Paris 2024 unveils surrealistic official posters

PARIS – With a nod to Surrealism and an obsession with detail, the official posters for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, unveiled on March 4, highlight the French capital’s historic monuments and sports facilities.

The respective posters for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, designed by Parisian artist Ugo Gattoni, complement each other to form a double poster.

They illustrate the main historical monuments in Paris, such as the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe and Grand Palais. They also show the sports venues and facilities to be used during the Olympic and Paralympic Games – the Stade de France, River Seine and Pont Alexandre III, but also the sea, in a reference to Marseille and the Teahupo’o surfing site in Tahiti.

The posters are inspired by the surrealist artistic movement, with a level of precision and detail unprecedented in the history of the Games.

Through this artistic choice, Paris 2024 is paying tribute to the Surrealist Manifesto written by Andre Breton and published in 1924, the year of the last Paris Games.

Eight official mascots of Paris 2024 are hidden in these posters in a thinly veiled reference to the famous children’s puzzle book series Where’s Wally?

“This represents some 2,000 hours of work,” said Gattoni.

“When I was asked to design the iconic posters for Paris 2024, I immediately imagined a city stadium open to the world, a suspended time in which you can wander through microcosms where Parisian monuments and sporting disciplines joyfully coexist.

“It’s an incredible opportunity to have my work shown to the world, it’s great. It’s very important to me that a piece of art has a life in its own time.”

The posters will be displayed at the Musee d’Orsay until March 11.

President of the Paris 2024 organising committee Tony Estanguet complimented Gattoni on his work. “His highly colourful world captures all the richness and diversity of our project,” he said.

“A veritable fresco showcasing sport in the city, these posters are also an ode to our motto – ‘Games wide open’. They tell the story of our Games, a story that is at once festive, moving and universal, and that speaks to each and every one of us.”

In other Olympic news, the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) on March 4 called on the federal government to increase financial support to national sport organisations (NSO), which it says are overstretched.

The request for additional funding comes less than five months before the start of the July 26-Aug 11 Paris Olympics.

A Deloitte study commissioned by the COC and Canadian Paralympic Committee (CPC) said the country’s 61 NSOs need an extra 104 million Canadian dollars (S$102.9 million) in direct funding annually.

According to the budget request, 90 per cent of NSOs rely on federal government funding as their primary source of revenue.

Without additional funding, a five-year forecast showed the bodies that govern amateur sports across Canada would run a deficit of $134 million Canadian dollars while attempting to deliver on their primary mandates.

The COC said Canada’s sport system is struggling to keep up with rising costs.

“We have known this was a growing issue but seeing the numbers in black and white really highlight that we’re on the brink of a crisis,” COC chief David Shoemaker said.

“NSOs cannot continue on this trajectory. They can’t run deficits, and if nothing changes, difficult decisions will have to be made.”

The COC and CPC also said NSOs were being asked to do more with fewer resources, and that the progress which has been made in safe sport, gender equity, community access and mental health support, among others, is in “jeopardy”.

“Our day-to-day costs are increasing with inflation... but we also have an important role in ensuring sport is as safe and inclusive as possible,” said Canoe Kayak Canada CEO Casey Wade.

“We cannot properly fulfil those duties without an increase in funding.” REUTERS, AFP