“Olympians exhibit their art at Paris 2024”, created by the Musée de Lausanne, has been installed in the premises of the Palais de Tokyo, whose programming is suspended until October 17. The exhibition is part of “ClubHouse24”, a “high-end” private tourist and event reception space for Olympic Games spectators, which occupies the Palais de Tokyo for the duration of the Olympic Games. The exhibition is open until August 12 for visitors with access to “ClubHouse24”, but is not accessible to the general public.
Designed to highlight the works of Olympic athletes with an artistic practice, the exhibition presents 37 works by 7 Olympic medallists from different countries commissioned by the Lausanne Museum for the occasion. The works obviously evoke sport, through very diverse mediums. At the entrance to the exhibition, we find photographs of French fencer Enzo Lefort, currently competing, and paper cut-outs by British rowing specialist Annabel Eyres. Next come collages by René Concepcion, a Filipino swimmer, and sculptures by Clementine Stoney Maconachie, another Australian swimmer. American rower Grace Latz presents a textile fresco, and Canadian skater Brooklyn McDougall a series of portraits dedicated to the first female Olympic champions of Paris 1900.
Luc Abalo, French handball player and triple Olympic champion, is exhibiting a series of large-format oil paintings depicting athletes in full swing: a pale female boxer in blood-red clothing and a Paralympic athlete in the middle of a match. “I wanted to be a designer at first, I always had that in mind. When I went abroad to play, I always took my painting equipment with me”reveals the athlete, who maintains this artistic practice alongside his sporting career.
For the occasion, the handball player took part in the Olympic Museum’s commission, which required sports subjects: “I usually do portraits, I don’t necessarily paint sports. For these paintings, I kept the spirit of the portrait but added movement”he explains to us, confessing that boxing and its chiaroscuro rooms are for him the most interesting sporting subject to paint.
This is not the first commission for the athlete-artist, who has already produced three collaborative frescoes with the residents of a social housing and rehabilitation center in the 13th arrondissement. “We arrived with the canvases, the paints, the pictures and the residents were happy to paint” remembers the athlete. The mural is still in the center, and presented through several photographs in the exhibition.
Retired Olympic swimmer René Concepcion has also produced a collective work, in his own way. He explains to us the bias of his “family collages” in bright colors, made with his two sons. “My son, who was ill, used to tear up what I painted. I decided to use the torn pieces of paper for my collages, which I mixed with the drawings of my other illustrator son.” For the athlete, whose works evoke Art Brut, art, like sport, allows one to overcome obstacles: “Art has helped my whole family get better. The collages are hung all over our house.” he explains.
The exhibition is part of the “Olympian Artists Program”, launched and funded in 2018 by the Olympic Museum of Lausanne with the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The program, created to promote the works of artist-athletes, offered two production modalities to athletes: a solo production of works and a collaborative production with community social centers in collaboration with the City of Paris. Four Olympic athletes and one Paralympic athlete each did a one-week artistic residency in a social center in Paris.
“We wanted a touch of heritage in this vast immersive experience of “Club House 24”, a space that was a bit more gallery-like”explains Grace Latz, the exhibition curator. The Olympic Museum has also loaned a dozen historic Olympic torches, which are on display opposite the exhibition, with a “selfie” corner for those who want to experience the feeling of being on the roof of Olympus in a photo.
