Froiid’s ‘O Caneco é Nosso’ turns a vanished football icon into a meditation on memory, myth and collective desire at MAM Rio.
23 June 2026
As Brazil once again turns its gaze toward the spectacle of the World Cup, Froiid invites audiences to look beyond the pitch and into the afterlife of one of the nation’s most potent symbols. Opening the new Espaço Petrobras at the Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, ‘O Caneco é Nosso’ transforms the legendary Jules Rimet Trophy into a site of reflection on memory, nationalism and popular imagination.
The exhibition centres on an installation of 999 plaster replicas of the iconic cup, arranged like a monumental grandstand that evokes both sporting arenas and ritual gatherings. Drawing from the unresolved disappearance of the original trophy, stolen in Rio de Janeiro in 1983 and never recovered, Froiid explores how objects persist in collective consciousness long after their physical absence.
Known for his engagement with games, street culture and vernacular forms of sociability, the Belo Horizonte-based artist approaches football as a social and political technology through which identities are constructed, performed and contested. Here, the trophy emerges as both relic and apparition, carrying traces of dictatorship-era propaganda, mass reproduction and popular devotion.
Curated by Raquel Barreto, ‘O Caneco é Nosso’ offers a compelling reflection on the myths that continue to shape Brazilian cultural life, revealing how symbols endure, mutate and acquire new meanings across generations.
This Exhibition is at Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro until 20 September 2026.
