mundial exhibition is on now until 19 July, in POTE café bar at Calle Mantuano 8, Prosperidad, Madrid.
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