Football and shared memory: Italy-Tunisia exhibition opens at Dar El Founoun

An exhibition drawing on rare football archives, Panini sticker albums and the shared television history of two Mediterranean neighbours opened at the Maison des Arts du Belvédère — Dar El Founoun — in Tunis on Monday 23 June, and will remain open until 23 July 2026.

Football Stories between Italy and Tunisia, or Histoires de football entre l'Italie et la Tunisie, was promoted by the Italian Cultural Institute of Tunis and the Italian Embassy in Tunisia, in partnership with the cultural association Mo' Better Football APS. It was curated by Marco Ferrero of Mo' Better Football.

The exhibition is timed to coincide with the 23rd FIFA World Cup, currently under way, and to mark the 65th anniversary of the Panini Calciatori sticker collection, which was launched in Modena in 1961 and became, the organisers said, one of the most recognisable objects in Italian popular sports culture.

A journey through stickers and archives

At the centre of the exhibition is the Panini format itself: a chronological display running from the early 1960s editions to contemporary productions, tracing not only the history of football but the evolution of graphic design, printing and collecting across generations. A timeline of World Cup album covers lines the walls, accompanied by a selection of stickers of players who shaped the tournament's history.

A dedicated section covers Tunisia's own football history, displaying a gallery of the national team's World Cup appearances alongside documents from the Panini Football 1998-99 album, a collection produced by the Italian publisher for the Tunisian professional league that season — a detail that, the curators argued, illustrates how far the editorial relationship between the two countries extended.

The exhibition also includes illustrations by two Italian artists: Sergio Ponchione, described by Kapitalis as one of the most prominent figures in contemporary Italian comics, who illustrated the Italian national squad at the 1982 World Cup; and muralist and writer Simone Ferrarini, who reinterpreted five celebrated Italy goals, continuing a tradition of sports illustration rooted in the Italian press from the 1950s to the 1990s.

Television as a cultural bridge

One of the exhibition's more distinctive arguments concerns the role of Italian television in shaping a shared football imagination across the Mediterranean. Between the 1970s and the 1990s, Serie A broadcasts, sporting programmes and major match evenings were widely followed in Tunisia, building what the curators describe as a common repertoire of champions, clubs and sporting rituals. ANSA reported that the Tunisian ultras movement has historically been inspired and influenced by its Italian counterpart.

Fabio Ruggirello, director of the Italian Cultural Institute of Tunis, said the aim was to offer "an experience capable of reactivating collective memories: unforgettable events, victories and defeats that have marked the history of sport, faces and figures that evoke childhood, leisure and shared forms of belonging."

Panel and opening night

The vernissage on 23 June was followed by a panel discussion on football culture and sporting heritage. Speakers included curator Marco Ferrero, Panini collector Gianni Bellini, Tunisian national radio sports journalists Mohamed Menzli and Mourad Ayari, and Valfrido Aghilone of the Italian Cultural Institute of Tunis. Discussion covered the preservation of audiovisual archives, the role of media in building sporting identities and the transformation of football culture in the modern era.

Football Stories between Italy and Tunisia is open at Dar El Founoun, Maison des Arts du Belvédère, Tunis, until Thursday 23 July 2026.