On the eve of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Vogue went in search of the best exhibitions to try out between two events, at the crossroads between art and sport.
Vogue AdriaJuly 30, 2024
France’s art institutions are quite prepared to welcome the legion of visitors who will descend on them. The eyes of many may be riveted on the athletes, stadiums and lawns that will punctuate the Olympic and Paralympic Summer Games. But there’s nothing to stop you from browsing in a museum between two events, away from the beating sun and the throngs of fans. From an ode to urban cultures to the titanic corridors of the Musée du Louvre, Vogue France offers a selection of exhibitions perfect for getting into the 2024 Olympic spirit.
Luc-Olivier-Merson.-Le-Soldat-de-Marathon.-1869.-Beaux-Arts-de-Paris©
What better way to kick off the festivities than with the quintessential Parisian museum? Until September 16, the Louvre is dedicating an exhibition to the Olympic Games with L’Olympisme – Une invention moderne, un héritage moderne. The exhibition’s curators are following in the footsteps of the first Olympic Games, combining iconographic sources with statuary from yesteryear. More than an umpteenth reverence for Pierre de Coubertin, the exhibition traces the twisted history of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. In the corridors of the Louvre, the ancient competitions of Olympia meet Michel Bréal, the man who designed the first cup to be awarded at the modern Games in Athens in 1896. The exhibition thus commemorates the arrival of the Olympic Games on the sporting scene, bringing forgotten figures to light from the twists and turns of history. Names that have lost some of their importance over time, but which have contributed to making the Olympics what they are today.
L’Olympisme – Une invention moderne, un héritage antique, an exhibition to discover until September 16 at the Musée du Louvre, 75001 Paris. Further information on Louvre.fr.
Une figurant Marguerite Broquedis – Fémina Sport, 1912, Papier journal© Collection Musée National du Spo
Why don’t sportswomen get the same attention – from the media and the public – as their male counterparts? To coincide with the 2024 Olympics, the Musée National du Sport in Nice is using images to combat 130 years of ostracized women’s sport. It is working to bring to light names such asAlice Milliat, a fervent campaigner against the misogyny of the time. These pioneers don’t just belong to a bygone era. Clarisse Agbegnenou, Simone Biles or Catherine Moyon de Baeque… It’s also these great names of the contemporary scene that are celebrated: these icons that we can see on our screens today, who are still fighting for bastions not yet conquered. From the first female presence at the Olympics to the #MeToo wave, not forgetting the various social hostilities that have marked the years, Les Elles des Jeux renews the focus on these figures too long disavowed by the industry.
Les Elles des Jeux, an exhibition to be discovered until September 22, 2024 at the Musée National du Sport, 6 Allée Camille Muffat, 06200 Nice. Further information on Museedusport.fr.
Photo: Stephane Laure
The fruit of a collaboration between Paris, je t’aime (the new name of the Parisian tourist office) and the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, SPOT24 is a UFO between museum classicism and children’s playground. At the foot of the Eiffel Tower, the course has just opened its doors with one ambition: to marry sport and urban culture. To this end, SPOT24 puts the spotlight on six disciplines recently added to the list of Olympic events, which have their roots in marginalized movements. Curated by François Gautret, the exhibition sheds light on the connections between climbing and skateboarding, as well as 3×3 basketball. A host of thematic spaces are complemented by arcade games from the 80s and original works created specifically for the exhibition. A hymn to the dialogue between urban cultures and the creative industries.
SPOT24, the Olympic exhibition of sport and urban cultures, is on show until December 2024 at SPOT24, 101 quai Jacques Chirac, 75015 Paris. Further information on Parisjetaime.com.
Maillots de bain, par Peter Knapp, 1971© Peter Knapp, Palais Galliera : Paris Musées
For almost 50 years, fashion has been embracing bodies and eras at the Palais Galliera. Last June, the museum hosted the first exhibition of Fashion in Motionan exhibition featuring 200 works from the palace’s own collection, complemented by exceptional loans from Chanel and Yohji Yamamoto. After an initial display last year, the museum unveiled the second part of the exhibition in April. This time, it’s the seaside resort that is dissected by the palace, in a specific section of the exhibition. In fact, the Palais Galliera is devoting a special focus to the panoplies that accompany seaside bathing: the transformation of swimwear, beach accessories and relationships to the body is examined by the curators of Fashion in Motion. In addition to resonating with the Olympic Games, the exhibition heralds the arrival of summer, vacations and grains of sand.
La mode en mouvement, a second exhibition to be discovered until January 5, 2025 at Palais Galliera – Musée de la Mode de Paris, 10 avenue Pierre 1er de Serbie, 75116 Paris. Further information at Palaisgalliera.paris.fr.
Octave Guillonnet, La Partie de tennis, 1925, huile sur toile, 59 x 72 cm, Dijon, musée des Beaux-Arts© Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon:François Jay + © ADAGP, Paris 2024
How did sport become an essential part of everyday life in the space of a few decades? How did it become a practice fully embraced by all social circles? At the Musée Marmottan Monet, artists have a front-row seat to the changes that accompanied the second half of the 19th century. The exhibition En jeu! Artists and Sport (1870-1930) brings together over 150 works, crystallizing the revolution in leisure time during this period. Rather than just a leisure activity, sport became a new breed of celebrity. The world’s famous stadium stars were born, glittering with success and magnetizing the public eye. Under the brushstrokes of the Impressionists and their successors, physical activity became a political and social issue: it left mundane circles to embrace the transformations of cities and work.
Let’s play! Artists and Sport (1870-1930), an exhibition on view until September 1, 2024 at the Musée Marmottan Monet, 2 rue Louis Boilly, 75016 Paris. Further information on Marmottan.fr.
Design Lisa Lindahl, Polly Smith, Hinda, JogBra®, 1977, MATCH 2024© JogBra®
An everyday art par excellence, design is often underestimated and unsuspected, especially when it comes to sport. Naturally, our attention is focused on the cult of performance, the activity of the Athlete with a capital A – sometimes neglecting all the equipment that surrounds him or her, specifically tailored to the needs of effort. It is this often-obscured marriage that the institution is highlighting in this exhibition. With over 150 exhibits, MATCH. Design & sport – a history looking to the future reviews a plethora of themes, proving just how much design and sport need to be thought of together to better imagine future sportsmen and women. From the optimization of human capabilities to the advent of extended reality: the Musée du Luxembourg pushes the boundaries of design.
MATCH. Design & sport – a history looking to the future, an exhibition to be discovered until August 11, 2024 at the Musée du Luxembourg, 19 rue Vaugirard, 75006 Paris. Further information on Museeduluxembourg.fr.
Étienne-Jules Marey (1830-1904). Photo: Collège de France. Archives.
A stone’s throw from the effervescence of the Stade de France, the Musée d’art et d’histoire Paul Eluard takes a fresh look at the status of the athlete. Indeed, La mécanique de l’exploit – Le corps à l’épreuve du sport (The mechanics of achievement – The body put to the test by sport ) devotes an exhibition to the age-old question of surpassing oneself, the topos of the sporting industry. At rest or exhausted, mutilated or groomed… Athletic stature already fascinated ancient thinkers, sculpting in marble models perceived as the paroxysm of human activity. From there, the museum takes us on a journey of aesthetic and scientific reflection on the ways in which performance is represented – in particular, the conditions required to achieve such feats. Artists and witnesses are invited to take part in the making of a champion, sailing through the intensity of the pace, the glitter of records and the bitterness of defeat.
Photo: Collections du Musée National du Sport, Nice
The Panthéon is dedicating its new exhibition to the second half of the Olympiad, too often neglected by spectators. Erected as a tribute to the great names of the nation, the monument honors the Paralympic Games, which are being held in Paris for the first time. Histoires paralympiques – De l’intégration sportive à l’inclusion sociale (1948-2024 ) celebrates almost a century of struggle and commitment to inclusion. The exhibition owes its opening date to July 29, 1948, the launch of a “Sports Day” for people with spinal injuries, devised by neurosurgeon Ludwig Guttman. This day to promote rehabilitative sport was followed by a more global movement to recognize disabled athletes. From the first Games to contemporary classifications, the exhibition provides an overview of the evolution of Paralympism. A must-see.
Histoires paralympiques – De l’intégration sportive à l’inclusion sociale (1948-2024), an exhibition to be discovered until September 29, 2024 at the Panthéon, place du Panthéon, 75005 Paris. Further information on Paris-pantheon.fr.
At the Archives municipales de Marseille, the city’s Greco-Roman roots are under the spotlight. Champion! Une histoire populaire du sport is the result of a co-production with the Cabinet des Monnaies et Médailles, drawing on the city’s collections. Medals, sculptures, old books and photographs… The exhibition explores the long history of sport in Marseille, starting with the great encounters of antiquity. Greek temples dedicated to physical culture meet the advent of modern sport through artifacts, relics of lost times. The reflection extends to another of the municipality’s institutions. The exhibition Marseille et le sport, corps et histoires en mouvement (Marseille and sport: bodies and stories in motion ) at the Musée d’Histoire, which runs concurrently with the exhibition at the Archives municipales, highlights the importance of sport in shaping the city’s modern history. An immersion into the mysteries of Marseille, which will host the sailing and soccer events at the 2024 Olympics.
Champion! A popular history of sport, an exhibition to be discovered until September 27, 2024 at the Archives de Marseille, 10 rue Clovis-Hugues, 13005 Marseille. Further information on Archives.marseille.fr.
Located just a few steps from the coastline, the Musée de Tahiti et des Îles honors surfing in its new exhibition entitled Hōrue, Vagues d’hier et d’aujourd’hui. Elevated to Olympic status in 2020, surfing plans to bring competitors from around the world to Tahiti’s beaches for the 2024 Olympic Games events. And for the institution, it’s an opportunity to bring together some twenty artists from the local scene, to honor the sport’s history. Inspiring fashion, music and cinema, the love of the wave is placed in the context of the oral traditions native to Tahiti and French Polynesia. An approach that runs counter to the collective imagination, which tends to think of surfing strictly in terms of the Hawaiian Islands. Combining sound installations, painted boards and both abstract and figurative works, the exhibition stirs our fascination with the secrets of the shores.
Hōrue, Vagues d’hier et d’aujourd’hui, an exhibition to be discovered until September 27, 2024 at the Musée de Tahiti et des Îles, 380354 Punavai, Puna’auia 98718, French Polynesia. Further information on Museetahiti.pf.
