ABSTRACT
The ceremonial script The 2014 World Cup opening and the closing ceremonies should be read as bilateral mobility vehicles: while on the one hand they enabled a global trafficking of Brazilian heritage by audiovisual and kinaesthetic means, they also legitimised the articulation of Brazilian desire to claim foreign cosmographic riches. The bilateral mobility schema is a priori deemed unequal, prompting one side to consume and the other to produce. The ceremony showcased three Brazilian treasures: nature, people and football. The Brazilian centre invites pilgrims-audiences to explore the community's moral values, practices and hierarchies as things to be admired from symbolic distance. Lines of children dressed as referees enter the pitch and others dressed as football players rhythmically kick small balls tied to their feet. The ceremonial conclusion with the World Cup's theme song 'We Are One' prompts us to investigate how the musical background and lyrics of musical 'texts' become a site of contested meanings and changing community ideals.
