France, which recently ran the risk of turning to the extreme right in its national elections, seems to have not yet balanced itself. Just before the start of the Games there was chaos on the country's rail network, and there was a bomb warning at an airport on the Franco-Swiss border. Sabotage, criminal activity, far-left extremists? everything is assumed. One problem followed another, and after the trains, there was also sabotage of fiber optic networks. Besides, athletes got sick because they swam in the Seine, from the poor quality of the waters, despite assurances to the contrary. Some even swam next to sewers! Not even the embodiment of the Roman deity Sequana, which the organizers tried to present at the ceremony, as the Sequana took its name from her, did not help to protect the athletes!
France also faces a serious problem with immigration. As Francis Fukuyama, a renowned political analyst, observes, the French not only have a high level of immigration from Muslim countries, but have also failed to integrate immigrants into French culture, making immigration a challenge to their social system.
It is, unfortunately, a fact that the European Union has not taken the issue seriously enough with political consequences in many countries, including ours.
The Olympic Games in Paris were games of indescribable diversity. Sharp, but so expressive Ark's sketch with the Eiffel Tower resting on a circus stage! a show that, on the surface, brought it all together, both in terms of music and thematics, which satisfied some, but most did not like it, as was evident from the strong reactions the ceremony caused. The ideals of the Olympic Games, such as noble competition, the fellowship of peoples, the Olympic truce and world peace, were absent. The Olympic spirit was not tied to the performances of the ceremony. Incomprehensible, moreover, the route of the flame with the hooded person who surrounded it, the inexplicable concealment of the face of the mysterious horsewoman, who carried the Olympic flag, even the reverberation of the national anthem of France, which turned into... aria!
The culture of France, its education, its cultivation, its democratic ideas had no need of such a frantic display. The ceremony of 2024 also gave the message of the times: material goods and display of opulence, no deep meaning of the historical struggles, a ceremony subversive and...revolutionary like that, without a cause. This, unfortunately, is the message of our time, which does not portend a smooth future.
At the end of the opening ceremony the representation of eternity (ETERNITE) did it mean that this ceremony will stay in... eternity? I confess that I remembered the Olympic Games, twenty years ago, in my homeland.
The curtain of the Olympic Games in Paris fell, and the closing ceremony, called Records, aimed to leave its mark on the Olympic games, and to honor the achievements of the athletes. She also moved, of course, in the same spirit of the new era, but with some respect for the past and traditions. Jolie attempted to portray another world that is fantastic and impressive. He planned a performance theatrical, choreographic, acrobatic, with an opera dimension, in order to become a great celebration for the athletes from all over the world. In this ceremony, he honored the past by referring to the French historical heritage, but also to the homeland of the Olympic Games. It was indeed moving the ceremony dedicated to Greece that gave birth to the Olympic Games thousands of years ago, with the Greek flag in the center of the Stadium to the sound of our national anthem, the Victory of Samothrace, and the Hymn to Apollo from the floating pianist. The emblem, in fact, of the Olympic Games in Paris 2024, the Olympic Altar, is thought to be installed permanently in the French capital.
Jolly was inspired by an end to the Games really... jolie for their story with the scent of Greece, and we thank our French friends for the special and unforgettable honor they bestowed upon us.
photo https://parametric-architecture.com/paris-olympics-2024-a-close-up-of-this-years-sports-venues/
