Una Cancha Llamada Medellín

“A court called Medellín”. It’s an artistic and documentary project by the artist Oscar Cardona Álvarez, which shows how football is important in Medellín. A practice that every corner of a difficult city, that is constantly forced to resist violence, becomes an expression of life and resilience.

This project was the winner of the call for incentives for art and culture of the Mayor of Medellín in 2019. It was developed in black and white, “It’s a conceptual position that refers to equity, it is to show the integrating power of soccer in the communities, showing that we are all equal”, Cardona said. 

“Una Cancha Llamada Medellín” also had a television series that was broadcast at the end of last year on the Telemedellín channel. A 21 short chapters series that showed, through soccer, different social processes that occur in the communities of the Antioquia city. You can see the whole series here.

This project has already crossed Colombia’s borders and a lot of international media started to echo Cardona’s work, like El País in Spain: “Cardona’s project has evolved, going from sports and art to social. “Sometimes, as journalists or as artists, we go to a place, we obtain the information and we do not return. In this case, this is not the case. images return to the neighborhoods in the form of an exhibition. And it is very nice to see the reaction of the people when they see that they are part of it and that they are valued for what they contribute to it”, Cardona reflects. “He has gained his reach”.

As part of the growth of “Una Cancha”, and after overcoming the pandemic crisis, Oscar and his camera will begin a journey through the 32 departments of Colombia, showing how soccer is an axis of social transformation in every corner of this South American country.

To learn more about this project, you can visit the instagram account: @unacancha