“Cultural Olympiad” takes off until 2024
The Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris are launching their “Cultural Olympiad”, projects that combine arts and sport in several cities in France until the summer of 2024.
“The idea is that the sporting experience is augmented by the cultural experience”summary to AFP Dominique Hervieu, artistic director in charge of culture at Paris 2024, former director of the Maison de la Danse and director of the Lyon dance biennale.
“It’s a multidisciplinary artistic and cultural program, all disciplines (painting, comics, photography, theater, performance, dance….) are summoned including fashion, gastronomy…”she explained, and this throughout the territory.
The kick-off was given on Monday from the headquarters of the Olympic Games Organizing Committee (Cojo) in Saint-Denis, in the presence of the Minister of Culture Rima Abdul Malak and the Minister of Sports Amélie Oudéa-Castéra. The organization of such a cultural Olympiad is part of the specifications of the Olympic Games, an Olympiad being the four-year period between two Olympic Games. Its launch was delayed by the pandemic.
“This must be the occasion for a great decompartmentalization”pleaded Monday with ardor Dominique Hervieu in front of an audience of persons in charge of the world of the Culture.
The initiative relies on local authorities which are labeled “Land of Games” while the Ministry of Culture will operate the Drac.
Calls for projects are launched and some projects are already in the making. The president of La Villette, Didier Fusillier, reported on the project carried out with schools of architecture to “dismountable and reinstallable follies” to house the federations and sponsors at Parc La Villette while the France club, a very prominent place during the Olympic period, should take place there.
“We encourage people to leave theatres, cinemas and museums to meet new audiences, play in the streets, public spaces, parks… To make art in sports heritage or sports venues”adds Ms. Hervieu, who arrived at the Cojo three months ago.
In the Centre-Val-de-Loire region, there are “a show project by Emmanuelle Huet with the Orchester symphonique du Loiret and the urban dance company of Simon Dimouro with the intervention of skateboarders”. At the Philarmonie de Paris, it is a symphony orchestra made up of children far from the world of music, likely an instrument has been given, which will come into being. A similar project is being considered with children on dance.
In Seine-Saint-Denis, the collective of theaters “Beauty of the gesture” works on a popular and festive parade. In Paris, the Louvre, Quai Branly, Orsay and Pompidou museums are working on a sort of “art history competition” with an enigma course, further detailed Dominique Hervieu.