En route to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games: the Cultural Olympiad gets underway
The Paris 2024 Olympic Games share the values of Olympism and showcase French sports, arts, culture, and heritage. These fields and disciplines interact during the Cultural Olympiad, held in Paris until the closing ceremony of the Paralympic Games in September 2024
Paris Cultural Olympiad
Pierre de Coubertin, known as the father of the modern Olympic Games, believed that the combination of ‘muscle and mind’ (sport and art) was one of the core values of the Games. Although sculpture, architecture, literature, music, and painting were considered Olympic disciplines from 1912 to 1949, the arts gradually disappeared from the competitions. Nevertheless, these artistic disciplines are well represented during the games in the Cultural Olympiad – and a key part of the charter of the Games – organized alongside this major world sporting event.
For three seasons, Paris will be programming cultural, artistic, sporting and heritage events to showcase the cultural richness of France and create exciting experiences and memories for as many people as possible.
Programme of the Paris Cultural Olympiad
In 2022, the City of Paris is launching a major call for projects to create a varied and attractive programme of events. Artists, associations, cultural and sports institutions, and many others, can submit their ideas. There are a number of selection criteria: the project must be linked to sport and artistic expression, take place in a sports venue, or highlight fundamental values of sport and culture such as diversity, inclusiveness, or excellence ...
Although much of the programme remains to be defined according to the candidates selected, some events have already been held or are ongoing. In October 2021, the choreographer Mourad Merzouki presented his ‘connected dance’ project on the square of Paris City Hall. A tapestry inspired by the Olympic Games designed by the Franco-Iranian artist Marjane Satrapi is already being woven in the workshops of the legendary Gobelins factory. It will decorate an iconic venue of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The Olympic Days, summer events during the ‘Olympic Forms’ festival, European Heritage Days, and Nuit Blanche will also be highlights of the Cultural Olympiad.
The City of Paris also offers ‘Paris Sports + Culture Holidays’, courses combining sporting and cultural activities. Aimed at young people aged 7 to 17, these courses take place in summer, subject to prior enrolment.
In Fontainebleau, on the forecourt of the Fontainebleau - Avon train station, the Sporting emotions in Fontainebleau country exhibition celebrates the pleasure of practising sports in a natural environment, and more particularly in the Fontainebleau region, an emblematic sports destination and a place of preparation for the athletes taking part in the Olympic and Paralympic Games of Paris 2024. Many Olympic sports are practised here: rowing, horse riding, golf, archery, triathlon, etc. These disciplines - and many others - are shown in the 27 large-format photographs by Éléonore Henry de Frahan. An open-air exhibition, free of charge and with the Cultural Olympiad label, to be discovered from 3 September 2022.
From 3 to 5 February 2023, the event Paris face cachée offers several unusual visits to little-known and often original places in Paris and Greater Paris, as part of the Cultural Olympiad: an introduction to breaking, an introduction to boxing in a brand new ring in Alfortville, a team experience in an Art Deco swimming pool in the 16th arrondissement... Reservation required.
More info on the Paris Cultural Olympiad
