In order to celebrate the 23rd edition of the World Cup, set to take place in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, the Italian Cultural Institute in Miami is pleased to present World Cup Icons. Stickers, Portraits & Stories, an exhibition dedicated to soccer as a cultural and visual phenomenon, narrated through one of its most iconic symbols: stickers and trading cards.
The project, created by the cultural association Mo’ Better Football, celebrates the 65th anniversary of the historic “Calciatori Panini” collection, which has become part of the Italian and international collective imagination through generations of fans. The exhibition brings together historic albums, rare stickers, and a selection of original and previously unseen illustrations by Sergio Ponchione and Simone Ferrarini, that reinterpret the football myth through contemporary visual languages, exploring memory, identity, and pop culture. From the first hand-colored stickers to the albums that defined entire decades, the initiative explores how soccer has become a visual narrative, an emotional archive, and a shared heritage capable of transcending borders, cultures, and generations.
Among the highlights is a special section dedicated to a legendary local NASL team, the Fort Lauderdale Strikers, featuring cards with original illustrations and a documentary directed by Enrico Manfredini, using video footage shot by students from the IIS Venturi in Modena during an Erasmus VET project in Miami.
Finally, an entire room is dedicated to the original portraits of the eleven players from the Italian national team that won the World Cup in Spain in 1982. These works were created for this occasion by comic book artist and illustrator Sergio Ponchione. Winner of the Gran Guinigi Award at Lucca Comics 2009 for best Italian serialized story (Grotesque, which he wrote and illustrated), Ponchione has published his work in Italy, France, Germany, the U.S., and Argentina. For Sergio Bonelli Editore, he has illustrated comic books featuring the characters Dylan Dog, Mercurio Loi, Eternity, and Jonathan Steele, while for Panini Comics, he co-created the series Gli Uomini della Settimana.
The opening event is scheduled for Wednesday, June 3, at 6:30 p.m., at the Italian Cultural Institute in Miami, in the presence of curator Marco Ferrero and Sergio Ponchione. Admission is free, but reservations are required by emailing iicmiami.segreteria@esteri.it. The exhibition will be open until August 28.
