Culture has been an integral part of the Olympic and Paralympic Games since their inception; from 1912 to 1949, sculpture, architecture, literature, music, and painting were even among the competition’s disciplines. Today, the Olympics keep this spirit alive through an official series of events named the ‘Cultural Olympiad’, alongside countless offspring that invariably arise in every host city. The Paris Games will take place during the French art scene’s notoriously long summer break, but many galleries and institutions have chosen to remain open this year – and they are hosting exhibitions that link the notions of art and sports. The inventive interpretations of the sportive order of the day range from an artist’s collages of official Olympic posters to a skateable sculpture, a futuristic survey of sports ergonomics, and an interactive take on amusement parks.

Clotilde Jiménez
‘The Long Run’
Mariane Ibrahim
Through September 28, 2024

To Clotilde Jiménez, sports are a family matter: His father was a bodybuilder, and the athletic repertoire is a lens through which he engages with broader topics such as masculinity or Queer and Black identities. Last year, the American artist was commissioned to create two collages as official posters for the Paris Games. While those posters – part of the ‘Art Poster’ initiative, featuring posters by six artists in total – are now displayed in a show touring 500 French cities, original works-on-paper by the young artist can be seen in his second solo show at Mariane Ibrahim’s Paris space. Swimmers, surfers, water dancers, ballers, fencers, and riders burst through collaged elements with choreographic precision, telling a tale of collective effort rather than solipsistic competition.

‘The Art of the Olympics’
Gagosian (rue de Ponthieu and rue de Castiglione) in association with the Olympic Museum
Through September 7, 2024

The Games produce an endless trove of fun facts. This year, for instance, cloth from Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s memorable installation L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped (1961–2021) has been repurposed for the events’ tents. Simultaneously, Christo is one of the artists featured in ‘The Art of the Olympics’, a two-part show held in both of Gagosian’s Paris galleries. At the rue de Castiglione gallery, Christo’s drawing Running Fence (1974) – a sketch for a temporary public project in Northern California – shares the space with playful pairings of works by nine other contemporary artists. The stern geometry of Andreas Gursky’s soccer field, Amsterdam, Arena I (2000), finds an unexpected counterpart in Takashi Murakami’s Space Invaders-inspired painting, Shooting Game: Landscape of My Youth (2023). Hanging from the ceiling, Marc Newson’s Black Surfboard (2017) sparks goofy narratives when paired Duane Hanson’s hyperrealistic Bodybuilder (1989–90). A 20-minute walk away, the gallery on rue de Ponthieu showcases a selection of posters from the Olympic Museum in Lausanne with landmark designs by David Hockney, Robert Rauschenberg, and Rachel Whiteread, among others.

Raphaël Zarka
Cycloïd Piazza
Centre Pompidou Piazza
Through September 15, 2024

An artist, skateboarder, and self-proclaimed ‘collector of forms’, Raphaël Zarka’s breakthrough project was ‘Riding Modern Art’. Initiated in 2005, the French artist at first assembled photographs from various skateboarding magazines showing skaters performing tricks on sculptures installed in urban space; he continued the project by making his own photographs and films on the same subject. Over two decades, Zarka’s work has encompassed geometry, gravity, Modernism, board sports, and a good dose of adrenaline, and all are present within Cycloïd Piazza (2024), his monumental new sculpture for the Centre Pompidou’s Piazza. Drawing from Galileo’s ramps, used to study falling bodies with marbles, as well as female Constructivists such as Lyubov Popova, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, and Sonia Delaunay, the curved structure juxtaposes planes of pure, primary colors and is open to be skated by professionals and amateurs alike.

‘Gold Rush’
Lafayette Anticipations
Through September 1, 2024

It is fun, it is immersive, it is interactive, it is a theme park! Lafayette Anticipations has teamed up with Ebb.Global, a creative studio using innovative technology, to turn its spaces into a temporary amusement park. Borrowing from both cultural industries and gaming culture, the family-friendly ‘Gold Rush’ attunes itself to the dreams, fears, and hopes of young people as it attempts to imagine new sports and rewrite the rules of games. Robots, spaceships, and fitness bikes are hybridized with role-playing activities, mini golf, and somewhat absurd sports quizzes, all of which delineate their own ultra-bright, DIY environments. The project – curated by artist Neïl Beloufa with Rebecca Lamarche-Vadel, director of Lafayette Anticipations, and filmmaker Clément Postec – was co-created with 60 students from a vocational secondary school in the northern suburbs of Paris and concludes one chapter of a year-long, ongoing educational training program.

‘MATCH: Design & Sport – A Story Looking to the Future’
Musée du Luxembourg
Through August 11, 2024

Sport is not all muscles and sweat: Entire subtexts of gear, prosthetics, rules, and datasets unfurl on the sidelines. In this way, the fields of design and sports stand in close connection, having always fed each other through their common quest for excellence. German designer Konstantin Grcic, the chief curator and scenographer of ‘MATCH’, tells this story through 150 objects, including the first female sports bra (JogBra, 1977) and the unofficial flag of the ‘refugee team’ at the Rio Olympic Games in 2016. The otherwise tranquil museum is transformed into an arena of sorts, where the artifacts are interspersed with slogans printed on the walls, cheering on visitors to ‘Overpower. Overtake. Overcome.’ The story told is a multilayered one, careful not to indulge in retrofuturism; not to leave Prometheus unchecked in the name of the game.

‘The Collection: A Sports Meeting’
Fondation Louis Vuitton
Through September 9, 2024

On its second floor, the Fondation Louis Vuitton presents five works from its collection in a dreamy celebration of the impulse to challenge norms and laws, both societal and natural. Abraham Poincheval appears to be wandering through the ether in the video installation Walk on Clouds (2019), while a series of red kayaks suspended from the ceiling condense humanity’s basic need for speed in Roman Signer’s Installation mit Kajaks (2003). Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Napoleonic Stereotype Circa 44 (1983) retells the story of how African American boxer Joe Louis, hitherto undefeated, lost against German Max Schmeling in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, a result exploited by Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. In this fateful painting, a chess-like grid covers the canvas: The stylized protagonists face each other as world history is about to tip over.

‘L’image en Seine’
Jeu de Paume at Paris Plages
Through September 1, 2024

It remains unclear to this day whether the general public will ever be able to (safely) swim in the Seine, but a stroll along the banks of the Canal Saint-Martin will unveil an experience of the water by proxy. The art center Jeu de Paume, devoted to photography, film, and video, has put together an outdoor exhibition along the canal in celebration of its 20th anniversary. Expect a selection of photographs showing Paris and its waterways and urban swimmers as captured by photographers including Robert Capa, André Kertész, Luigi Ghirri, Laure Albin Guillot, and Martin Parr. For those in search of an actual swim, a pool area has been created in this specific part of the canal – as it is every summer – and is open to the public on Sundays.