The essential
Like each edition of the Games since 1912, the Paris Games (July 26-August 11, 2024) also benefit from a promotional poster, which will soon be plastered in many places in the capital.
A “rich” and “surreal” diptych: the poster for the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games was unveiled on Monday, March 4 at the Musée d’Orsay before being plastered “everywhere in Paris” this week.
Illustrated by artist Ugo Gattoni, known for his murals and drawn “performances” as he describes them, these posters required 2,000 hours of work from him. They were unveiled in large format in the nave of the Musée d’Orsay, one of the main museums in Paris.
Every edition of the Olympics since 1912 has had its own poster. For this 33rd edition, it’s a diptych with an Olympic and a Paralympic part, following the graphic charter of the Olympics.
The poster for Paris 2024 prominently features the Eiffel Tower, with the Stade de France surrounding it like a lifebuoy, a wheelchair tennis court on top of the Arc de Triomphe, and in the foreground, a diver advancing above the light green Seine: fantasy is on the agenda.
“I wanted something epic, grandiose, but also a feeling of joyful celebration, bustling, hyper-rich,” explained the artist at a press meeting before the official presentation of his work.
“A surreal bet where we try to maintain a lot of poetry and humor,” he summarizes. The Gardens of Versailles are found in front of the Eiffel Tower. Eight mascots, the “Phryges” red plush toys in the shape of a Phrygian cap, are hidden in this very rich design. No French flag – unlike the 1924 Games poster where it appeared behind bare-chested men – but a Marianne and the “Paris 2024” logo.
“For four months, I locked myself in my studio, and that was it day and night,” Ugo Gattoni recounted. “It’s a poster that must work in 100 years,” he also said. Gattoni, whose Hermès scarves are also among his collaborations, has scattered his Olympic poster with a “flying” pinkish material that “multiplies”: his trademark he calls “blump” and inserts into all his drawings.
The artist, who studied swimming in sports school and wanted to be a “professional swimmer,” signed his first mural, 10 meters long drawn with a rotring pen, coming out of his art school. His official poster for the Olympic (July 26 – August 11) and Paralympic (August 28 – September 8) Games will be offered for sale as well as in merchandise (coloring poster, puzzle…).
