As the World Cup kicks off in Toronto, two cultural institutions in the city have unveiled exhibitions exploring the themes of play, competition, and their broader social and political implications. The Aga Khan Museum and The Power Plant at Harbourfront Centre are both engaging visitors with interactive and historical perspectives on games and sports, reflecting on what winning and losing signify in different contexts.
The Aga Khan Museum’s exhibition, Game On!, offers a historical survey of competitive play, particularly drawing on the museum’s connections to the Islamic world. Curated by Bita Pourvash, the exhibit categorizes games into three sections: board games, quests, and the arena.
Board games on display include early examples of chess, backgammon, and mancala. Chess is presented not merely as a pastime but as symbolic warfare, with 12th-century Persian ceramic chess pieces and intricately carved 20th-century Indian ivory sets illustrating its evolution. Backgammon and mancala, both social and conversational in nature, are represented with rare, ornate boards. The exhibition also highlights the origins of Snakes and Ladders, tracing the children’s game back to 13th-century Hindu and Jain spiritual traditions where it embodied the ascent of devotion and the pitfalls of worldly distractions, a narrative later adapted into a game of chance by British colonial officers.
The quests category includes word games and memory contests as well as contemporary art pieces such as Damask Rose, a digital scavenger hunt by Syrian-Canadian artist Jawa El Khash. The largest section, the arena, focuses on physical contests, from wrestling—where winners were seen as embodiments of discipline and humility—to polo, a royal sport introduced from Asia to the West. The exhibition concludes with falconry, juxtaposing early-20th-century equipment and bird illustrations to emphasize mastery and control rather than straightforward competition.
Meanwhile, at The Power Plant, the exhibition Colourful Parachutes: Imagining Alternative Futures Through the Power of Play presents interactive works by 10 contemporary artists centered on play as a site for experimentation and cooperation, especially for children. The show opens with a 1973 video by Cuban-American artist Ana Mendieta featuring children playing with a parachute, underscoring the exhibition’s emphasis on collaborative play rather than competition.
Among the installations, South African artist Robin Rhode has stenciled sailing ships on gallery walls, inviting children to collaboratively add waves with oversized crayons, fostering teamwork. Brazilian artist Rivane Neuenschwander’s shadow room activates children’s dream drawings as shadow puppets projected across bed sheet screens, complemented by a disco ball for a dreamlike atmosphere. British artist Harold Offeh’s Mothership encourages visitors of all ages to create music using keyboards and noise makers, with animations crafted by local children featured on video screens.
The Montreal duo Leisure contributes The Chrysalis and The Butterfly, interactive pieces inspired by local environmentalism and childhood play, featuring sand pits and paper-making exercises. One of the exhibition’s most striking works is Claire Greenshaw’s large-scale, realistic pencil drawing of the Athabasca Glacier. Visitors can erase parts of it with provided erasers, inviting reflection on environmental degradation as the glacier’s retreat is simulated.
Both exhibitions remain open until Sept. 7, providing diverse perspectives on games and play—from symbolic contests of power to imaginative environments fostering cooperation and reflection. Together, they underscore the varied roles that games play in culture, politics, and community, especially as global sporting events capture public attention.