Image: San Diego Museum of Art
On view through January 3, 2027, Betsabeé Romero: Tejiendo Redes (Weaving Nets) at MOPA@SDMA examines fútbol as an expression of migration, community, and cultural exchange.
The exhibition connects contemporary soccer culture with the ancient Mesoamerican ballgame, juego de pelota, revealing how sport has long served as a space for gathering, storytelling, and belonging.
Woven nets, engraved tires, mirrored soccer balls, and images of migrant families highlight the networks of care, labor, and cultural memory that sustain communities around the world.
For Romero, fútbol is more than a sport: it is a shared language that travels with people, carrying traditions, histories, and identities wherever they go.
The exhibition is part of ‘Tejiendo redes,’ an ongoing public-art project that brings communities together through collaboratively woven soccer nets installed across North America. Created in partnership with women weavers in Tijuana, Mexico, the project celebrates the collective spirit of the game and the enduring connections forged through migration, creativity, and play.
Betsabeé Romero, born in 1963, is a Mexico City–based artist whose work explores migration, memory, popular culture, and cultural identity. Working across sculpture, installation, public art, and community-based projects, Romero transforms everyday materials—including automobile tires, vehicles, and objects associated with travel—into artworks that reflect on movement, exchange, and belonging.
