In “The Feast of the Scream” by Abel Quezada Alarcón (1920-1991), death stands in front of a football stadium where a mountain of bodies overflows: “Fill every void in your life with sports,” says the character in this unpublished work.

Created by the Mexican artist in 1986, this cartoon was not published in newspapers at the time, but it can be seen starting this Sunday, July 5, the day of the 'world cup' match Mexico vs England, when the Kaluz Museum opens the doors of the exhibition “Mexico-Mexico-Mexico! Abel Quezada between art and sport”.

“He wrote the texts himself, and that combination holds an eloquence that transcends time. Today I believe that what he says about football is still very relevant,” comments the curator, Ery Camara.

The exhibition brings together 82 pieces, including cardboards, paintings, watercolors and unpublished archival material organized into sections and an “interactive” room, where you can review the bibliography and texts of Abel Quezada.

“The interesting thing is to allow the public to read it and draw their own conclusions. And now that the media is saying 'What if?', it seems like an opportunity,” says Ery Camara, during a tour in the days leading up to the opening.

THE EXHIBIT

In the context of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Mexico City, the curator, Ery Camara, head of conservation at the Kaluz Museum, proposes an interpretation of the sport through the humor, irony, and social critique that characterized the work of Abel Quezada. It begins with the section “The Many Faces of Abel Quezada.”

Next comes “The Game: Between Art and Sport,” where jockeys, runners, tennis and billiards players, baseball players, and boxers come together; and then “Criticism and Humor on the Field.” Among the works that come from the Quezada Rueda Family Collection, Galería Proyectos Monclova, the Kaluz Museum, and private collections, some pieces stand out, such as “The Divine Ones: The Train of My Friends” (1987), “The Manipulator of Men” (1981), “Soccer Game in a Folded City” (1974), “Homage to David Hockney” (1988), and a series of cartoons published in various print media.

At the end of the tour, an “interactive” room invites the public to create dialogues of emblematic characters from A. Quezada and hang up their versions for others to see.

A-QZ.

Just as was the case with "The Feast of the Scream," there are still unpublished works in the Abel Quezada family archive. "We have more than 16,000 pieces in the archive related to my father's work. We have illustrations, all his advertising work, and many very personal, unpublished texts, diaries, stories, or things that were never published," says the artist's son, also named Abel.

“We ourselves are surprised to find things often; the body of work he left behind is very rich,” he says. The publication of these texts is pending, as is finding some materials, such as a review written at the 1954 World Cup (in Switzerland).

“We know he went, but we don’t know if he made a drawing or wrote something; that’s lost. We’re going to need to find it.” Abel, his son, jokes a bit, saying he “shouldn’t say” how little his father liked soccer. “He wasn’t much of a soccer fan, to be honest, just between us. He liked baseball more. I have a lot of stories about that. He really liked sports, but he was from the north of the country, which is a big baseball region. I don’t think soccer appealed to him much,” he shares.

However, although football was not his favorite sport, the heir concedes that it was an important topic of reflection for his father and that if he were still alive he would undoubtedly be interested in the World Cup phenomenon that has sparked street protests and unprecedented celebrations.

“Above all, the reaction of the people, the billions of people taking to the streets, I don’t think anyone would have remained silent about it.” In this and other aspects, Abel Quezada’s work remains so relevant that “it could be published tomorrow.”

“The works are incredibly relevant today, and I don’t know how to interpret that: whether we really haven’t progressed at all, or whether it’s a cyclical thing we have in Mexico, that things repeat themselves and we have the same problems, that we’ve only partially solved them or haven’t solved them at all.”

“Mexico-Mexico-Mexico! Abel Quezada between art and sport” can be visited from July 5 to August 31, 2026 in the Multipurpose Room, Ground Floor of the Kaluz Museum. In addition, this exhibition will be accompanied by a program of activities about sport, which will address three angles: sport as a cultural spectacle, as a narrative and as a mirror of Mexican society.

There will be talks with specialists, film screenings, workshops, guided tours, and other experiences that the museum team will announce soon through the website https://museokaluz.org/ and social media @museokal

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