OLYMPICS x ART / FASTER? HIGHER? STRONGER?
Co.Galerie, Paris
September 25 – October 25, 2020
Co.Galerie presents a group show with artists Aram Bartholl, Doron Beuns, Ben Elliot, Bartek Gorny, Raja’a Khalid, NONFOOD (Lucy Chinen, Sean Raspet, Dennis Oliver Schroer), Lou Parisot, Pamela Rosenkranz, Melika Shafahi, Url Fighters, Annie Van Noortwijk.
Curated by Alexis Loisel-Montambaux and conceived by Victor Le de Doisy & Jonathan Schurdevin, the exhibition explores the aesthetic and mentalities related to sports and more broadly around the body. It digs into the desire of going beyond your limits, feeling part of a community, being tied to a territory and trying to take care of it as we are taking care of ourselves.
Marketing and major brands such as Olympics sponsors induce us to think sports are also a way of life: adapt your style, improve your fitness, optimize your performance, transform your body.
In times of mass circulation of images which are often standardized, these injunctions influence our canons of beauty and our behaviour, leading to an obsession with self-optimization, driving us to always be more competitive and more productive.
Yet, this year the Olympics have been postponed. There is no competition; it is a time out. Thus, Faster? Higher? Stronger?
This group show includes works by 11 contemporary artists and collectives from 9 countries (France, Germany, Iran, Israel, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, United States). Among them, 4 artists will be exhibited for the first time in France.
Their work revolves around installation, sound, performance, photography, video, merchandising and even scent and taste. Offering a wide variety of works, they tackle themes linked to the body or to the way of life in times of mass circulation of images.
The exhibition at the co.galerie will be completed by a digital part of the exhibition, which will allow an additional immersion in the world of each of these artists.
Reviving the original spirit of the Olympic Games
By the Paris Olympic Games in 2024, this project will have other components in other Olympic cities, including Tôkyô in 2021.
‘OLYMPICS x ART – Faster? Higher? Stronger?’ thus revives the practice of collaborating with artists for the Olympics since Pierre de Coubertin,
the French Baron who created the International Olympic Committee in 1894.
Each printed invitation is impregnated with a bay laurel smell (essential oil). Laurus nobilis, also called Apollo’s laurel tree is known for being the
winners’ plant, with the crown made of laurel since the Greek Antiquity (Delphi Olympics). In many mediterranean countries, this plant is still
said to help self confidence and give strength.
The co.galerie opened in march 2020 in Paris, in Pigalle district. It is led by Victor Le de Doisy. The gallery shows emerging artists and collectives, as well as projects by established artists.