Art, Dance, and the Olympics: A Unique Collaboration Among Five Prestigious French Cultural Institutions

2024-04-24 11:00:37

A healthy soul in a healthy body

Dance, art, treasure hunting, sports courses in prestigious galleries… Five of the largest French cultural institutions presented their unique system during a joint press conference on Tuesday 23 April.

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According to them, the Olympic feat has already taken place. On the occasion of the Olympics in Paris, the Louvre, the Pompidou Centre, the Orsay Museum, the Quai-Branly Museum and the Orangerie Museum worked together on a rich programme, often mixing art and dance, but not only that. Five of the largest French cultural institutions work together, “it’s a collector” laughs Laurent Le Bon, president of the Pompidou Centre, “turn to page 38 of the press kit, it’s marked and you’ll never see it again.” Specifically, this union gave birth to a puzzle path entitled “Five museums in play”, to look for Coubertin’s sentences, which must be found in the collections and decoded. “And the game works, that’s the second miracle,” adds Le Bon, almost jumping on a leather sofa installed in the Puget courtyard of the Louvre, under the huge glass ceiling and the gaze of neoclassical alabaster statues.

It is in this slightly crazy setting that the five museums came on Tuesday 23 April to present everything they envisioned as events that bring together sport and art, in addition to the treasure hunt that lasts until 2 June. All their programming was placed under the official banner of the Cultural Olympiad, a selection of more than 2,000 projects led by choreographer Dominique Hervieu of the Olympic Organizing Committee (Cojo). After the obligatory salami homework – “culture can make people move, sport can make people learn”, says the president of Cojo Tony Estanguet – the directors run in a loop to an anthem marked by anxiety: they will remain open in this very special summer to come. If the hundreds of thousands of sports tourists expected in Paris could not discourage “cultural” visitors and – better – if they could use a head in their museums, they would be better off in these complicated budget times for everyone and while the Court of Auditors has just rendered a scathing report on the management of the Pompidou Centre.

Marquesa’s stilts, walker and Olympic ball

A few steps from the Eiffel Tower and the Trocadéro, the Mecca of competitions, “we are almost by osmosis an Olympic venue”, promotes Jérôme Bastianelli, director of the Quai-Branly Museum. “We hope that you will come for the freshness of our garden, but also for our course in 2024” composed of objects never shown: stilts from the Marquise Islands or wrestling outfits from Persia. At the Orsay Museum, “even the medal section attracts people”, welcomes Pierre-Emmanuel Lecerf, the General Administrator, who recalls that his institution launched the Olympic festivities “early and loud”, in September, with walker Nathan Paulin tcrashes the ship 43 meters from the ground while nine acrobats choreographed by Rachid Ouramdane was aerobatics below. At the end of the week, the museum welcomes you choreographer Josepha Madoki during a conference and a “wobbly” performance, a “kind of arm hip-hop”summarizes a Lecerf with limited speaking time, just enough to announce one “hip hop parade” imagined by Mourad Merzouki and a “Olympic Ball” at the end of June, as a hundred years ago during the previous Paris Games. “Real sports ball in costume”, the event on 11 July 1924 was organized at the Olympia taverna by the Association of Russian Artists in Paris and Picasso, among others, signed the illustrations for the program.

Paul Guillaume, a young art dealer at the time, was one of the entertainers at this first Olympic ball. When he died ten years later, he bequeathed all his works to the Musée de l’Orangerie, incl THE Water lilies by Claude Monet which will serve as the setting for a performance by choreographers Johanna Faye and Saïdo Lehlouh on 27 May. And the Orangerie, a stone’s throw from the Concorde urban stadiums that is preparing to host BMX, breakdancing, 3×3 basketball and skateboarding competitions, will remain “wide open” throughout the summer, insists director Claire Bernardi.

“Muscle Strengthening”

Because it shares with the Olympics “the same universal calling”, emphasizes the president, Laurence Des Cars, that the Louvre has not skimped on the programming. In 1924, the museum hosted a meeting of the International Olympic Committee near the Napoleon III apartments. A hundred years later, they are “creators of our time” which is in the spotlight. In addition to the exhibition “Olympism, a modern invention, an ancient heritage” (until September 16), which tells the story of the genesis of Olympism, the museum humorously focuses on “muscle strengthening”. “You can love sports and art, it’s even highly recommended,” launches Laurence Des Cars, renamed welcoming power “the empress of the museums» for the morning by Laurent Le Bon.

Throughout the month of May, you will be able to visit the aforementioned exhibition in the company of a sports trainer to reproduce the exercises and positions of the statues. You can also run through the 17 km long gallery of the “world’s largest museum”. “7.30am is our museum before it opens to the public and the arrival of the 30,000 visitors expected each day, it’s magical,” exclaims choreographer Mehdi Kerkouche, inventor of the course. On Tuesday morning, after the speeches, around thirty yoga mats awaited the athletes for a day in the Marly courtyard. For disco, it will be under the gaze of Caryatides.

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