Cultural Views of the Olympics

Olympische Studien (Olympic Studies)
Editorial Bord
Eike Emrich · Karen Joisten · Manfred Messing
Norbert Müller · Otto Schantz · Stephan Wassong
Ingomar Weiler

Volume 16

Kassel, Agon Sportverlag

Norbert Müller · Manfred Messing · Klaus Schormann (eds.)

Cultural Views of the Olympics“citius, altius, fortius,pulchrius, humanius”

Kassel, Agon Sportverlag, 2016

DE PEN
ALE
TA
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IO

MODERNON
E
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ION INTERNAUN
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With the support of

UIPM

Agon Sportverlag, Kassel 2016
Frankfurter Str. 92A, D 34121 Kassel© Sportwissenschaftliche Gesellschaft Mainz e.V.
swgmz@t-online.de
Desktop publishing and print:
Pretty Print, Mainz, www.pretty-print.de
Cover design: Katharina Galuba
Poster Collection: Research Team Olympia at theMainz University & Archives N. MüllerContents
Preface by the Editors

7

Cultural Context of the Olympic Games
Otl Aicher
Olympia and Arts

13

Donald Masterson
The Relationship of Art and Sport:
The Relevance of Coubertin’s Views Today

19

Jeffrey N. Babcock
Towards a Synergistic Link between
Olympic Games and the Cultural Olympiad

31

Manfred Messing / Norbert Müller
Eurythmics as a Key Concept of Coubertin’s Olympism –A Systematic Approach47

Evaluations of the Olympic Cultural Programfrom Montreal 1976 to London 2012
Alexander Priebe
The Cultural Program of the Olympic Games
1952 to 1988 – An Overview

65

Vera Steffens
Visual Art in the Context of the 1976 Olympic Cultural Programin Montreal 1976 and the Scandal about “Corridart”

71

Daniela Rohe
The Cultural Olympiad of Barcelona 1988-92. –Their Significance in the Context of the Olympic Games

77

Craig Hassall
Sydney 2000 Olympic Games Cultural Programme

89

Manfred Messing / Norbert Müller / Klaus Schormann
Response of Modern Pentathlon Spectators
about Olympic Arts Festival Sydney 2000

97

Raymond T. Grant / Manfred Messing
Staging the Olympic Arts Festival Salt Lake 2002 (An Interview)103Research Team Olympia University of Mainz
On the Meaning of the Cultural Programfor Biathlon Spectators in Salt Lake 2002

117

Eleni Theodoraki
Athens 2004 Cultural Olympiad:
Its Rhetoric, its Political and its Challenge

123

Roy Panagiatopoulou
The Cultural Olympiad of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games:

133

Katja Meyer
The Opening Ceremonies of Munich 1972 andAthens 2004 – A Comparative Structural Analysis

159

Piero Addis
Italyart – The Cultural Olympiad of Torino 2006

173

Michaela Ivak
Evaluation of the Cultural Program Beijing 2008 –Survey by Modern Pentathlon Spectators

177

Katie Scholl / Katharina Galuba / Research Team Olympia
Evaluation of the Cultural Olympiad by Biathlon Spectators
in Whistler during the Olympic Winter Games 2010 in Vancouver

189

Manfred Messing / Norbert Müller / Klaus Schormann
Olympic Spectators’ Resonance Concerning the London 2012 Festival

197

Thoughts for Future Olympic Cultural Programs
Lamartine P. DaCosta.
The Contribution of Arts to Coubertin’s
Conceptions towards a Sport Global Culture

207

Burke Taylor / Research Team Olympia University of Mainz
Setting a New Bar for Cultural Olympiadsof Olympic Winter Games. (An Interview)

217

International Olympic Committee
Guide on Cultural Olympiad Post Vancouver
Olympic Winter Games (Executive Summary)

226

Norbert Müller / Manfred Messing / Klaus Schormann
Suggestions by the Editors to Promote Olympic Cultural Programs

230

Prefaceby the Editors

Coubertin valued “beauty [as] the involvement of the arts and the mind in the[Olympic] Games […] to be realized through participation in the Games” 1 asan essential element of modern Olympism.
Therefore, Hans Lenk, Gold medalist 1960 and great international
philosopher, proposed an extension of the Olympic Motto into “citius – altius– fortius – pulchrius – humanius”2 to include aesthetic and humanistic
thoughts constructing an Olympic ideal. Inspired by Lenk’s proposal, we
chose the extended motto as subtitle of this book to accentuate the “cultural
views of Olympics”.
The goal assigned to the Olympic cultural program by the IOC is to promoteharmonious relations, mutual understanding and friendship among theparticipants and visitors of the Olympics Games.3
Empirical surveys conducted by the Research Team Olympia (University ofMainz in cooperation with the Universities Kaiserslautern, Saarbrücken andKiel) show that in London, for instance, 32% of 778 Modern Pentathlon
spectators did not see any connection between the Olympic Games and theLondon Cultural Festival . 28% even denied having received any information“about exhibitions and cultural events of the London 2012 Festival”. Despitea huge, manifold and sometimes even public range of events, a majority of
69% stated in the questionnaire that they had not seen any cultural event of in
London. It should be noted that the Pentathlon competitions took place
during the last two days of the Olympic Games. Therefore, spectators had
plenty of opportunities to attend cultural events previously.4
This observation leads to the conclusion that 100 years after the first
implementation of an of Olympic Arts program in Stockholm (in form ofcompetitions) the need to strengthen its impact on sport spectators and thewider public for approaching Coubertin’s pedagogic vision still persists: “toreunite the Muscles and the Mind, once divorced, in the bonds of a legitimate
marriage”.5
Following the principle of a “learning organization”, optimizing an Olympic
cultural program from one Olympiad to another on many different levels (e.g.
1

Coubertin, Pierre de: The Philosophic Foundation of Modern Olympics. Les assises philosophiques del’Olympisme moderne. [1935], 2000, p.583.
Lenk, Hans: “The Essence of Olympic Man: Toward an Olympic Philosophy and Anthropology”. In:
International Journal of Physical Education 21. 1984, No. 2, p. 13.
3
See Olympic Charter, Lausanne, IOC, 2013.
4
We would like to take this opportunity to thank Dr Eike Emrich from the Saarland University and Dr. Jens
Flatau from the Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel for their commitment and expertise.
5
Coubertin, Pierre de: Speech at the Opening of the Advisory Conference on the Arts, Literature, and Sports.
Discours d’ouverture de la conférence consultative des arts, lettres et sports. [1906], 2000, p. 611.
2

7

audience response, television coverage, expenses and revenues, sponsor
involvement, contribution to conveying Olympic values, image profiling of
the respective Host City etc.) should virtually be possible to realize.
However, in reality there are many obstacles, for example that experiences
made during previous Olympic cultural programs will be considered by thenext Host City: the organizational structure is temporary; experienced people
are oftentimes not able to assist constructively during a second Olympic
cultural festival, thereby passing on their knowledge. After the end of acultural festival, communication networks scatter; documents which areimportant for future festivals are partly no longer available or no longer
archived and language barriers complicate their evaluation. During the 4-yeartime period between Summer and Winter Olympics new cultural trends might
emerge causing existing styles to appear outdated. Country-specific issues
can influence Olympic cultural festivals substantially right up to a possible
political instrumentalization, for example in form of censorship. A certain
degree of vanity on the organizers’ side depreciating foreign models leads, inthe worst case, to reoccurring mistakes. Sometimes, the “wheel is simply
reinvented”; at best, creative innovations emerge and are adopted as standard
procedures in future cultural festivals.
Since 1988, editors of the “Olympic Studies” (Olympische Studien) havepublished 15 volumes of this series, eight including articles by several
authors addressing the topic of Cultural Olympiads. Thus, the idea arose tosummarize previously published material in an anthology, also includingtranslations from thematically relevant German research papers anddocuments into English.
An indispensable source of knowledge about a successful staging of Olympic
Cultural Festivals was an international Symposium in the University ofMainz (Germany) in June 2006. Special guest and lecturers were the artistic
directors Jeffrey N. Babcock (Atlanta), Craig Hassall (Sydney), Raymond T.
Grant (Salt Lake), Piero Addis (Torino) and Mrs. Dr Roy Panagiatopoulou,
Chair of Sociology at the National University Athens. Their papers are
publishes in this book.
We were also receiving important contributions from the internationalseminar “Visions for Athens 2004”, organized by the International Olympic
Academy in Ancient Olympia (August 29 September 3, 1999) under thescientific leadership of the Research Team Olympia at Mainz University. The“visions” of Eleni Theodoraki are published in this book, all other papers are
printed in Messing, M./ Müller, N. (eds.): Focus on Olympism: Discoveries,
Discussion, Directions. (Olympic Studies 5. Agon/Walla Walla Press Kassel& Sydney 2000).

8

We would like to express our gratitude especially to co-organizers of
Olympic cultural programs as well as to national and international experts
and involved many University graduates for conveying valuable topic related
insights, which hopefully will enable further distribution in this English
Anthology under the title “Cultural Views of the Olympics”. At the sametime, we would also like to thank nearly 11.000 Olympic spectators (9000 at
the Modern Pentathlon competitions and 2.200 by the Biathlon events) who
willingly presented a large empirical data stock to us.
Furthermore, we would like to thank the dedicated and hardworking studentsof the Faculty of Sport at the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz who
assessed the first postal surveys of German tourists by the Olympic Games
1992 and 1996 and those who have visited the Olympic Games 2000, 2004,
2008 and 2012 with us (and the Winter Olympic Games 2002 and 2010) in
the context of spectator surveys. Master and State examination theses andcomparative analyses followed. Some are listed with the respective author’sname in the table of contents of this volume.

Mainz/Kaiserslautern/Darmstadt, August 2015
Manfred Messing
Norbert Müller
Klaus Schormann

9Pierre die Coubertin’s invitation to artists to the 1906 Advisory Conference in Paris for the purpose of studying to what extent and in what form the arts and literature could be called upon toparticipate in the modern Olympic Games, and in general, to be associated with the practice ofsports in order to benefit from them and ennoble them. (N. Müller Collection)

Cultural Context
of the Olympic GamesThe Olympic Park of Munich ’72– A complete Visual Identity (Archives NOC Germany)Olympia and Arts*
Otl Aicher

Beauty and Aesthetics
In the interests of an adequate assessment the measurability of aesthetic
phenomena as well as the related degree of objectivity is prioritized.
Beauty is a subjective perception and its valuation is based on a generalsocietal and cultural consensus. Depending on cultural, societal and historicalstatus, this consensus varies.
Alone the question of how a beautiful body is defined cannot be answered ina generalized way. A beautiful sprinter cannot be compared to an impressiveboxer.
We do not understand beauty as an ideal. Instead, we define it as a process ofchange leading to the definition of new ambitions. Art does not culminate in
one single phase. Obviously, culture is characterized by recognizing eachphase already as past. Culture wants change and diversification.
From a temporal perspective, constant change of the developmental phases
corresponds to the world’s multi-cultural character.
Succeeding Coubertin, the concept of a unique, ideal aesthetic form has
obviously evolved. However, a serious evaluation of this notion reveals that
it is untenable.
By contrast, there are rational criteria of beauty, measurable criteria whichhave scientific universality. Today we can still find them rather scattered but
cultural anthropology and semiotics have contributed substantially to ascience of aesthetics, as semiotics analyzes an aesthetic object, an opus or an
activity based on semantic and pragmatic criteria.
However, these scientific faculties only deal with the realization of aesthetic
objects; they do not offer a basis on which the evaluation of single objects
and their aesthetic quality can take place.
In this context, Ludwig Wittgenstein’s analytic philosophy is of special
importance.
Huizinga stressed the legitimate humane character of gaming events. Afterthe time of Puritan moral, there was a need to recognize the free and casual
game, along with work and work ethics, as substance of humaneness.

*
Otl Aicher (1920-1991), Professor at the Ulm University of Design, German graphic designer andtypographer. He is best known for having designed the pictograms and the complete visual identity of theMunich Olympics 1972. Original title in German: “Olympia und Kunst”. In: Norbert Müller/Manfred Messing(eds.). Auf der Suche nach der Olympischen Idee. Facetten der Forschung von Athen bis Atlanta. OlympischeStudien:. Vol. 2. Kassel 1996, pp. 17-22.

13

Examples from the norms catalog developed by Otl Aicher for the visual image of the Olympic
Games Munich ’72. (Off.Report Munich 1972, Vol.1, pp.274-275)

Ludwig Wittgenstein goes far beyond that. He views the entire human culture
to be founded in the game and in the definition of laws of the game. Culture
and social programs are made rules. Based on the definition of rules, conflicts
and opposites as well as battles become game.
According to Wittgenstein, such rules are analogue to syntax, the rules ofgrammar, as part of semiotics.
Extending this notion leads to the assumption that sports and the game areprototypical representatives of how culture arises.

Art Competitions
Oftentimes, one gets the impression that sports have developed a kind ofinferiority complex when compared to arts. The need to add artistic elements
emerges. The traditional, negatively connoted parallelism of sport and art
competitions is projected onto the present situation.
With more self-confidence, sport, including the Olympic movement, could
call attention to the fundamental role it plays in terms of cultural activity. As
one of the rare domains of our time, sport contributes to keeping the memory
alive that culture is primarily game and implementation of rules as well as
their continuous development. Furthermore, sports constitute concrete
cultural stimuli relating to architecture and equipment design as well as tofashion culture. Also, certain athletic contests are of high aesthetic quality
and therefore comparable to arts.
Reflecting the cultural dimensions of sports in such a manner appears to
describe the essence of the Olympic movement adequately, offering a field offurther investigation and possibly a concrete example of cultural activity.
Discussions of this kind lead by competent participants would be desirable.
In this context, sport officials’ selection criteria prove to be insufficient.

Cultural Plurality
Contrary to our contemporary world, evaluating aesthetic phenomena wasbased on a uniform culture with consistent measures of value in ancient
Greece. Those measures were largely based on syntactic conventions likemeter and proportionality.
The cultural change from archaic forms to Hellenistic classicism took placeslowly without leaving substantial conflicts.
During the turn of the century, Coubertin, too, kept a single, uniform culture
with strong focus on ancient ideas in mind.
At the same time, however, cultural anthropology (Malinowski) discoveredthat highly diversified cultures of equal status with very different moral andaesthetic concepts have existed all along. Simultaneously, cultural
revolutions initiated by impressionism and expressionism set in, replacing15

classicism, which, since Winckelmann, is identified as the classical period of
Greece.
Today, the concept of culture and art coexisting in harmony, proportion andsymmetry is no longer tenable, especially after Picasso, for example,
practiced an aesthetic of conflict, provocation and contrast. In Modern Art,
addressing disharmonies has become just as important as dealing withharmonies. A culture reflecting the real world cannot ignore this.
The image of a culture of general, global harmony based on concepts of theClassical Antiquity proves to be a rather naïve version of the predominanceof the Western world and the white man.
Today, the consensus of plurality, the balance between the opposites
substitutes harmony.
There are many cultures of equal status: the European, the Japanese, theChinese, the Indian, the Arabian, the African culture. They all complement
each other, nurture each other or isolate each other. Thus, African music
successfully replaced the classical Western Song in form of jazz. Schubertsongs are only played in concerts.
Today, we accept different ethnic, cultural, ideological and political points ofview, leading to our world’s riches, its inhabitants, its history and its future
potential to become visible.
Based on concepts of Classical Greece, Coubertin had a rather monoculturalidea of today’s world. However, the classical period lasted 180 years
including first decadent features of the following Hellenistic Mannerism,
which mainly involved the circulation of duplicates. But we have alreadyknown Greek art since the 3rd century BC, even though its aims were very
different from those of the Classic.
Only by looking at the multicultural character of our world, the meaning of
the Olympic idea becomes visible. Physical performances can be compared,
which is why all nations can be invited to participate in one common
competition.
Cultures and philosophies, however, cannot be compared. All we can do isgetting to know them. Joint meetings on the basis of objective comparabilityof physical values as practiced in sports, especially during the Olympic
Games, fulfil a supporting role.

What is Art?
Culture may be understood as social convention concerning specificvaluations of moral and aesthetic phenomena. However, culture can also be
understood differently, namely as creative impulse to overcome existing
established arrangements as soon as they tend to become conventional.

16

Today’s understanding emphasizes more the aspect of revolution, the aspectof change. This is most likely due to new technological advances, new formsof business organization, society, research and transmission of information.
Our awareness has to keep up with such external changes. This also applies
to the question what is art?
In the 19th century, art was considered to be the prime of human activity. Its
definition was based on creating non-utilitarian objects whose novelty andcreativity appears to us.
Architecture, however, is not without any purpose. Must it then be regarded
non-artistic?
And if a building can be a piece of art why not a car made by Pininfarina or
Giugiaro used to drive from one building to another?
And why can a meal, eaten in one of the buildings, not be considered a pieceof art?
The term “art” has become quite unstable nowadays. Once, art was defined as
free creativity situated outside of the world of labor, purpose and the daily
life.
Such dualism is questioned now. At the moment, a progressive understandingof culture is attempting to overcome this separation. Art infiltrates everyday
life and culture wants to find prime forms of social and individual life insuch.
Museums become storages of art and are no longer simply pilgrimage
destinations. And there are museums not only for paintings, but also formachines and domestic things.
The term “art” no longer has a clear shape. What is left is an awareness of
optimization, creativity.
With this in mind, sport also has a cultural dimension, sport is also art.
However: Whatever we do can be observed under the aspect of output andunder the aspect of manner.
The classical Japanese culture was the first to recognize the method, theprinciple of “how” something is done. There was no world champion inarchery because the result, the “what” was done, was secondary.
In contrast Western culture emphasized on the result, on the output. Since
impressionist no longer cared about the motif of their paintings but on thebrushing, a reversion to the past has set in.
Modern sport is a high-performance sport. It is not measured by the method
used but by success. This surely constitutes an obstacle when attempting to
see the creative aspects of sports. However, it is interpretable. Sports can bejust as creative as arts, in form of individual performances as well as in form
as general activities.
There are manifold examples of how much sport not only stimulates ourculture but also determines it (clothing, footwear, …).

17

It is conceivable that the methodological, the creative aspect of sports isenvisaged more intensely and possibly also validated as such - just like themoral aspect, which reappears in today’s commercialism. A fair-play award
focusing on the “how” rather than on the “what” points in this direction.
Translation from German by Janine Lacombe

18

The Relationship of Art and Sport –The Relevance of Coubertin's Views Today
Don Masterson*

Introduction
In the company of so many experts on the life of Pierre de Coubertin, it
would be presumptuous of me to describe at length his views on the roleof Art in Olympism. Moreover, you will be familiar with his ideas andhow they led to the inclusion of contests in the arts in the Olympic
Festival from 1912 to 1948 and you will also be conversant with Article
39 of the Charter. I shall, therefore, refer to this background only briefly
to set the scene for the main purpose of this contribution, which is toconsider the relevance of Coubertin’s views to recent thinking on therelationship of Art and Sport.

A Brief History of Art in the Olympic Movement
Coubertin's belief that the arts were an integral part of the Olympic
Movement may be confirmed by his address to the 1906 Advisory
Conference in Paris. Durry (1975) has described, at length, the proceedingsof this meeting at the Comedie Francaise, the subsequent adoption ofcontests in Architecture, Literature, Music, Painting and Sculpture, thegrowth and termination of these competitions and the eventual place of thearts in the Festival. The results of the competitions have been detailed by
Mezö (1958) and Pouret (1969) has supplied additional information about
them. Of course, some official reports and histories of the Games provide
details, but in many cases these are only rudimentary. By 1936, the contests
attracted 774 entrants and, although the exhibition of submissions at theVictoria and Albert Museum in 1948 was 'beautifully displayed andbecause of its highly popular theme' likely 'to introduce a great number of*In the 1970s, Professor Don Masterson was a demanded consultant at meetings of theInternational Olympic Academy in Ancient Olympia. As a person, he combined
characteristics of a philosophical thinker in the field of aesthetics and arts with his own
artistic work. As a member of the International Pierre de Coubertin-Committee hecontinuously contributed articles, thereby, reviving the discussion about „sport and art“.

19people to art'1 the contests were abandoned after the London Olympiad.
The following are some of the reasons that have been proposed for theirtermination:
1.
Some NOCs never publicized the events
widely, nor gave them the recognition theyrequired. Even official Reports dismissed themin a few pages.
2.
There existed no international organization for
the arts to stimulate participation in the events.
3.
Sport was deemed to be an unsuitablesubject for art.
4.
The competitive nature of the contests wasconsidered to deter participation.
5.
Few of the competitors in the arts appeared at
the Games. Some winners were not informedof their success until after the awards bad been
made, Mezö (1958).
6.
In some sections, the Standard of entries wasconsidered to be so low that medals were
withheld.
7.
The contests never attracted the mostcelebrated artists of the period.
8.
The professional status of artists and theenhanced value of those works that won
medals, caused problems a propos the amateur
nature of the Games.
9.
Many of the submissions were only tenuously
linked with sport and hardly satisfied thecriteria of the competitions.
For whichever of these reasons, the contests in the arts were replaced by
exhibitions of the host country's art after the XIV Olympiad. On someoccasions, these displays have been spectacular, on others they have been
relatively minor events. The media have ignored them and the general public- even the competing athletes - have been unaware of this aspect of theFestival. Proposals have been made for the re-introduction of the contests,
Vialar (1962) and Mezö (1958) and the role of art in the Games has beenfrequently debated at the International Olympic Academy.

1

Apollo Magazine. Current shows and comments. p. 26. August 1948. London.

20

Sport and Art
Coubertin believed that an association of Art and Sport would have a numberof benefits. Not only would Sport be ennobled by artistic values, but publicawareness and artistic sensibility would be enhanced by the beauty of
movement. From these a new splendor would be imparted to the Games, toSport as a whole and to the human race by a feeling for beautiful movement.
From the practice of Eurhythmy, a harmony of life and expression would beachieved.
It must have been a great disappointment for the Founder of the Games not to
see these develop in his lifetime. The Olympic contests had little effect on
mainstream European art. Maheu (1962) has maintained that no great works
of art have been inspired by Sport. He has described these activities as facing
opposite directions and said:"Sport consists wholly of action: art, on the contrary, by
its employment of the sign, which frees it from theobject and from life, moves into eternity"
Nevertheless, he proposed Sport to be beautiful:"I need hardly say that sport is a creator of beauty. In
the action and rhythm which testify to mastery of space
and time, sport becomes akin to the arts which create
beauty. No athlete can accomplish a genuine featwithout such perfect physical control, in time and spacethat his movements and the rhythm of their timing are
not to be differentiated from the finest ballet, the mostsplendid passage of prose or verse, the most gloriouslines in architecture."
Those who consider the creation of beauty to be the primary function ofart, or believe that that which creates beauty is art, may find Maheu's latterstatement confusing. I think that he is saying that beauty in sport is inherent,
but it appears as a by-product, whereas the beauty of art arises from theconscious employment of signs and symbols, which remove art from reality
and give it its raison d’être.
He might also appear to have ignored various twentieth century European
paintings when he claimed that no great work of art had been inspired by
sport. The boating, sculling and rowing pictures of the Impressionists,
Delaunay's runners and rugby players, Boccioni's footballers, athletes andcyclists, Braque's tennis players, Picasso's soccer players, the swimmers anddivers of Matisse and Leger and the series of footballers and gymnasts by de
Stael and Baumeister seem to deny this. But the intention of these pictures21

was to capture the color of light and reflections on the river, in the case of
the Impressionists, to display three dimensions or disparate simultaneous
events on a two-dimensional canvas, in the case of the Cubists, or thesensation of dynamic energy in the case of the Futurists. The titles of thesepictures might very well indicate a sporting subject, but this is subordinatedto a treatment by which the artist has endeavored to make a statement aboutsomething else. Such a purpose was confirmed by Granville (1962),
Conservateur of the Modern and Contemporary Art Section of the Musée desBeaux Arts in Dijon, who replied to my request for a copy of de Stael's
footballers as follows:"I understand that you would like to use thismaterial because of the subject, whereas for me,
the subject is secondary and I fear that the painting
will become an 'illustration', therefore losing its
primarily raison d’être."
Since the war the gap between Sport and Art in Western Europe has beenbridged occasionally by exhibitions such as Les Peintres Temoins de Leur
Temps - Le Sport, held in Paris in 1957, the Football Association
Centenary Art Exhibition in London in 1954, and L'Art et Je Sport
organised by Durry at Boulogne-Billancourt, outside Paris, in 1980. A few
museums, such as the National Art Museum of Sport in Madison Square
Gardens and a National Museum of Sport in Paris, have been established,
but European and American Fine Art has been generally unaffected bySport. It has passed through a variety of changes and developed new forms
influenced by an aesthetic standard which is Jargely the legacy of the "artfor art's sake" and formalist movements of earlier years. This holds thecreation of art to be self-rewarding and autonomous, that is free frommoral, political or social obligations, thereby allowing for widely divergent
ideas about the nature of art - some of which hold that sport itself exists as
an art form along with painting, sculpture, literature, music, photography,
dance, etc., etc.
In Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, the situation was very different.
Here, as early as 1961, attempts were made to bring sportsmen and artists
together, Witt (1965). Since 1963, numerous exhibitions of sports art havebeen held in conjunction with Gymnastic Festivals in the DDR and the
Spartakiada. Both amateur and professional artists have been encouraged tocompete for the German Gymnastic and Sports Union prize in order toshow that:"Physical Education and Sport are now a partof life in a modern socialist society and they
are becoming more and more a subject ofart" (Dobrov 1971).

22

Sport, Aesthetics and Art Theory
Coubertin's ideas have raised questions about the relationship of sport andart that have recently been considered from a variety of philosophicalstand- points. The problem is contentious and has produced conflicting
views. That sport has an aesthetic dimension is generally agreed and, whilst
some go no further than this, others hold sport to be a form of art in its own
right.
Reid (1970) has asserted that art is produced primarily for aesthetic
contemplation but, as the aesthetic aspect of sport is incidental to theprincipal purpose (winning), sport is not art. Elliot (1974) agrees with thisview by proposing Victory, not Beauty, to be the goddess of sport. Best
(1981) contends that no sport, not even those whose primary purpose is todemonstrate aesthetic movement, is a form of art. His reasons are twofold.
Firstly, he maintains that to have an aesthetic aspect does not necessarily
denote some- thing as an art. For example, such natural phenomena as
sunsets, mountains and clouds, do not qualify as art, for art is createdintentionally by human beings for its aesthetic value. Secondly, he argues
that:"...any art form must at least allow for
the possibility of the expression of aconception of life-issues such as moral,social and practical issues. Thispossibility is intrinsic to the concept ofart in that without it an activity could
not count as a legitimate art form."Though also of the linguistic, analytical, persuasion, Aspin (1974) adopts adifferent view. He includes sport amongst those things of merit, andexcellence that satisfy aesthetically our perception, attention and judgement.
Moreover, he justifies teaching the skills and knowledge crucial 'to sport andmovement as a medium for a species of artistic creation and excellence', on
observable and adjudicable aesthetic terms. Saw (1961) goes further by adefinition which includes sports as forms of art.
Munro (1967) considering the different kinds of art, says that it is difficult toknow where to stop and lists the close similarities between sports and theconventional arts. James (1974), adopting Berenson's criteria of art as they
apply to wrestling, claims they are to be found not only in cricket, but also
in the beauty of all games. Wertz (1981) has taken issue with Best's 'exalted
view of art', by referring to the evolution of art to include forms
sufficiently comprehensive to include sport. Masterson and Gaskin (1974)23

have focused on the use of the words 'Sport' and 'Art'. Generically, theconcepts are separate but each has two other common usages. The word
'sport', used with the definite or indefinite article, defines individual gamesor physical activities (e.g., football, basketball, boxing, etc.) but, alone it
describes a quality going beyond mere skill that raises the performance toabove the ordinary. Similarly, the word 'art' is used with the definite orindefinite article to describe any one of the traditional art forms (painting,sculpture, literature, etc.), but it is also used alone for an extraordinary
character exceeding virtuosity, by which the significance of the art
object/performance transcends the sum of its parts. Thus, football, basketballand boxing may be performed without exemplifying 'sport' and painting,sculpture and literature may be produced without displaying 'art'. It is in
this qualitative sense that these authors identify Sport with Art. Thomas(1974) considers the 'sports aesthetic' as an experience on the part of theperformer. She asserts that:"...the fact remains that art isdone by artists and viewed byaudiences for different reasons
than sport is done by athletes
and viewed by audiences. Also
it must be noted that reasonsfor doing and viewing in bothart and sport differ. However,the contention..., is that theexperience of the performer indoing art or sport is similar andthat the nature of these two
experiences can be consideredaesthetic."
The aesthetic character of sport has also been described phenomenologicallyby Csepregi (1984) and Stone (1972).
Other inquiries have applied art theory to sport. For example, Schiller's(1902) Play Theory of Art has been linked to the play element of sport.
Huizinga's definition of play is, according to Hein (1968/9), directly
applicable to aesthetic experience. Thus, if play is aesthetic experience andplay is integral to sport, then performance in sport is aesthetic experience, atleast in part.
Outside the realm of philosophy, numerous other writers have commented
on sport as a form of art. The list is extensive and time allows mention of
only a few. Fraysinnet (1968) has placed it firmly amongst Les Beaux Arts
and Umminger (1973), using the Wagnerian concept, Gesamtkunstwerk,
sees the Olympic Games as the total art work of our time. Kitchen (1966)24

believes Sport to be a form of theatre, fulfilling all the criteria ofcontemporary drama, and Keenan (1975) has explored it as a form oftragedy in this context.
The relationship of art and sport has also been researched from a culturalanthropological point of view and Masterson (1983) has drawn attention tothe origin shared by both art and sport. Their source lay in the magicoreligious rites and ceremonies performed by prehistoric communities as
described by Thomson (1973), Harrison (1918) and Comford (1963).
Originally integrated, the arts evolved separately with sport and dance losing
their association with the others because they had no forms of notation bywhich they could be judged by posterity.
Lastly, the view of artists must be recorded. Suffice it to mention only afew. Wolfe (1913) has quoted the Mexican muralist, Rivera, as follows:"Your game of football is splendid,
thrilling, beautiful ... the crowd in thestadium, the masses of color - a great
livingpicture,spontaneous,unconscious art ...It is art in the mass, a
new form of art."
Picasso also seems to have regarded boxing as a form of art. Chipp(1968) reports a conversation the artist had with Simone Tery during which
he asked:"What do you think an artist is? An
imbecile who has only eyes if he's apainter, or ears if he's a musician or alyre at every level of his heart if he's apoet, or even, if he's a boxer, just his
muscles?"
Dienka, President of the Academy of Fine Art in the USSR, and winner ofthe Lenin Prize, is a prolific painter of sport. He extols its beauty thus:"I love sport. I can spend hours watchingrunners, swimmers, skiers. It seems tome that sport, like everything beautiful,ennobles man" (Dobrov 1966).
Sport-art observations have not been confined to those practicing the Fine
Arts. The dramatists Brecht (1926) and Cocteau (1964) have alsocommented on this union. The former 'pinned his hopes to the sporting
public'. He believed that theatre should emulate the character of sport andcreate an audience like those spectators of sport who develop their peculiar
powers, in 'the way most suited to them, with the greatest sense of25

responsibility, yet in such a way as to make one feel that they are doing it
primarily for their own fun'. He continued with a plea for theatre to be likesport:"There seems to be nothing to stop thetheatre having its own form of 'sport'.
If only someone could take thosebuildings designed for theatrical
purposes which are now standing eating
their heads off in interest, and treat
them as more or less empty spaces forthe successful pursuit of 'sport' ..."
Cocteau, poet and dramatist, in a letter to Fouret (1964) said that he understood the bond between art and sport. He believed Al Brown to be a sportspoet who exhibited that mysterious charisma that all true champions ofsport share with poets and dramatists:"Al Brown est un poète du sport et iln'était pas seul, car, si le champion nepossède pas, outre sa téchnique, unesorte de puissance mysterieuse qui letranscende, il ne sera jamais unchampion véritable. La foule exige;
inconsciencement, cette aura, cettephosphorescence, ce charrne qui resultede l'emploi des methodes du poète et dudramaturge dans un metier qu'on
pourrait croire sans rapport avec elle."

Olympic Art
This over-brief summary of philosophical considerations, theories of art,
comments and opinions appertaining to sport and art presents convergent,
divergent and views in parallel. I believe it was Coubertin's original ideasthat prompted such examinations and our duty is to see where they apply to
his views. Some are directly relevant to his concept of Olympic art. Others
do not conform, but may have ramifications for the Movement.
We know from his various publications and statements, the form of art
that Coubertin wished to be associated with the Games. Höhne (1969/70)
has described it at length and Diem (1973) has indicated those sources that
influenced it. The former author contends that Olympism is rooted in
Humanism and respect of the dignity of man. Its fundamental principles aredemocracy, internationalism, equal rights and education in mutualinternational regard, despite racial, religious and political differences. To
contribute to this Olympic Idea, the art of the Games must serve these26

principles. As a means of developing social consciousness, it must relate
more to ideals and objectives than to mere declarations of a love of sport.
Furthermore, with the assertion that Coubertin believed that Olympic
literature and art should present objective reality and be linked with thepeople, this author presents a strong case for the official art of the Games tobe of a Social Realist nature.
The influence that the English critic Ruskin (1819-1900) had on Coubertin
supports this. Although Ruskin's worship of beauty for its own sakebrought him into affinity with the advocates of the "art for art's sake"movement, his strong interest in social reform and ever increasing concern
with economic and political questions during the second half of his lifetime
prevented him from accepting that doctrine of autonomy, previously
described, which divorced the arts from questions of social morality.
Moreover, Ruskin's view of art linked with the daily life of working people
reflects clearly the faith Coubertin (1922) had in the working class, fromwhom he expected much. To those who predicted a return to primitive
barbarianism and the end of culture with the rise of the working class, heasked:"... are we not deluding ourselves about that
culture of which we are so proud? There ismuch slag to be found in the pure metal, somuch of the absurd and the artificial, so much
insipid self-complacency and barely veiled
pornography."Those who consider Coubertin an elitist would do well to read his works!
The adoption of realist principles for the 'official' art of the Games would
have various implications. It would, for example, require the IOC tosponsor and organize exhibitions of art works whose subject matter tookprecedence and whose artistic statements focused on the principles of
Olympism. An exhibition of this kind could run in parallel with thoseother displays which, whilst conforming to Artic]e 39, might not necessarily
observe these principles. By establishing an Olympic Arts Commission, theIOC would not only provide a means of promoting, servicing andsupervising this function, but also supply that international organization, thelack of which has been a reason attributed to the failure of the early artistic
events. An 'official' Olympic Art Exhibition should not be in the nature of acontest, but awards and honors could be given in a way similar to thosepresented at various art biennales and presented to those serving the
Olympic Movement in other ways. A development of this kind would bein keeping with Coubertin's wish to see Art occupy a role as important to
the Movement as its sports.

27

The aesthetic element of the sports themselves, witnessed not in the gallery
but in the Stadium, would be complementary. Indeed, the idea of the
sporting events creating their own art, manifest in the action of the physicalperformances and the expression of the Olympic Ideals associated withthem, i.e., fairness, friendship, mutual understanding, could be encouraged.
Cassirer (1962) has said that each art form has its own language which is
inexpressible in the languages of the other art forms. Perhaps it is because
representations of sporting events in other art forms cannot capture all the
intrinsic and extrinsic elements of performance they have not been
popular subjects of the plastic arts. Certainly, drawing attention to the ideaof sport as art would introduce the public to a perspective of appreciationthat would endow sport with a value close to Coubertin's heart.
References
Aspin, D. N. (1974). Sport and the Concept of 'The Aesthetic". In D. Masterson & H.
T. A Whiling (Eds.), Readings in the Aesthetics of Sport (pp. 117-137). London: Kimpton.
Best, D. (1980). Art and Sport. Journal of Aesthetic Education, 14 (2), 78.
Brecht, B. (1964). Brecht on Theatre. (Trans. J. Willett.). London: Methuen.
Cassirer, E. (1962). Essay on Man. New Haven.
Cornford, F. M. (1963). The Origin of the Olympic Games. In J. E. Harrison (Ed.), Themis (pp.
212-250). London: Merlin.
Coubertin, P. de (1922). Entre Deux Batailles. Extrait de la 'Rev. de la Sem' 20th Jan., 8-9.
Csepregi, G. (1984). The aesthetic dimensions of swimming and related sports. Paper
presented. Olym. Sci. Cong. Univ. of Oregon. July.
Diem, L. (1973). Intellectual influences to the work of Coubertin. In International Olympic
Academy (Ed.), Report of the XIII Session of the Int. 0lym. Ac (pp. 87-100). Athens.
Dobrov, A. (1966). Sport and Art in the U.S.S.R. JOC Bulletin, 94. Lausanne.
Durry, J. (1975). Tue Fine Arts and the Olympic Games. International Olympic Academy(Ed.), Report of the XV Session Int. Olym. Ac. (pp. 205-220). Athens.
Elliott, R. K. (1974). Aesthetics and Sport. In D. Masterson & H. T. A Whiting (Eds.),
Readings in the Aesthetics of Sport (p. 112). London: Kimpton.
Fraysinnet, P. (1968). Le sport parmi les beaux arts. Darguad. Paris.
Granville, P. (1962). Personal communication.
Harrison, J. (1918). Ancient art and ritual. Moonraker. Bradford-on-Avon.
Hein, H. (1968-69). Play as an aesthetic concept. Jour. of Aesth. and Art Crit., 27, 70.
Höhne, E. (1970). Coubertin sur le rôle des arts dans l'olympisme moderne. In Bull. Nat.
Olym. Cam. of the GDR, XV (1), 32.
James, C. L. R. (1974). The relationship between popular sport and fine art. In D. Masterson &H. T. A. Whiting (Eds.), Readings in the Aesthetics of Sport. London: Kimpton.
Keenan, F. W. (1975). The athletic contest as a tragic form of art. Int. Rev. Sport Sociol., 10,38-54.
Maheu, R. ( 1962). Sport and Culture. Int. J. of Adult and Youth Educ., 15 (4), 6-12.

28

Masterson, D. & Gaskin, G. (1974). The Work of Art in Sport. Journ. of Philos. Soc. forStudy of Sp., 1, 36-65.
Masterson, D. (1983). Sport, Theatre and Art in Performance. In H. Lenk (Ed.). Topicalproblems of Sport Philosophy (pp. 169-183). Schorndorf: Hofmann.
Mezö, F. (1958). The Arts in the Olympic Games. In A. Natan (Ed.), Sport and Society (p. 114). London.
Munro, T. (1967). The Arts and their inter-relations. Cleveland: West Res. Univ. Press.
Pouret, H. (1964). L'Art et le Sport. International Olympic Academy (Ed.), Report of the IV
Session Int. Olym. Ac. (pp. 145-155). Athens.
Pouret, H. (1969). The contemporary Olympic Games and the Arts. International Olympic
Academy (Ed.). Report of the IX session of the Int. Oly. Ac. (pp. 63-82). Athens.
Reid, L. A. (1970). Sport, the Aesthetic and Art. Brit. J. Educ. Studs., 255-258.
Saw, R. L. (1961). What is a work of Art? Philosophy, 36, 18-29.
Schiller, F. (1902). Aesthetic and Philosophical Essays. Letter 15, 56, Boston.
Stone, R. (1972). Sources and kinds of meaning in the Arts. In H. T. A. Whiting (Ed.),
Readings in Sports Psychology (pp. 183-193). London: Kimpton.
Thomas, C. E. (1974). Toward an Experiential Sport Aesthetic. Journ. of Phil. of Sport, I,
67-91.
Thomson, G. (1973). Aeschylus and Athens. London: Lawrence and Wishart.
Umminger, W. (1972). Die Olympischen Spiele als Gesamtkunstwerk. In A. Astel et al.
(Eds.), Über das Spiel hinaus (pp. 124-125). Munich.
Vialar, P. (1962). Pierre de Coubertin. In International Olympic Academy (Ed.), Report of the
II Session of the Int. Olym. Ac. (p. 34). Athens.
Wertz, S. K. (1981). The possibility of Sport as Art. Paper presented sympos. 'Can Sport
be Art' Trinity College, Connecticut, October 17th.
Witt, G. (1965). Some problems concerning the relationship between Sport and Art. In: Art,
Sport and Socialist Ideal for Culture (Unpub. thesis. Karl Marx University). Leipzig.
Wolfe, B. D. (1913). The Fabulous Life of Diego Rivera. London: Barrie and Rockcliffe.
Originally published in Müller, N./ Messing, M. (eds,): Olympism – Heritage andResponsibility. Olympic Studies 10. Agon Kassel 2008, pp.259-268.

29

Towards a Synergistic Link between
Olympic Games and the Cultural
Olympiad*
Jeffrey N. Babcock

1 Managing the Atlanta Olympic Arts Festival
As director of Atlanta's Cultural Olympiad the relationship between sport
and art has occupied me for nearly five years.
The challenge has not been so much in developing our programs' creative
concepts and planning the incredible logistical details required to present
the programs, but in persuading the Organizing Committee - in my case,
ACOG - to sustain its commitment to include the arts and culture as asignificant and integral component on Atlanta's Olympic agenda.
While support for the Cultural Olympiad has been consistent and considerable from the very highest echelons of ACOG leadership, and ourprograms will be delivered as originally conceived, ACOG's Cultural
Olympiad budget represents something less than 2% of ACOG's overallbudget, and what has been supported by senior management has notalways received equivalent support from other departments upon which the
Cultural Olympiad depends to deliver its program. This is not new to
Cultural Olympiad staffs and I note it here as a point of reference andstatement of fact, not as a complaint. The environment is what it is and wehave all had to learn to adapt, be flexible and maintain a sense of humor as
we have developed and managed our cultural efforts.
The Atlanta Olympic Arts Festival is among the largest arts festivals everproduced by an Olympic Host. That this ambitious program has beencreated and produced from within an organization that is otherwise
completely focused on and driven by support for the world’s largest andmost celebrated athletic competition is and always has been an
extraordinary challenge.
But this is nothing new for Olympic cultural programs. My predecessors
have all had to work through the same environmental hazards, virtually allof them facing similar budgetary challenges. In the midst of what are

Revised speech at the Congress “One hundred Years of Olympic Games and Art” ,Amsterdam, March*

16 th 1996. Unpublished Paper.

31

always tremendous expectations on the part of the local population for acultural program of Olympic size and quality - in my case, the anticipationof a program that would deliver virtually 50% of Atlanta's Olympic “bang”
on less than 2% of ACOG's overall Olympic budget - a Herculean, if not
impossible, responsibility.
I have reflected on and considered a number of ways in which Olympic
leaders might refocus the Olympic cultural component to give the arts amore substantial and stronger link with its sport counterpart, eventuallyleading to more consistently, effectively and impressively fulfill Baron
Pierre de Coubertin's original, balanced vision for the modern Olympic
movement, what I call Coubertin's Equation.
Managing a significant arts program from within the concentrated Olympic
sport environment has never been easy. From time to time I have felt quite
alone in my post at ACOG, just as one would suppose my counterpart insport would feel in trying to mount a major international athleticcompetition from within the environment of, say, the John F. Kennedy
Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. or the Robert W.
Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta.
One of the key discoveries I made early in my ACOG tenure was thatbeyond my programmatic and management duties I must frequently serve
as a kind of translator, interpreting the operating and fiscal realities of anenormously complex and highly focused Olympic corporate operation to
my arts colleagues while at the same time representing, bringing to andtranslating the operating requirements and related realities of the arts tomy sport colleagues at ACOG.
As a composer, performer, conductor and producer for more than 25 years
and an active athlete in my younger years (playing tennis, baseball,basketball, football and surfing), on a personal level I have never felt any
real distance between or need to separate the arts and sport. I havepursued both vigorously as an amateur; only music as a professional. I
have always felt that the achievement we celebrate in art and sport share
far more in common than not, and so I come to my ACOG position
feeling a personal sense of balance, perspective and appreciation for eachthat I find most of my colleagues - whether they be from the world ofsports or the arts - do not necessarily share. And therein lies both thechallenge and a key opportunity.
What to those of us immersed in the Olympic movement may seem anatural, logical and viable connection between sport and art is consideredby many people outside and, at least from my perspective, far too many
people within the Movement as inappropriate, if not incomprehensible.
Though art and sport are both cultural expressions that define and shapevirtually every nation and people on earth, they are most often viewed ashaving little if anything to do with one another, especially in the Western

32

world, where we tend to separate and compartmentalize experience far
more than other cultures. Those most devoted to sport are almost neverinterested it let alone devoted to the arts, and vice versa. Why on earth
would anyone link together these disparate expressions of culture –“artificially” - under the Olympic banner?
In developing this seminal concept for the reestablishment of the
Olympic Movement, Coubertin made frequent reference to the importanceof reestablishing the core spirit of the original Greek model. The arts
were central to this vision for a revival of the Games.
In early 1904, Coubertin recalled the origins of the Games that celebrated
man's achievements in sport and art and called for a “Pentathlon of theMuses.”
Though this union of art and sport was central to Coubertin's vision, thefirst century of the Olympic Movement has been primarily focused on thedevelopment, expansion and refinement of the operating model and theathletic side of Coubertin's Olympic equation. Two major interruptions inthe sequence of the Games and numerous other challenges have left little
room or time on the Olympic agenda to attend to the arts component.
While cultural activity always has been included and recognized, bothofficially and unofficially, as a key ingredient of the Olympic
experience, the arts component has to date achieved neither the level ofattention nor the unifom1 excellence of presentation as that of sports.
This qualitative and quantitative gap between sport and art has been
manifested in a number of ways, not the least of which is in therelatively limited availability, distribution and commitment of financial
and other logistical resources required to create and present an
Olympic arts program of quality equal to that of sport. In short, theequation Coubertin so eloquently articulated in this vision of Olympism,remains significantly out of balance.

2 For a Synergistic Link between Sport and Art
The Olympic Movement has now achieved a level of stability and maturity
upon which the future of the Games can rely. It also may be observed that
the Games have reached a kind of successful programmatic andoperational plateau from which new options, enhancements andinitiatives can and should be considered and explored with confidence.
I t is this secure and stable atmosphere that affords Olympic leaders an
opportunity to evaluate, refocus and enhance the cultural side of
Coubertin's equation. If we seek to define the one major element that sets
one Games apart from another, that gives each a distinctive character,rhythm and spirit, what would that be? Is it not the culture of the host cityand surrounding country or region? Beyond opening and closing

33

ceremonies, the signature events that together define the outer perimetersand distinctive personality of each Games - the element that can or should
provide the unique character and ambiance of each Games - is the arts
component.
What Olympic visitors take away from their Games experience, whether inperson or via telecast, is heavily influenced and shaped by the content,
visibility and effectiveness of each host's presentation of its cultural resources. The arts carry well beyond the field of play to bring dramatic andvivid vistas and a colorful landscape to each Olympic Games. The uniquecharacter of each host city/country is, after all, not just a backdrop against
which the Games are viewed, but the vehicle through which Olympic
visitors and each Games gain the sense of cultural context in which to frame
their Olympic experience.
The significance of this element of the Games and the way in which it
influences the perception and real experience of each Olympic Host cannot
be overemphasized. The endless variations and manifestations of culturalexpression, while included in every Olympic host's agenda, is an
ingredient that has not yet been cultivated and embraced to the extent that it
could or should be. The opportunity to expand the role of culture as acontributory element of each Games cannot be overlooked or overstated.
If, in fact, the Games have achieved a secure programmatic and operational
plateau, the Olympic Movement must be vigilant not to lapse into
complacency and inertia. That the Olympic Games are the preeminent
World Event - not only the world's most important international athleticcompetition - is undisputed. That they remain so is essential. Given the
scenario I have described above, the eve of the Centennial Olympic Games
would seem to offer a propitious opportunity to reconsider, redefine andenhance the role of the arts within the context of the Games to moreembrace and reflect Coubertin's vision for a world celebration that unites
man's highest achievements in sport and art.
With this intent as my point of departure, I would like to suggest a numberof specific ways in which the arts and culture can become a more exciting,visible and integral feature of the Olympic Games, imbued with freshenergy and reflective of Baron de Coubertin's vision for linking art andsport.
2.1 Formation of an International Cultural Advisory PanelMy first suggestion is that the IOC, under the aegis of its Cultural
Commission, recruit distinguished arts leaders representing a full range ofartistic disciplines and a broad cross section of cultural traditions andbackgrounds to form a special international cultural advisory panel.

34

The initial focus of this special panel should be to evaluate the current andpossible future approaches to include and expand cultural activity within the
Olympic Movement. This work should be completed within a specified
period of time, directed by an arts professional, and the results andrecommendations reported to the IOC Cultural Commission. The specificcharge for this group of distinguished artists and arts leaders should ofcourse be set by the IOC, but whatever it ultimately is, the larger purpose
would be to create a forum of distinguished experts within which to explore
and give weight to the role of significant arts activity within the context of
the Olympic Games. The quality of the panel is key; the extent to which thepanel is made up of important leaders in each discipline will lend credibility
to both the process and the outcome of the advisory panel's work. If nothingelse, the panel will bring worldwide attention to Olympic cultural activity.
The IOC Charter currently calls for a cultural program in only themost general terms, leaving each host committee free to develop a
program that may or may not have substance, depth, quality and support.
The proposed advisory panel could help to clarify and propose arecommended definition for key cultural components that might be requiredof each host, and could perhaps even help to determine a minimal level of
support required to present an Olympic quality cultural program.
This set of cultural guidelines could, for example, suggest that some program elements be “required components”. The guidelines might alsosuggest a framework within which the host has complete freedom topresent the culture of its home city/region and/or county, while insuring asubstantial level of participation by international artists and organizations.
Following on from the panel concept, my second recommendation is thathost committees be required to support their respective cultural programswith an established minimum financial commitment, based perhaps on apercentage of a total Games budget or some other formula that funds thecultural aspect of each Games at the level ultimately defined or required by
the IOC.
In addition, host committees should provide other support resources andservices to their respective cultural program.
By requiring the host to provide this support to its cultural program or
department, cultural directors and their staffs will spend less time andeffort struggling for this kind of support and more attention can be given todeveloping and presenting a program of distinction.
2.2 Integration of a cultural program with the overall Olympic
operation: the case of Atlanta
It has been my personal crusade to integrate Atlanta's cultural program with
ACOG's Games operations in a way and at a level of integration never35

before attempted. From the beginning the Cultural Olympiad department
has linked directly with every department within ACOG that is operating
the Games, gaining access to the departments that are planningtransportation, security, freight and customs, accommodations, budget andfinance, Look of the Games, merchandising, communications and ticket
sales, to name just a few. This linkage has not been without problems, but I
believe it is a first step to reestablishing that culture has and deserves animportant role within the Host Olympic Committee operation. We havemanaged to gain significant internal visibility for the cultural program andto get the so-called “Mother Ship” to adopt and to some extent at least,
to recognize and support our cultural programs as a valuable andimportant component of Atlanta's Olympic Games operation. To myknowledge, no other Olympic committee has operated in quite this way.
Subsequent to establishing our logistical links, we have also lobbied for andreceived support to integrate the sale of Olympic Arts Festival tickets into
the same operation that sells Games tickets. What this means to ticket
buyers is that, unlike our predecessors, ACOG's cultural events went onsale nearly a year before the Games and the cultural program will begin;
events began to sell out almost immediately; already more than 40% of ourcultural sessions are oversubscribed and we anticipate that most cultural
sessions will be sold out well before the Games. For Olympic customers,
this means maximum accessibility and convenience: one number to calland one integrated and convenient method through which to purchase
Olympic tickets, whether for sport or art. At Games time, visitors will beable to purchase Games tickets at cultural venues and vice versa.
Another first for Atlanta: cultural ticket buyers may ride the Olympic
transportation system for no additional charge on the day of that event, thesame as Games ticket purchasers. This is a quiet but significant
breakthrough for cultural events, and one we hope will be honored in future
Olympic Games.
We have made every effort to place Olympic Arts Festival events withinclose distance to key Olympic hotels and venues and within easy reach of
key Olympic transportation hubs. From past history and direct
experience we have learned that Olympic visitors will not makeextra effort to seek out venues that may lie off the main Olympic
corridor, especially if that venue is a cultural site. They will be hot andtired and unfamiliar with our city. Thus, early in our planning we
decided that our programs must be easily and quickly accessible or wewould not have an audience. The result is that of our 32 Olympic Arts
Festival sites and venues, 25 lie within the so-called Olympic Ring, athree-mile diameter area in the center of Atlanta in which the Olympic
Village and sixteen competition venues are located.

36

The great exhibition in the Atlanta High Museum of Art "Rings: Five Passions in World Art" aspart of the 1996 Cultural Olympiad grouped under the categories of Love, Anguish, Awe, Triumph, and Joy are 129 masterworks from 39 countries of all five continents. (Catalogue: HighMuseum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia & Harry N. Abrahams, New York 1996, 320 pp.) Jacket front:
This Kiss Rodin 1886, Musée Rodin Paris.

2.3 The need for programmatic and operational guidelines
Next, Jet us consider programming, the content of Cultural Olympiads
and Olympic Arts Festivals. As it now stands, each Host has virtuallycomplete freedom and autonomy to develop and present a program thatfits its agenda and budget. While this might seem on the surface to behighly desirable, consider for a moment what would happen if each Host
were left to determine its own agenda of sports components. Atlanta, forexample, is located more than 5 hours from the coast and could
conceivably elect to delete yachting events from its roster. Other hosts
could decide that because there is little or no interest in their country or
region for a particular sport to delete it from their agenda of events.
Clearly, this would not be an acceptable option to the IOC, nor should it
be. Why then, have we strayed so far away from Coubertin's and theIOC's original intent for Olympic cultural components? On the other
hand, why not pause to consider how to position and structure Olympic
cultural activity so that those who are responsible for developing andmanaging future Games are given some programmatic and operationalguidelines within which to create and present their programs. I am not
advocating that the programmatic freedom enjoyed by organizing
committees be abandoned wholesale, but rather that guidelines bedeveloped by the IOC to better serve future Olympic host organizations
and the cultural component of the Games. By accepting this
responsibility, the IOC could also help to ensure that future Olympic
cultural activity - the scope and component programs of an Olympic
Arts Festival, for example - would be clearly differentiated from socalled “free standing” arts festivals and defined in such a way as toachieve a truly distinctive Olympic identity and quality.
For example, perhaps the host should be left on its own to develop
whatever programs it wishes for the years between the Games, but berequired to follow certain operational and programmatic guidelines during
the Games. Barcelona, Lillehammer, Atlanta and Sydney all created multiyear Cultural Olympiads that have varied widely in their purpose, scope andcontent, the years leading to the Games yielding results as varied as the
programming. In Atlanta's case, we determined early on to devote the first
three years to a series of programs we collectively call Olympic Preludes.
This series of events has ranged from local and regional programs
recognizing programmatic achievement and excellence to a series of fourinternational festivals, an extraordinary and historic gathering of Nobel
Laureates of Literature and a multi-year, award-winning international film
festival. We also decided early in the process of developing our programs topursue the idea of partnership both locally and internationally in order tonurture Atlanta's resident cultural community's long term goals.

38

Barcelona and Lillehammer -each mounted ambitious programs that fit theneeds and intent of their respective communities, countries and hostoperating committees. From what I know first-hand and have learned frommy colleagues, these Prelude programs worked relatively well, but two
problems affected Barcelona, Lillehammer and Atlanta: The first is that in
all three cities, programs designed to enhance the Olympic experience ofeach host city have started ambitiously, based on an overall budget
designed to cover programs over the full four-year Olympiad, but along theway each cultural program had to cope with budget reductions that camelong after it was too late to adjust early program commitments. In each casethese reductions then affected, in a fairly significant way, their respective
departments' ability to produce the size and quality Olympic Arts Festival
they had envisioned.
We do not know what will happen in Nagano, Sydney or Salt Lake City;
given past history, however, reductions would seem likely.
There is another potential problem with multi-year programs, which is that
programs produced earlier in the Olympiad cycle tend to occupy adisproportionate amount of staff energy, time, attention and financial
resources causing the Olympic Arts Festival, arguably what should always
be the primary focus of the cultural staff, to receive less than the fullcommitment it requires - be it program design and content, financial
resources or logistical planning - until well into and in some cases, too latein the Olympic cycle to assure an unqualified success.
Again, it seems to me that more formal IOC guidelines and oversight, fromthe beginning and at the international level, could help host organizations
and their staffs assure that appropriate and adequate attention and resources
are reserved for and committed to the production of the Olympic Arts
Festival while also ensuring that a multi-year program can be presented bythose organizations that elect to do so.
In this same vein, let us consider for a moment the program content andpresentation of the Olympic Arts Festival. Given the current lack ofguidelines and each host's freedom to plan and present programs
entirely of its own design, a review of past Arts Festival programs
reveals wide variations in scope, timing and duration, production
values and direction.
What then should be the balance between the presentation of host or
regional culture and the inclusion of artists from around the world in
Olympic Arts Festivals? How big a program should be required? Howlong should Olympic Arts Festivals run? Are there other specific or
general connections that can or should be made to the Games, historicallinks such as the exhibition we will present in Atlanta on this history of
women in the modern Olympics, or the ambitious exhibition we will
present on Olympic Collectibles? And, what about so-called “sport art”?

39Lacking these guidelines, each committee is left on its own to try andprovide answers to questions like these and to resolve numerous issues
that arise in every Olympiad without first knowing the questions or
having access to a body of real experience upon which to draw. Without
wanting to sound like I am advocating total central control over every
aspect of Olympic cultural activity, I do feel and hope you might agree
that, short of a prescribed, complete formula for a designing andpresenting an Olympic cultural program, a clear set of what I will call
“guiding principles” could save time, money and wasted effort andultimately lead to a much more consistent and better produced program.
That, in the end, is what all of us want to achieve. At the very least, a
set of defined standards would give host organizations something
against which to measure their program designs.
Until the IOC decides to take on this issue and requires organizing
committees to place a greater emphasis on the arts by mandating a moresignificant and defined standard of support for cultural programming
Cultural Olympiads will continue to deliver mixed results and a productthat falls short of its sports counterpart.
2.4 The Role of Competition in Future Cultural Olympiads
Under the right circumstances and given the proper competitive
conditions, the return of competition could provide a significant
stimulus and point of interest for future Olympiads.
I am not suggesting that we move away from the current festival format
which has been relatively successful, but rather that the IOC consider
expanding the notion of what kind of events should constitute future
Cultural Olympiads. If an appropriate format and process can be definedfor holding competitions in various arts disciplines, then perhaps it is timeto include again this element in the Cultural program.
Countless arts festivals are held each year throughout the world, ranging
from local and regional events to long-standing and profoundly importantinternational festivals. Similarly, countless competitions are already inplace throughout the world, again ranging from local, regional and national
events to the world's most prestigious competitions, including the
Tchaikovsky, Van Cliburn, Queen Elisabeth, the Metropolitan Opera
Auditions, the Venice Biennale and other important visual arts competitions
plus many others too numerous to mention.
Given this state of affairs, why, then, reintroduce competition into the
Olympic formula?
First, visibility. As I noted earlier, the Olympic movement is presently
operating on very solid ground and the near future, at least, appears secureand stable. The Olympic Games is also the world's preeminent and most40

widely watched and admired international event. Whatever its reputationand coverage, there is not a festival or a competition that even remotely
captures the attention and instant worldwide recognition as the Olympic
Games. At the same time, ironically, Olympic cultural events have neverreceived as much attention as the world's most important and best known
festivals and competitions. And yet, the coverage, visibility and recognitionof artists who would compete in and win Olympic arts competitions could
easily and vastly exceed that of virtually any other competition. Having
considered this for some time, 1 am convinced that the results would benothing short of staggering.
Second, prestige. To be an Olympic athlete is to be admired throughout theworld as the very best. No matter what other competitions one might havewon - from World Cups to World Championships - to be an Olympian is tobe the world’s best - one who represents the pinnacle of excellence.
Why should not the same standard apply to artists who compete and win an
Olympic arts competition? Why not enhance and invigorate Olympic
cultural activity and celebrate the highest achievement in the arts bybringing the best of the world's most gifted young artists together tocompete in an Olympic arena? While there are certainly many otherimportant and well-established international competitions, there can be only
one Olympic competition. A carefully designed and managed Olympic arts
competition would undoubtedly become the most prestigious recognition ofits kind.
What went wrong in the past? Among other things, a misguided attempt tooperate an arts competition in the same way as athletic competitions. This
did not work in the early days of the Olympic movement and is still not
appropriate. The design, operation and outcomes of an international arts
competition is distinctively different from that of sports. Among a long listof differences, perhaps the key is that arts competitions are exclusively
subjective. While there may be some areas where Olympic-style scoring
could be used successfully (such as in gymnastics, diving and ice skating),
an Olympic arts competition would have to be built from the ground up andindependent of sports competitions.
Another reason earlier Olympic arts competitions were not successful is that
it was and remains unrealistic to think that the world's greatest artists willcompete against one another in any kind of competition. International arts
competitions are generally focused on discovering artists at the threshold ofimportant careers, often between the ages of 18 and 30 - not dissimilar fromtheir athlete counterparts. This is not to say that there could be categories
for artists beyond this age group, it's just that it would be naive to think that
the Three Tenors, for example, would compete against one another. Thus,
the field of potential competitors is those who are both outstanding at what
they do and likely candidates to compete in such events.

41

Consider the concept as a series of preliminary events which begin with thearrival of the Olympic flag, some of which would be the currently
established international competitions, all leading to semi-final and final
rounds which would be presented as Olympic Arts Festival events. You
begin to sense the excitement and how it would build throughout the two
weeks of every Games. Add to this an outstanding arts festival atmosphereand program and you have a cultural program that will draw much greater
visibility and recognition than currently possible under today's format.
The value of adding competition to the Olympic cultural agenda should
neither be underestimated nor limited to artistic considerations. Significant
opportunities will also arise to enhance media coverage of and increasefinancial support for Olympic arts events.
2.5 Olympic Village for Artists
But there are other opportunities as well. Why not create an Olympic
Village setting for artists? I am not suggesting that a village be created justso that everyone can live together for a few days. This would never work in
the first place and in some cases is not practical. To create an environment
in which and through which to encourage and nurture collaborative creative
activity on an international level, in real time, would be both in keepingwith the Olympic spirit and a significant opportunity to bring the creative
process to the Games themselves.
I am suggesting a working Olympic Cultural Village that Olympic guests
can visit to interact with and see the evolution of works in progress. This
special Olympic village - bringing the world's best together - could become
an exciting new program that reappears each Games. Perhaps there would
be projects that carry over from one host to the next, not culminating but
evolving. Participants would vary from one project to the next and the projects from one Games to the next, the definition of projects to be developed
and determined by each cultural director and his staff.
Collaborations between visual artists and choreographers, dance companies,
orchestras and composers, opera companies and traditional and/or folk
artists, playwrights and theater companies, television and film directors, set
designers, architects and computer and telecommunications experts. The
range of possible projects and combinations of artists representing
different cultural backgrounds and artistic disciplines is virtually unlimited.
Ideally, most projects would be developed over an extended period of timeand completed works premiered as presentations of each Olympic Arts
Festival.
This would generate additional interest and could add tremendously to theinterest and scope of Olympic cultural activity. It would also offer
unprecedented opportunities for bringing important established artists

42together with younger, gifted artists and people from disparate cultural
traditions and genres together in a way and in a setting that becomes areal-time expressionof the Olympic ideal.
2.6 Separate Sponsorship and Broadcast Options for Cultural Programs
To close, I want to address two non-artistic topics concerns thatsignificantly and, currently at least, negatively impact the scope andvisibility of Olympic arts programs: Sponsorship and Media Coverage.
Both are vitally important to the future of the Cultural Olympiad andshould be reshaped to more positively Olympic cultural programs.
In Atlanta, sponsorship deals included the cultural component as part of theoverall sponsorship package. Shortly after my appointment as ACOG's
cultural director I suggested that we separate the cultural component fromthe main Games package and seek additional, significant, value-added
sponsorship for our cultural events. By doing so we could identify sponsors
who desired the kind of name and event recognition offered by cultural
events and who might otherwise not be interested in the athletic side of
ACOG's program. Ultimately I was disappointed that the decision wasmade not to follow this route; instead, the cultural program remained partof the total benefits package given to each sponsor.
Very late in the day, ACOG allowed us to pursue so-called “signaturesponsors” for key program components - not just cultural, but other highvisibility programs as well, such as the Olympic Youth Camp. We wereable to use this to some advantage, but because this came so late, we did nothave the opportunity to develop programs that provided the kind of mutualadvantages many potential sponsors would like to have in a program/sponsor package.
In fact the Cultural Olympiad and the Olympic Arts Festival are both
valuable commodities that, if properly managed and pursued, can lead toand yield significant sponsor support. By carving them out of the larger
Games sponsorship packages, we would be able to pursue and secure thesevalue- added sponsorships from corporations that are exclusively interested
in the cultural component of the Games, and of course :from those who do
not compete directly with other Olympic sponsors. The flexibility to pursue
this kind of funding would enable organizing committees to see real net
revenue added to their bottom line which in turn would help to more firmly
establish the arts as a key contributing component to the Olympic formula.
This is a basic, bottom-line argument for sustaining and enhancing the arts
as a substantial component of each Games operating budget, but one thatwill take some intensive lobbying to secure.
The formula for identifying and raising the capital required to support thearts as a more integral and essential component of the Olympic experience43

depends to a large extent upon the organization's ability to see real andsubstantial support is available and can be attracted to the cultural program.
This critical connection also strengthens· the case for increasing the scopeand visibility of this important program.
Media exposure, like that of sponsorship, is vitally important to gaining
maximum return on an organizing committee's investment in Olympic
cultural programs. In Atlanta, despite my best efforts to preserve flexibility
for us to negotiate television and radio coverage of cultural events with themedia outlets most likely to be interested in producing such programming, I
was unable to do so. Except for a single exception which has taken nearlya year to negotiate, we have been unable to secure any television or radio
programming contracts for Olympic Arts Festival programs. On the surface
this may not appear to be a major issue; after all, the Olympics are covered
more thoroughly than any other event in the world. What could the
problem be with including the arts under the overall umbrella of thebroadcast agreement? In the United States, at least, where NBC owns therights to every aspect of the 1996 Olympics (including Atlanta's Olympic
Arts Festival), the problem is that NBC is a commercial broadcast entitythat is focused on the athletic competitions and that has virtually nointerest in arts programming. Sports, yes; arts, no. By owning theexclusive rights, NBC has been able to embargo offers by noncommercial public television and radio companies to produce cultural
programming.
This is not only disappointing to those presenting and creating or
performing, it also deprives the world's largest audience of seeing onetime-only Olympic cultural events of superb quality. More distressing, thecurrent broadcast arrangement with NBC prevents us from promoting
Olympic arts programs in a way that could help to close the gap between
sport and art and expand the public's understanding of the links between
sport and art that Coubertin so eloquently described and pursued. I am notcritical of NBC; they sought and won the exclusive rights to broadcast
the Games in 1996 and they did so in a way that best fits their broadcast
style. That the arts are included as part of their broadcast package isunderstandable; that I wish we had the freedom to seek a broadcast partner
for the arts that would be interested in sharing our program with the worldis also understandable. The current situation can be remedied for future
cultural programs only one of two ways: Carve out Olympic cultural
programs from the Games broadcast agreement so that host organizers
have the flexibility to pursue separate broadcast options for cultural
programs; or require those entities that own the rights to the Games,
including cultural events, to include a certain percentage of their coveragefor cultural programs. Either way, a significant step forward could betaken in support of improving the visibility of Olympic arts activities.

44

Without a change in this policy, Olympic arts programs will continue to be
relegated to the back seat. When all is said and done, the real bottom line isthat the link between art and sport however ideally conceived and however
creatively structured and managed in the future, will be only as strong andviable as the connection with and flexibility to attract and sustain
sponsorship and media coverage. The hand and glove relationshipbetween coverage and dollars is clear and real. Without this direct andvital link the Games would bea much less significant event.
As we approach the 21st century it would appear that if we want to see art
and sport linked in a manner and at a level reflective of Coubertin's vision,
we must insist that sport and art both receive the financial support andaccess to media coverage they deserve.

3 Conclusion
We can strengthen and improve the viability and quality of the link between
sport and art as we begin the Second Olympic Century of the modern
Games.
First, continue to integrate arts and culture with the overall Olympic
Operation in a way that makes it easy and convenient for Olympic visitors
to attend both kinds of events and through which they can see the linkage
between sport and art.
Second, consider recommending to the IOC Cultural Commission that agroup of distinguished artists and arts leaders be impaneled to review andrecommend some basic operating guidelines and principles for future
Olympic cultural programs.
Third, arrive at and secure a fundamental baseline of support for cultural
programming within each organizing committee budget.
Fourth, consider including competitive arts events in future Olympic arts
programs to add a new dimension of excitement and to more clearly linksport and art under the Olympic banner.
Fifth, create the conditions through which sponsorship support for cultural
programs can be maximized.
And, sixth, create conditions to assure that expanded media coverage forcultural events will be available for future Olympic cultural programs.
Bach of these topics is in and of itself worthy of considerable discussion.
As Emma Goldman wrote: Every daring attempt to make a great change inexisting conditions, every lofty vision of new possibilities for the humanrace, has been labeled Utopian.
That Coubertin's “utopian” vision has thus far not only survived but isthriving as mankind's greatest peacetime gathering, is a tribute to thepower of his dream. Let us continue to support and help to make his
ultimate dream a reality.
Originally published in Müller, N./ Messing, M. (eds.): Auf der Suche nach der Olympischen
Idee. Olympic Studies 2. Kassel 1996, pp. 271-285.

45

„The Revival of the Olympic Games“ dated 1896 by Charles de Coubertin,
father of Pierre, a well known artist (Olympic Museum Lausanne)Eurhythmics as a Key Concept of
Coubertin’s Olympism –A Systematic Approach
Manfred Messing / Norbert Müller

1 Coubertin’s Eurhythmics and the Deduction of
Hierarchical Components
In his “Letters on the Olympic Idea” Coubertin (2000 [Nov. 1918], 548)
describes “Olympism” as a “state of mind that derives from a twofold
doctrine: that of effort, and that of eurhythmy.” These two elements would
comply with the taste for excess respectively the taste for due measure (ibid.).
Out of the contradiction a unity develops, if a man’s “intense zeal [is]crowned with joyful tranquility and self-control, surrounded by order,balance, and harmony” (ibid.). Coubertin terms the antithesis of excess,which, as a premise for exceeding previous achievements, is after all acomponent of Olympic sport, as “eurhythmics”.1
Although he evidently does not regard Olympism as a system2 but a state ofmind (ibid.), his thoughts on eurhythmics expressed in numerous works canbe systematically arranged and amplified. To this end 4 components ofeurhythmics will be distinguished following Parsons’ (1976 [1966], 135-155)
classification of society in a cultural, social, personal and organic system ofaction, which are embedded in a “physical environment” as a fifth component(see Figure 1).
1.1 Cultural Values
Indeed, Coubertin (2000 [1935], 581) rejects a “system of mandatorymoderation” for the champion as an illusion, but at the same time he connects“freedom of excess” in the pursuit of excellence after all with the spirit of“chivalry” with the fair play. Also the striving for a victor’s position is seen
as a relative aim: “What counts in life is not the victory, but the struggle; the1
Coubertin’s „Olympic Idea“ belongs to a concept of balance theory (s. also Da Costa 1998), which has a long
philosophical tradition. Probably, Coubertin was inspired by Aristotle (Politik 1323a 38-b 6), who connected
the dialectics of measure and excess with “Eudaimonie” (happiness). In Chinese thought the “unity of the
opposites” exists in the form of two natural powers, the male Yang- and the female Yin-principle (cf. Eberhard
1990/3, 307). Since the Yang was representing heat among other terms and the Yin rain as an opposite, cultic
stones of Yang and Yin were whipped when too much dryness or too much rain occurred (ibid., 308). Thisillustrates, that the Chinese concept of Yang and Yin – although it stems from a different cultural background –is not far in its meaning from Aristotle’s “right proportion”.
2
Da Costa (1998) characterizes instead Coubertin’s thinking as embedded into an eclectic tradition.

47

48

essential thing is not to conquer, but to fight well” (ibid. [1908], 589). A wish
to win at every price harms thereby a central value of sport, the fairness, andconsequently impairs the eurhythmics, too.
From the view of exchange theory fairness can be understood as strive forbalanced interactions, which includes the conformity to the rules (formal fairplay) and transcends the actual situation by informal fair play, which isguided by the “spirit of the game” and a generalized idea of reciprocity.
Similar, Nelson/Cody (1979, 97) describe fair play “as resulting from abalanced emphasis on competition and cooperation.” For Homans (1961,
264) fair exchange or distributive justice “is realized when the profit or
reward less cost, of each man is directly proportional to his investments[…]”.
According to an interpretation of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics by Vlastos(1971, 71), the word “just” (dikaiosyne) “could carry a sense broad to cover
all virtuous conduct towards others, though for the most part it was used in amore specific sense to mean refraining from pleonexia, [..] i.e. from gainingsome advantage for oneself by grabbing what belongs to another – his
property, his wife, his office, and the like – or by denying him what is(morally or legally) due to him - fulfilment of promises made to him,
repayment of monies owed to him, respect for his good name and reputation,and so forth. What holds these two senses together is that dikaiosyne is thepre-eminently social virtue: [..] it stands for right dealings between persons(see Aristotle V, 1129b-1130b5).
Aristotle (ibid. 1129 a 32) writes:”[..] the term `unjust´ is held to apply to theman who breaks the law and the man who takes more than his due, the unfairman.”
The attachment of fairness to justice in the sense Aristotle would allow todefine fairness as an universal principle, which can be experienced in sport
education in a special way by physical practice instead of mere theorizing,
but needs to be adapted in all fields of society as a counterweight to theachievement value.
1.2 Social Structures
As a social variation of eurhythmics Coubertin’s (2000 [1918], 273) idea canbe interpreted, “that the best foundation for social peace within a democraticsociety would be the establishment of a happy equilibrium between theinequality introduced by nature among men, and the equality which
legislation seeks to impose.”
Against inequality people rebel “because it usually has the twofold
characteristic of being permanent and unjustified. It it were transient andjustified it would no longer arose enmity. Now we may note that while in49other fields it is almost impossible to create such conditions, in the republicof sport they arise of themselves” (ibid.).
Hence sport is consequently an area of eurhythmics, because equality ofchances and a transparent rank differentiation according to achievement fromhere a “happy equilibrium”.
Elias/Dunning (1976/2 [1966]) sees in a soccer game not only the fight of
two teams, “but the fluid pattern, formed by both. This is the pattern of thegame – the dynamics of a group in tension” (ibid., 69).
This model would have far reaching theoretical implications for otherconflictous relationships. Tensions in marriage or between unions andmanagement would be nothing strange, but belonged – like in sport –significantly to the configuration itself; “there too, they are to some extent
controlled” (ibid.).
Interstate relations would be another example for configuration with built-in
tensions. “Among the factors which prevent the achievement of better control
is certainly the widespread inability to perceive and to investigate two statesin tension or a multi-polar state system as a single configuration” (ibid.). In
the opinion of the authors sport games therefore form a (simplified) modelfor the control of international conflicts, but merely their regulation in forms,
which assure an international cooperation continuously.
Coubertin (2000 [1935]) discusses a tension-balance of patriotism and“internationalism” if he assigns at one hand the role for the champion, tohonor his country (p. 580), and on the other hand expects from the spectator,
the he spends his applause “only in proportion to the feat accomplished.”
Furious nationalistic spectators disturb certainly the eurhythmics of the
Olympic truce which requires that “nationalistic feelings […] must be put `ontemporary leave´” (ibid., 581).
1.3 Personal Experiences
Within the personal experiences eurhythmics corresponds to a feeling ofwell-being resulting from an inner balance and harmony with thesurrounding.
Coubertin (2000 [Dec. 1918], 549) emphasizes, that balance “is not achievedby taking every possible precaution, but by alternating one’s efforts.”
Eurhythmics is wrongly narrowed to an aesthetic experience of harmony in asense of “tranquil balance, of forces in perfect counterbalance, a scale inperfect equilibrium” (ibid.), but is to realize as a result of dynamic processes
only in narrow temporary limits. “For humanity is like a pendulum whichseeks equilibrium but achieves it only transiently on its ineluctable flightfrom one excess to another” (ibid. 2000 [Febr. 1918], 271; cf. ibid. [1929],
566). It would be wrong, too, to associate competitive sport one-sided withperformance excess and art with measure and a feeling of harmony, “for50

eurhythmy is not applicable merely in the field of art. There is also
eurhythmy of life” (ibid., 567).
Result of psychological and social psychological research show, that between
Coubertin’s concept of “eurhythmics” and the term “flow experience”(Csikszentmihalyi 1975), a feeling of happiness based on a requirement
adapted to a level of ability, and the “optimal level theory” (with regard to
exiting and relaxing stimuli; cf. comprehensive Carron 1980) thoroughly
parallels exist.
Specialities of eurhythmics in sport lie in the possibility, that under certain
conditions the unity of body and mind, which has become impaired by anincreasing socially differentiated, technical world, can be revived in a person.
First of all sport activity itself is never only physical action, but contains
cognitive, emotional and volitional components. Eurhythmics can here be
expressed as a “delicate balance of mind and body, the joy of a fresher andmore intense life” (Coubertin 2000 [1894], 534), because joy appears as theright measure between cool equanimity and fanatic enthusiasm. Similar,
Malter (1996, 11) defines eurhythmics as a physical joyful experience ofharmony of body and mind.
1.4 Organic States
At the physical level itself (organic system) the process of coaching has to be
directed to dynamic balances. To influence achievement by drugs contradicts
not only the fair play principle but also to eurhythmics, if on this way
disproportions develop (e.g. between muscle growth and strain of ligaments),
which can lead to heavy injuries.
1.5 Environmental Effects
With space-aesthetic aspects of the environment of a modern Olympia
Coubertin has been engaged already in 1910 (cf. ibid., 257), not seeing in
antiquity a model for the right balance of built-up and free spaces: “The Altis
at Olympia was chaotic, as well, and it is difficult for us to believe thateurhythmia would not have been greatly enhanced if a little `air´ had been
given to so many disparate monuments jammed together so strangely” (ibid.).
Coubertin (ibid., 257f.) discusses several inappropriate concepts for thedesign of an Olympic area, among it the type of a casino-park opposed to a
French garden. Between both extremes there would be “room for harmonious
versatility” (ibid., 257).
In this way Coubertin sees eurhythmics guaranteed, if the realization of an
extreme ideal type is consciously abandoned. On the contrary only single
elements in a fitting size are taken out of the ideal type and combimed

51

“eclectically” with elements of other ideal types to correspond to the special
demands of the Olympic festival. (Probably it is not a coincidence, if
Coubertin anticipates here a structural principle of societies is the postmodern epoch). The eurhythmics achieves here an objective quality as a wellordered proportion, if for instance the Olympic architecture integrates itself
aesthetically in the natural setting of the elected city, “because the close
cooperation of man and nature is one of the essential elements of eurhythmia
in such matters (ibid.).

Figure 2: Central and peripheral areas of Eurhythmics at Olympic Games(Computerdesign: M. Westerberg)

52

2 Central and Peripheral Areas of Eurhythmics
The examination of components of eurhythmics can be supplemented by ananalysis of its closeness respectively distance toward the center of sport
activity. In Figure 2 five rings are distinguished, which together contribute to
the harmony of Olympic Games, so that the neglection of any ring or any
segment in a ring would cause disbalances. For instance a WorldChampionship of Soccer might be possible without a festive frame, but for
Olympic Games it is a necessary part. It will be shown later, that eachsegment of each ring can be divided farther into elements, which need to be
combined in certain proportions to function as a harmonious unit.
2.1 The Central “LIGA”-Ring
The central ring is subdivided according to Parsons’ (1976 [1966], 161ff.)
functional requirements of a social system: L stands for “Latent patternmaintenance” in the sense of the stabilization of the system (if conflicts
occur) by social values. At the athlete the spiritual attitude of Olympism as
superior value orientation appears in the “double worship of measure andexcess”, which can be interpreted as the strife for fairness and athletic
records. I means he integration of any subsystems. In the case of an Olympic
athlete, the sport role has to be integrated with other role obligations, forinstance that one of a student, the service in the army or a profession. Besides
inter role conflicts, intra role conflicts have to be managed. Top level athletes
are not only expected to train and perform, but to communicate for fulfilling
media, fans’ and sponsors’ needs. The G reads as “Goal achievement” whichis connected with the effort of an athlete, according to Coubertin (2000[1913], 215) an indispensable factor for success. Without will, which isunderstood as a balance state of psychic activation, even talent, which can belooked at as a resource for the athlete’s adaptation (= A) to the demands ofthe competition, does not lead to success alone. Talent appears in thepresence of optimal fitting components of achievement (related to a kind of
sport).
2.2 The Second Ring: Performance of Action and Performance ofPresentation
The second ring consists of two elements: the performance of action and theperformance of presentation (terms according to Gebauer 1972). Muhammed
Ali was an outstanding boxer and showman as well. Today it seems that thebalance of sport performance and the self-presentation of the athlete in the
public to increase his or her “awareness” respectively “market value” isdisturbed to the favor of the latter.

53

However, the performance of presentation is not limited to the publicity
before and after the game but is included in the sport action itself as
performance aesthetics, which is especially important in kinds of sports likegymnastics or figure skating.
2.3 The Third Ring: Proportions of the Sport Program
The third ring contains the sport program of the Olympic Games, which isformulated in Coubertin’s motto “all Games, all Nations”. Meanwhile, thegrowing number of different sports has caused the danger of “gigantism”,
which is counteracted by the rule, that Olympic sports must be qualified by acertain level of representation throughout the world.
The principle of “all Nations” is negated, if a boycott occurs, which
considerably hurts the harmony of Olympic Games, as we know from
Montreal 1976, Moscow 1980 and Los Angeles 1984. But even if all
countries would participate, the medal chances are often concentrated within
the group of nations enjoying sophisticated sport promotion systems andextraordinary financial support for top level sport. Insofar the competitions
are not open at the beginning because of inequalities in the sport
infrastructure (see Heinila 1982), eurhythmics in this matter is hardly being
realized.
2.4 The Fourth Ring Between Ceremonial Seriosity and Joyful Festive
Mood
Ceremonies and a festive frame form the fourth area of harmony. Rituals, likethe igniting of the Olympic Flame, offer almost no surprise because of their
fixed structure and by this do not match the principle of an economy ofawareness. In Barcelona 1992, this ritual was embedded into an exiting
action never seen before: “the flame in the cauldron was ignited […] by aburning arrow, shot by the Paralympics archer Antonio Rebollo from a
distance of 65 meters” (Borgers 1996, 145f).
Besides of the ceremonies, Olympic Games as a whole are festivals, which
are expressions of joy and happiness (cf. Mac Aloon 1984, 262). However,
the maxim “more is better” would have the tendency to destroy symmetriesof balance, harmony and continuity, which mark traditional festivals. While
we would look forward to festivities with joy, spectacles appeared to us
suspicious, because we associate them with possible tastelessness and moral
dissonances (ibid., 246).
For the sake of eurhythmics the Organizing Committees have to take craethat the festive parts of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of Olympic

54

Games are not becoming pure spectacles emptied of their spiritual
foundation.
2.5 The Fifth Ring: Olympic Scientific Congresses, Education,
Harmonizing Ecological and Social Surroundings, Cultural Program
The segments of the fifth ring – like the promotion of a spiritual attitude,
based on Olympism, scientific and artistic interpretations of the Olympic
process in its different ways as well as the harmonious construction andinfluence on the ecological and social surroundings of the “Olympic system”– should play an important part during the core time of Olympic Games, buthave developed in general an autonomous life besides time and location of
the Olympic sports competitions. This is true also for the continuous task ofan ethnically based Olympic education as for a rational or expressive-artistic
work at the Olympic topic. In the ecological area the principle of sustainable
development leads to the obligation, to consider the long-term ecologicalconsequences for the Olympic world events. A friendly social climate and a
joyful festivity mood sometimes facilitate impacts for a deconstruction of
ethnic prejudices and the de-escalation of international tensions. Even if thefunction of international understanding, which is often associated with theOlympic Games in public opinion polls, is mostly limited to symbolic forms
communicated by the mass media, an enduring international cooperation
takes place in the international sport federations between functionaries, whichsometimes oversteps political or religious lines of tension.
How is eurhythmics connected to the above mentioned segments? The
Olympic Scientific Congresses can serve as an example of the importance of“right” proportions. These congresses take a rational look at sport in generaland especially at Olympic Games. If Olympic topics are only marginal – likeit was at “The 1996 International Pre-Olympic Scientific Congress” inDallas/Texas under the headline “Physical Activity, Sport and health” – theprogram is not well balanced. As in the athletes participation a broad range of
researchers from abroad should characterize an Olympic Scientific Congress
which can encourage international project cooperation. Sometime it will bedifficult to combine broad international participation with outstanding
scientific quality – both aims can be related to Olympic values – but to follow
only one single principle would not meet the sense of eurhythmics.
A similar argument is true for the ethic-educative segment of the exterior
ring: Much too often the promotion of the Olympic idea is limited to thetimes of Olympic Summer- and Winter Games, where the Host City is
characterized by a special high engagement, while the international level
differs considerably. A systematic documentation of Olympic education
programs at a central place could give orientation at best practice and reduce
dissonance between high aims (i.e. in the IOC-Charter) and reality.

55

The teaching of the spiritual foundations of Olympism should not be only thematter of schools in general, but must be included in the program of special
schools for young athletes and promotion centers for the high achievers in
sport. The cooperation of Pierre de Coubertin-Schools in different countries
demonstrates how the abstract idea of Eurhythmy can be put into practice.
The regular international meetings of delegates of that schools offer not only
sport activities but encourage at the same time the engagement in art toapproximate the aim of Coubertin of a “marriage” of muscles and spirit.
In the case of the artistic-expressive interpretation of Olympism a limitation
to the topic “Sport in Art” respectively Olympic Architecture and Design
would be a perspective too narrow. On the other hand such a focus should be
not missing, since Olympic spectators seem to be motivated more by a sport
content to look at the Arts Festival. No wonder, that in Atlanta 1996 theexhibition “An Olympic Portfolio: Photographs by Annie Leibovitz”
attracted 700.000 visitors, much more than the top exhibition of 125
international paintings and sculptures “Rings: Five Passions in World Art”
with over 200.000 (data from Babcock 1996, 34). Leibovitz wascommissioned “to photograph aspiring [American!] Olympic athletes
throughout the year leading up to the Games and to photograph Olympians
throughout the Games, updating her exhibition as it evolved on a daily basis(ibid., 42f). The time coordination of sport and cultural events is certainly
important for Olympic tourists, because their high expenditures are connectedwith the attractivity of sport competitions firstly. Besides of that aconcentration of cultural events near the sport venues can bring better public
resonance. It makes sense to present parts of the cultural program someweeks before the opening of the Olympic Games and between their closing
and the start of the Paralympics.
The four-year time of a “Cultural Olympiad” can also be used to increase theawareness for the Olympic Host City and its cultural highlights by organizing
cultural events in foreign countries long before the Games begin.
The question is often debated what proportion international arts should takewithin an Olympic Arts Festival. On the one hand it is in the sense of
Olympism to expose the local art of the Host City, its region and nation to aworld public and – by this – increase the understanding of that specificculture. On the other one it is also legitimate to invite outstanding foreign
artists and art work to the host city to follow the motto of the Olympic Games“Citius. Altius. Fortius.” Not only in the matter of sport competitions.
However, it should be considered that the subject of art fits to the Olympic
event. A good example is the exhibition “Inuit and People from the Ice” inToronto 2006, which matched very well with other exhibitions on topics like
ice, snow, winter in the alps and winter sports.
The question, in which ratio local/regional, national and foreign contributionsof an Olympic arts program should be combined and what is the best56

proportion of sport and Olympic Games related subjects against others toreach a harmonious balance, cannot be answered with a formula. This is true
as well for the proportion of arts from past epochs and contemporary arts or
the mixture of different art forms like Visual Arts, theater, dance, music,
cinema and literature. Eurhythmics as a basic principle can give only ageneral orientation. Avoid one-sidedness – unite contradictions!
Table 1 is an example for a three dimensional content analysis of the Salt
Lake 2002 Olympic Arts Festival (for details see Messing 2006, 297ff).
Table 1: Connection of the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Arts Festival in 7
program sections with political/geographical regions, sport and the Olympic
Idea3
Program
SectionNumber of
Days

Regional Relations

Relations toSport ingeneral

abs.

%

Utah

USA

abs.
Exhibitions 1313 95,7
Music
Dance
SpecialEvents4
Film5
Rodeo
Words
(Poetry)
Total

Olympic
Idea/Topicabs.

Foreign
Countries
abs.

No
abs.

6

5

6

11

Yes
abs
.
3

abs.
3

17
16
17

1,2
1,2
1,2

4
-

2
11
1

1
2

6
9
3

-

1
2
-

4
3
2

0,3
0,2
0,2

-

2
1
2

-

1
2

1
-

1
-

10

24

9

32

4

7

1372 100,0All exhibition days were added up to a total of 1313 days with the longest
exhibition about “Utah’s First Nations” (193 days) to the shortest one “Salt3
Cumulation based on data from “Olympic Arts Festival Performance Schedule 2002”. In: SLOC (2001):
Cultural Olympiad. Salt Lake 2002, 43f (brochure “Olympic Arts Festival” with cover foreground: Pilobolus
Dance Theatre photo).
4
Special events were: „The Art of the Table“, „International Ice Carving Competition“ and „Reebok Human
Rights Award“.
5The film „The Extra Terrestrial“ was not connected with the Olympic Spirit in this counting, although the
SLOC (2001, 12) did so in its brochure, saying it „exemplifies the Olympic Spirit by promoting friendship andcompassion“.

57Lake Gallery Stroll” (7 days). The origin of the exhibitions was about 35%
from Utah, 30% from U.S.A. and 35% from foreign countries. 65% of theexhibitions had no relation to sport. The other six program sections wererelated about 15% to Utah, 73% to U.S.A. and 12% to foreign countries. 81%
had no sport subjects.
A program analysis according to the criterion of well-balancedness has to beanchored at a specific leading idea (e.g. “Olympic Homecoming” in Athens
2004), a claimed identity (e.g. Greece as the origin country of Olympic
Games) or Olympic values, which should be communicated via arts.
In Salt Lake 2002, the Artistic Director formulated as aims of the Cultural
Program “first and foremost the highlights in America’s contribution to thearts and humanities […] Secondly and perhaps more important was to use thearts to embrace the West and its cultures among others, but we wanted to do
it in a way that was credible and authentic (Grant, in: Messing 2006, 289f).
Related to such leading ideas artistic works can fit together and form thedesired general image more or less perfect, However, a well-balanced
cultural message with local, national and international contributions, with asufficient consideration of sport and Olympic subjects, with an integrated
mixture of art forms does not guarantee a large public interest. The
investigations of the Research team Olympia at the University of Mainz
among Olympic spectators after (Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996) or during theGames (Sydney 2000, Salt Lake 2002 and Athens 2004) have shown that
there is a continuing disparity between the quantity and quality of Olympic
Arts Festivals programs and the limited resonance in the public (Table 2).
Olympic Games

Respondents

MethodBarcelona 1992

German Tourists

Atlanta 1996

German Tourists

Sydney2000

Modern Pentathlon
spectators
Biathlon spectators
Mod. Pentathlon
spect.

Prepaid mailed
questionnaires tohome address
Prepaid questionnaires distributed
in selected hotels
On site poll

Salt Lake 2002
Athens 2004

On site poll
On site poll

Ratio of visitors ofCultural Program%
36,5% (n = 579)

34,4% (n = 212)

29,0% (n = 1677)
45,4% (n = 1092)
38,4% (n = 1519)

Table 2: Percentage of visitors of the Cultural Programs during five Olympic
Games6
If throughout 3 Olympiads only about one third of tourists/spectators
attended the cultural program of Summer Olympic Games, it does not
6

Data gathered from Messing/Müller/Schormann (2002, 155), Buchwalder (2004, 64, Eisele (2005).

58

necessary result from the unbalanced proportions of such a program itself.
There might be other imbalances within the system, e.g. insufficient
advertising of cultural events, missing engagement of travel offices in thisarea of the Olympic Games, low media coverage and sponsorship, distantlocation of an exhibition, lack of coordination between the sport and the arts
schedule. To solve such problems, Babcock (1996) asks for “a synergistic
link between Olympic Games and the Cultural Olympiad”.
3 The Measurement of Eurhythmics – a Methodological Outlook
To give Eurhythmics the same weight within Olympism as the achievement
value already has, two steps have to be undertaken: The first one is empiricalresearch on the real proportions of Olympic Games in different levels andareas (see Figure 1 and 2). Difficulties arise here from the operationalizationof complex constructs, the availability of data and the scientific managementof a huge amount of independent input factors of eurhythmics. Besides thefactual proportions (e.g. the distribution of medals to countries, the relationof sport art and other subjects) evaluations on such proportions ca besystematically collected – both existing ones, which are dominantly producedby the mass media, or generated by opinion surveys and expert interviews.
However, this information forms only a shaky platform for the second step: anormative concept of how optimal proportions should be. What reasons could
anyone give, that a change of certain proportions would result in a higher
degree of eurhythmics? Many of the relations are a unique formation at
specific Olympic Games and not open to experiments nor transferable to thenext Games.
Also, judgements and opinions may not be a valid measure of eurhythmics. If
German spectators at the Barcelona Olympic Games criticize, the Opening
Ceremony would contain too much opera instead of sport subjects, perhaps
less opera would have increased their eurhythmics, but not that of the
Spanish spectators. In some cases it would be certainly better not to follow
the taste of the masses but to educate them to be able to enjoy a higher levelof eurhythmics.
In Olympic research one runs unavoidably into the difficulties of crossnational research, especially of imposing the own cultural bias on the subject
being investigated. Therefore Da Costa’s (1998, 198) statement “…the rightmeasure is the local measure” can be read as a warning not to fall into thetraps of ethnocentrism by judging the eurhythmics of a specific Olympic
Games. On the other side, this statement has its limitations if we think for
instance at the Nazi Olympics 1936, where the local measure, namely theexclusion of Jewish athletes, was not the right measure. In fact, it was a
massive threat to Olympic eurhythmics, as it stood in sharp contrast to
Coubertin’s Olympic Idea.

59

Since a normative set of proportions seems not possible in the more complex
areas of eurhythmics, but a general orientation on the unification ofcontradicting elements is too far from practice and staging Olympic Games,
preliminary steps are recommended, to consider eurhythmics in a concreteway. These steps are related to dimensions, where extremes have to be
avoided and aims can be derived accordingly.
To illustrate this proposal, three examples are given:- Olympic Games lack eurhythmics, if a few nations – and always thesame ones – gain a very high percentage of medals and a hugeamount of countries do win nothing. The aim must be to increase thepercentage of countries, which participate in winning medals and toincrease the openness of the competition.
- Opening Ceremonies are often impressive by masses of actors whoform colorful images of culture and of the Olympic Idea. As acounterpoint the choreographer should not forget the focus on the
single person (like realized in Sydney).
- Today, many cities compete against each other to host Olympic
Games, often motivated primarily by economic benefits andpossibilities of presentation of national identity. These should not be
the only aims. Perhaps these aims would be researched better if thecandidate city would not ask firstly, what the Olympic Games cando for that city, but what the city could do for the Olympic Gamesand the Olympic Idea.
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DaCosta, L.: Olympism and the Equilibrium of Man. In: Müller, N. (Editing Director):
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the University of LeHavre. Niedernhausen – Strasbourg – Sydney 1998, 188-199.
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Befragung in zwei Wettkampfstätten zu olympischen Werten, Veranstaltungsorganistation,
Interesse am sportlichen und kulturellen Gesamtprogramm und olympiabezogenen
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Cultural Performance. Philadelphia 1984, 241-280.
Malter, R.: “Eurhythmie des Lebens” als Ideal menschlicher Existenz. Bemerkungen zu
Coubertins geschichtsphilosophischer Anthropologie. In: Müller, N./Messing, M. (Hrsg.):
Auf der Suche nach der Olympischen Idee. Facetten der Forschung von Athen bis Atlanta.
Kassel 1996, 9-15 (Olympische Studien, vol. 2).
Messing, M.: Staging the Olympic Arts Festival Salt Lake 2002. An Interview with Raymond T.
Grant, Artistic Director. In: Müller, N./Messing, M./Preuss, H. (Eds.): Von Chamonix bis
Turin. Die Winterspiele im Blickfeld der Olympiaforschung. From Chamonix to Turin. The
Winter Games in the Scope of Olympic Research. Olympic Studis 8. Kassel 2006, 289-308(Olympische Studien, vol. 8).
Messing, M./Müller, N./Schormann, K.: Ortsansässige Besucher und Touristen beim Modern
Pentathlon in Sydney 2000. Ein Beitrag zur Binnendifferenzierung des Olympiazuschauers.
In: Güldenpfennig, S./Krickow, D (Red.): Deutsches Olympisches Institut. Jahrbuch 2001.
Berlin 2002.
Müller, N. (Ed. Director): Pierre de Coubertin 1863-1937, Lausanne 2000.
Nelson, K./Cody, C.: Competition, Cooperation and Fair Play. In: International Review of Sport
Sociology 14 (1979), 1, 97- 104.
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Parsons, T.: Zur Theorie sozi-aler Systeme, hrsg. und eingeleitet von S. Jensen. Opladen
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Parsons, T.: Grundzüge des Sozialsystems (1961). In: Parsons, T.: Zur Theorie sozialer Systeme,
hrsg. Und eingeleitet von S. Jensen. Opladen 1976, 161-274.
SLOC = Salt Lake Oraganizing Committee: Cultural Olympiad. Salt Lake 2002 (brochure“Olympic Arts Festival” with cover foreground: Pilobolus Dance Theater photo).
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Essays. Vol. 2: Ethics, Politics and Philosophy of Art and Religion. Garden City/N.Y. 1971,
66-95.

62

Evaluation of the Cultural Programfrom Montreal 1976 to London 2012

The Cultural Program of the Olympic Games
1952 to 1988 - An Overview.
Alexander Priebe

Historical Background
Olympic cultural programs derived from Olympic art contests initiated by theAdvisory Conference on Arts, Literature and Sports in Paris, France 1906.
Pierre de Coubertin along with the International Olympic Committee (IOC)and several artists discussed how and to what extend arts as well as literature
could be encouraged to take part in modern Olympiads. 1 This, according to
Coubertin, meant the realization of one of the main principles of Olympism –including cultural topics into the context of athletic competitions.
In 1912, the first Olympic art contests consisted of only five competitions.
During the following years this number increased to 13 different contests in
Amsterdam 16 years later. Eventually, the program was extended including
15 different art competitions in Berlin 1936, which were divided into
architecture (urban and architectural planning), literature (including lyrical,
epic and dramatic works), music (lead and choir vocals, instrumental andorchestral compositions), sculpting (statuary, relievo) and painting (tableaus,
drawings and aquarelles, graphics and advertising art). Even though suchdifferentiation and the increasing participation on an international level2
suggest a progressive establishment in the context of the Olympic table ofevents, art contests were abandoned after the 1948 Olympic Games in
London, Great Britain. After Coubertin’s death in 1937, critical responses
outnumbered proponents, arguing about the supposedly poor quality ofsubmitted works as well as about undefined assessment criteria, especially incomparison to sports. Further points of criticism were the extraordinary
logistic and organizational expenditures and the artists’ rather
unacknowledged amateur status.

1
Cf. Müller, Norbert: Von Paris bis Baden-Baden. Die Olympischen Kongresse 1894-1981. Niedernhausen
1981, p. 19.
2
The number of different participating nations rose from 11 in 1912 (Stockholm) to 27 in 1948 (London).

65

The Cultural Program 1952 to 1988
Even though the Olympic cultural contests planned since 1952 picked up on
aspects of the former art contests, they also helped to create the foundation
for new developments.
„The Organizing Committee shall arrange, subject to the approval of theInternational Olympic Committee an exhibition of the Fine Arts
(Architecture, Literature, Music, Painting, Sculpture, Photography, Sport
Philately) and fix the dates during which these exhibition shall take place.
The program may also include Theatrical, Ballet, Opera Performances, orSymphonic concerts. This Section of the program should be of the same highstandard as the sports events and be held concurrently with them in the same
vicinity. It shall receive full recognition in the publicity released by theOrganizing Committee“.3First, presentations of the hosting countries’ culture became one of the main
characteristics, through which aspired organizational aspects, also included in
the opening ceremonies, were extended. Oftentimes, portrayals representing
indigenous groups were focused on, followed by the presentation of one of
the regional cultures. This procedure was realized in Munich 1972, in Los
Angeles 1984 and in Moscow 1980, where the multifarious character ofSoviet culture was showcased.
After IOC-President Avery Brundage proposed that each participating nation
should be given the opportunity to present an individual culture-specifictopic in 1962, the program was extended in Mexico 1968.4

Melbourne 1956-Cultural competitions or exhibitions have always been a part of each
Olympic celebration. This photo shows the architectural design exhibit held in conjunction with the 1956 Summer Games in Melbourne. (Courtesy of University of Illinois
Archives, Avery Brundage Collection)
3

4International Olympic Committee: The Olympic Games. Fundamental Principles, Rules and Regulations.
General Information. Lausanne: IOC 1962, p. 21.
Cf. IOC (ed.): The Speeches of President Avery Brundage 1952 to 1968. Lausanne 1972, p. 63.

66

By the Olympic Games in Germany, set-up and manner of presentation of
official cultural program contributions were no longer in the hands of the art
director of the Munich ‘72 Organizing Committee, but responsibility of
governmental cultural institutions like the Goethe-Institute. However, suchenormous efforts also led to new challenges:
How can all different national contributions to the cultural program
be joined into one overall approach based on one mutual concept?
How are cultural events before as well as during the Olympic
Games to be scheduled?
How can a certain local proximity to different sports venues beestablished and ensured?
The exhibition Weltkulturen und moderne Kunst (Global Culture and ModernArt) in Munich 1972 captured one of those central topics by presenting 19 th
and 20th century European art and music and their encounter with Asia,
Africa, Oceania, Afro- and Indo-America. The Olympic Idea and its
conceptual movement facilitating the meeting of cultures in the context ofOlympic Sports were not only embraced, but also defined as a giant
organizational and programmatic challenge for the future.
Attempts to figure out in what ways the cultural program includes Olympic
topics and ideas had priority. The cultural program was supposed to beperceived as integrative part of the Olympic
celebrations and as characteristic feature of the
Olympic Games in general. Organizers attempted
to avoid sophisticated programs includinginternational guest performances since they were
thought to not appeal to the audience mostlyinterested in sports and that they generated a rather
poor feedback. Consequently, events andexhibitions like the sculptures along the Road ofFriendship in Mexico 1968 and the Olympic
Mural Project along the access roads in Los
Angeles 1984 took place in public spaces.

17 kilometer “OSA Mayor”, Mexico 1968.
Werner Mattias Goeritz Brunner, Mexican Artist67Munich '72 Olympic Flag Pool as part of the of the complete visiual identity, designed
by Otl Aicher (UIPM Archives)

Events which took place in close proximity to Olympic sports facilities, likethe Spielstraße (Play Road) in Munich, were more elaborately arranged andlater repeatedly picked up during following Olympic Games. In Seoul, forexample, sculptures made by international artists were presented in thespacious Olympia Park, realizing a type of event that provided a giant stage
and motivated renowned artists to participate.

Olympic Mural Project in Los Angeles 1984 (Collection: N. Müller)

68

Olympiad of Art. Seoul 1988. Sculptures by Mohand Amara, Algeria (Collection N. Müller)

Furthermore, poster editions presented in 1972 (Munich), 1984 (LosAngeles) and 1988 (Seoul) not only appealed to artists and audiences alike,but also offered an aesthetically demanding promotion for the upcoming
Olympic Games.
Such developments show how the organizational committees attempted towork with the diversity by focusing on specific events considered to be
influential for the overall context. Learning from experience, formats frompreceding Olympic Games were adapted and refined. However, one of thecentral challenges remains to this day: What is the medial presentation of thecultural program supposed to look like and how is it supposed to beperceived? In this context, revisiting the idea of different forms ofcompetition seems plausible, especially since this concept has remained an
option and persisted throughout. The inclusion of the Olympic Laural Award
into the Agenda 2020 emphasizes this notion.
Summary of the unpublished Diploma Thesis at the Johannes Gutenberg
University of Mainz, 1990: Alexander Priebe: Die Kulturprogramme derOlympischen Spiele von 1952 bis 1988 – Konzeptionen zur Integration von
Kunst und Sport innerhalb der Olympischen Spiele.
Translation from German by Janine Lacombe.

69

Visual Art in the Context of the Olympic
Cultural Program in Montreal 1976
and the Scandal about “Corridart”
Vera Steffens

Body of Source Material
The required in-depth look at the actual art and culture program of 1976 was
only possibly by consulting respective archives in Montreal. Information andanalyses concerning the art and culture program are mainly based on the
Canadian Olympic Collection found at the McGill University and research at
the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ), which is part ofthe Bibliothèque Nationale du Québec in Montreal.
Similar to most of the previous culture programs and Olympiads, organizers’
expectations relating to the overall feedback to the art and culture program ofMontreal were not met.

The Arts and Culture Program and the Visual Arts
Over 5.000 participants from all over Canada took part in the 31-day
program: including renowned, successful single artists as well as artist
groups.1 The field of performing arts offered over 500 events in form of stage
plays, including special performances for children, operas and operettas,
musical comedies, different classical, modern, folkloristic and choral
concerts as well as jazz music. Furthermore, over 1.000 entertainment
facilities, so-called “spectacles d’animation”, were presented at central public
places (e.g. clowns, mime shows, music, dance and theatre plays). Also, a big
fair (Festival Canadian des arts populaires) showcased traditional
folkloristic dance and music performances at the former Expo-premises
Place des Nations (“Terre des Hommes”) and offered free-of-charge
entertainment to more than 500.000 locals and tourists. The events werestaged in the cities of Montreal and Kingston, where, next to Ottawa andSherbrooke, also athletic competitions took place.2 On occasion, some eventswere offered in other cities, like Joliette and Quebec City. Events hosted inMontreal were presented at general culture institutions, at competition sites,

1
2

Cf. COJO: Programme Arts et Culture. 1976, p. 257.
Cf. COJO: Montréal, une ville olympique. Vol. II, 1976, p. 22.

71

in public parks, streets and squares as well as at the Olympic Village and the
Olympic Youth Camp.
This 8-million-Dollar3 project4 aimed at displaying Canada in the most vivid
and welcoming way, including the country’s extraordinary variety of cultural
influences, traditions and artistic facets, to hundreds of thousands visitors.5

Art Exhibitions
The arts and culture program included two main sections, the visual and theperforming arts. The branch of visual arts presented exhibits from plastic arts,
especially focusing on the fields of Artisanats (craftsmanship), movies,
videos and photographs as well as poetry and literature. In the following table
all art exhibitions are listed and introduced:
Exhibition title

Description

Artisanage

80 craftsmen from all over Canada
demonstrated their skills.
In this “mosaïque d’art” (mosaic of art),
all Canadian provinces and territories
were portrayed with focus on theirindividuality. The selection of objects,
means of expression and manner ofpresentation of the respective regionalarts was not determined.6

Mosaicart

Anciences meubles
du Québec
Spectrum Canada

La chamber nuptial
Imprint ‘76

Number ofSpectators/Visitors

Overall 82.627(however, four tofive times more
visitors at
Artisanage)

21.000In 1973, the Académie Royale des Arts duCanada had already invited artists to takepart in a contest, from which 2.000 works
displaying numerous artistic disciplines
from known as well as unknown artists
were chosen to be presented. This rather
diversified exhibition later toured throughentire Canada.

15.0006.000
The name of the exhibition refers to 76
prints from artists coming from different
regions of the country.

3

4.800

Canadian Dollar (CAD).
This, considering inflation rate, amounts to over 33.000.000 CAD.
Cf. COJO: Communiqué, Pour diffusion immédiate. Le COJO dévoile son programme arts et culture.
21.10.1975: “Notre objectif, a déclaré M. Yvon DesRochers, directeur général du programme Arts et Culture,
est de donner à nos milliers de visiteurs une image chaleureuse et vibrante du Canada, étant entendu que touteles provinces et territoires participeront au programme Arts et Culture”.
6
Artmagazine Vol. 7, no. 28, Summer/Été 1976, p. 31: “[…] le principe de départ”, dit Laurent Lumy,
directeur du Département des arts visuels COJO, “est de permettre aux provinces de se montrer à leurs goûts”.
4
5

72

Trois générations
d’art contemporain
Québécois: 1940,
1950, 1960
Celebration of thebody
Les sports auQuébec (18791975)

Exposition UQAM
‘76
Exposition
Guy Montpetit
Graphisme etdesign des Jeux dela XXIe Olympiade
Timbre, Monnaie etaffiches olympiques
EstivalGravures contemporaines du Québec(1965-1975)
Symposium desculpture deKingston
Les artisans de ValDavid
Chantier d’art
Super panneauxaffiches

Images du sport au
CanadaExposition desTerritoires duNord-Ouest
Art inuit

Contemporary art from three different
decades was presented.

Plastic works, movies and video
presentations relating topically to thehuman body.
Works and documents published in theprovince of Quebec and addressing
different sports, their manner of exercise
and the architecture of sports facilities
were centralized.
Selected works by art students of the
Université du Québéc à Montréal.
Exhibition devoted to Guy Montpetit’s
work.

4.621

3.500

1.000

1.000
800
600

500 eachexhibition
Members of the Sociétée des Artistes
Professionnels du Québec presented an
overview of their latest work, including
paintings, plastics and graphics.
Artists coming from the province Quebec
presented 50 contemporary graphics.

400

undocumented

Sculpture park displaying characteristic
Canadian architectural plastics.

undocumented

Craftsmen from Val-David showcased
their works (e.g. pottery, weaving,woodwork etc.).
Five Quebecois sculptors presented theirworks in the city of Joliette.
Oversized signs displaying art works byfive well-known Quebecois artists wereused for the artistic shaping of downtown
Montreal.
Depicting the historic role sports andspare time activities play in Canadiandaily life and its close link to arts andsports.
The exhibition of the Northwest
Territories presented the cultural diversity
and Canadian Arctic Natives’ heritage.
Traditional and contemporary Canadian
Inuit art.

undocumented

73

undocumented

undocumented

undocumented

undocumented
undocumented

“Corridart: dans la rue Sherbrooke”
Corridart was one of the three largest exhibitions ofvisual arts (next to Artisanage and Mosiacart) andconsidered to be one of the most significant
presentations of Quebecois art and artists.7 In the context
of the entire art and culture program of Montreal it may
be regarded the most spectacular project. The forcefultermination of Corridart ordered by the cityadministration resulted in ongoing resentment. Even
though the exhibition never really took place, Corridart
has become one the most important and lasting art
events in the overall context of the Olympic Games
1976.
Organizers planned an open-air event presenting modern
art to a wide public audience from July 7th to July 31st,
1976. The street Sherbrooke in downtown Montreal waschosen as venue for the exhibition. Due to its
characteristic architecture resembling a picturesqueavenue and the numerous parades on Saint Nicholas and on the national
holiday, the street has been well-known as a ceremonial avenue. The
renowned Montreal architect and artist Melvin Charney was the driving force
for the realization of the project. He assumed responsibility for planning andorganizing necessary installments along rue Sherbrooke and determined thesite conditions as well as the individual exhibition spots for each piece of art.
Prior to the athletic competitions, he meticulously analyzed local
circumstances at the rue Sherbrooke, which was supposed to be the locationof the planned exhibition. Street sections were graded based on their“Corridart-suitability” as either qualified or inadequate. All criteria
considered necessary for installing the art objects, like the road itself and its
traffic control, public sidewalks, neighboring buildings and surface areas andthe space between sidewalk and buildings which had stairways, balconies,
parking spaces etc., were factored in.8
Therefore, Corridart was not only a public, open-air art exhibition, but also aplace of celebration, expression and entertainment – a kind of representative
art gallery of the city:

7
Cf. Gauvin, Kim: “Revoir Corridart. Exhumer les restes” (“Corridart Revisited. Excavating the Remains”).
In: Journal of Canadian Art History/Annales d'histoire de l'art canadien. Archive des numéros précédents.
Vol. XVIII: 2 (1997), p. 51.
8
Cf. Carney, Melvin/COJO: La rue Sherbrooke: Corridart. Inventaire des Lieux. Montréal: October 1975.

74

“En intégrant l’art à la rue et vice-versa, le Corridart sera un lieu de fête,d’expression et d’animation: une galerie d’art à l’échelle d’une ville”.9
Corridart was financed by the Quebecois government, more specifically by
the Ministère des Affaires culturelles. Including all expenses for the
production of the artistic objects, fees, installments and public relations,
Corridart ended up costing 351.202,90 CAD. 10

Concluding Remarks
The termination of Corridart leads to the conclusion that the organization of
the Olympic Games focused on only one primary purpose, namely to market
Montreal optimally, to keep everything nice and neat, to conceal inner-city
problems and to turn Montreal into a display window, in which doing
business seemed appealing. Supposedly, the Games were simply used as abusiness-generating attraction.11
Arts were also supposed to be conductive to this goal, thereby, ignoring theirautonomy. The rather passive performance of the COJO and the impotence of
the Quebecois government not able to support a fair end of the ongoing legal
disputes about Corridart further stress this assessment. Even initiators andmain investors of the art and culture program remained blind to the problem
and focused on the seemingly beautiful, harmonious and peacefulpresentation of national art, which was nothing more than a decorative
attachment to an international sports event.
The overall bad feedback to the culture program of Montreal 1976 reflects
the rather inferior position of the arts and their reduced, marginal status in thecontext of the Olympic Games. The aspired harmonic interrelation between
sports and art intended by Coubertin’s reintroduction of the ancient Olympic
Games is captured in the Latin saying mens sana in corpore sano (A soundmind in a sound body). This ideal, however, does not seem to be met in theactual context of the Olympic Games. In order to present hosting cities in an
aesthetically appealing light, cultural as well as artistic events oftentimes are
reduced to mere decorative elements.
English summary from Vera Steffen’s unpublished Master Thesis at the Johannes Gutenberg
University of Mainz, 2008: Das Kunst- und Kulturprogramm der Olympischen Spiele 1976 inMontreal.- Eine Quellen- und Literaturanalyse unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der'Bibliothèque et Archives Nationales du Québec', der 'Canadian Olympic Collection of McGill
University' und des 'Archive de l'Université Concordia'.

Translation from German by Janine Lacombe.
9
COJO: Programme Arts et Culture, Concours Corridart/L’art dans la ville – Renseignements généraux etrèglements du Concours.
10
Ménard, André/COJO: Corridard. July 26th, 1976.
11
Cf. Carney, Marvin cit. in: McKenna, Bob. À propos de l’Affaire Corridart. N.p., 2001.

75

The Cultural Olympiad of Barcelona 1988-92
Their Significance in the Context of the
Olympic Games
Daniela RoheIntroduction
Ancient Olympic Games were always closely tied to (religious) moral
concepts, also leading Coubertin, the founder of the Modern Olympic Games,
to strive after including a festive and culturally rich context within theathletic competitions. In 1954, the declaration of cultural programs as art
contests was overturned by the International Olympic Committee. Instead,the programs were transformed into high-quality cultural events andregistered as such in the Olympic Charter. In Barcelona (1988-1992),
organizers were motivated to set new standards in terms of creating a real
Cultural Olympiad for the very first time, including a four-year-program,which was supposed to reach its climax at the time of the actual Games.
Preparations preceding the Cultural Olympiad and the Olympic Games took
place under the title Barcelona, mes que mat (Barcelona, more than ever).

MethodThe presented diploma thesis written by Daniela Rohe (1999) constitutes asystematic evaluation of original documents stored at the Olympic Studies
Center (Centre d’Estudis Olímpics) in Barcelona concerning the Cultural
Olympiad of Barcelona 1988-1999 in the context of the Olympic Games in1992. Due to the author’s language proficiency in Spanish, she was able toread, evaluate and interpret Spanish as well as Catalonian texts found at the
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Most of the analyses and evaluations
included in the diploma thesis are based on newspaper articles. Furthermore,
the official collective report Memoria 1989-1990 was incorporated and used
for the description of the Cultural Olympiad. A more detailed explanation of
the method used can be found in Rohe’s diploma thesis.

77

Reviewing the Beginning Stages of Implementing a
Cultural Program in Modern Olympic Games
Based on Coubertin’s Olympic ideal that physical activities foster a balanceof body and mind and bring forward aesthetic aspects as well, Rohe attends
to educational and artistic approaches first. The inclusion of mental/spiritualand cultural dimensions not only into the Olympic movement but also into
the Olympic Games can be considered a focal aspect in Coubertin’s Olympic
pedagogy and philosophy. Athletes were still supposed to strive foreurhythmics, combining arts and sports to aestheticize the physicalcompetitions, and to receive artistic and literary education. In 1912, the firstartistic and literary contest took place as part of the Olympic Games in
Stockholm. In the following years, art competitions continued to be included
in, among others, the Olympic Games in Paris, Stockholm, Berlin andLondon. Even though artistic disciplines such as graphic arts or lyrical works
were added and the number of participating countries rose, the aesthetic
standard was not satisfying, eventually leading to the abolishment of artistic
contest and to their conversion to serve a rather atmospheric function by
providing exhibited forms of art and, thereby, fostering a more festive andcultural context.

Barcelona – Cultural Center of Catalonia
Even though it is situated within the Spanish state, Catalonia is characterized
by its independent language, historical and cultural background. Including as
many as seven million native Catalans, the region is regarded the largest
national minority in Western Europe. In the 1970s, during the time of thedemocratization of Spain, the Catalonian nation appeared reinvigorated andstronger. As an autonomous community, Catalonia is heavily industrialized
and most of the people living there work in service industries.
The historical and cultural development of Catalonia is also reflected in its
geographical demarcation. Especially Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia, ischaracterized by its cultural and historical individuality and uniquearchitectural design.

78

ill. 1:Gaudi’s Mila House
LaPedrera,ill. 2: Gaudi’s “Sagrada Familia”1

With a population of 1.8 million and being the second largest city in Spain,
Barcelona is one of the political, economic and cultural centers of theMediterranean world. Another 3.8 million people live in the wider
metropolitan area causing Barcelona to become one of the most importantand influential agglomeration areas including many commercial as well as
industrial enterprises.
In preparation for the Olympic Games in 1992 and due to its densely
populated center, the city was divided into 17 sites across the entire
Catalonian region and four Olympic centers in the capital (Diagonal,
VaildҾHebron, Nova Icária and Montjuic). The Montjuic (also called1

http://www.slidespost.com/media/images/1282158899.jpg.

79LҾAnella Olímpica - Olympic Ring) as the oldest area of settlement inBarcelona constituted the central locality, in which the Olympic stadium andthe national sports institute were situated. Preparations also included
substantial renovation work. The Olympic Stadium for example, which had
already been built for the World Exhibition back in 1929, underwent
considerable reconstruction work, including the excavation of the interior
ground by about 11 meters in order to create more space for a second stand.

Implementation of a 4-Year Cultural Olympiad
For the very first time in Olympic history, the Cultural Olympiad took placeover a four-year period, starting October 8th, 1988 and ending with the final
ceremony on August 9th, 1992. The program was divided into basic(programabásico)andcomplementaryelements(programacomplementario). The basic program included projects which were involved
and present during the entire Cultural Olympiad, for example the Festivals de
Tardor (Fall Celebrations), the Senálización histórica (Historical Signaling)
and Crónica cinematográfica 1989-1992 (Chronicle of the Movie Theaters
1989-1992). Furthermore, each year was implemented according to a specificmotto:
1988 Pórtico de la Olympiada (Gate to the Olympiad)
1989 Ano de la Cultura y el Deporte (Year of Culture and Sports)
1990 Ano de las Artes (Year of the Arts)
1991 Ano del Futuro (Year of the Future)
1992 Ano de los Juegos (Jahr der Spiele).
The cultural program was mostly characterized by exhibitions, musical aswell as theatrical arts, movie presentations, television broadcasts, diverse
publications, congresses and symposia. All other projects were included in
the complementary program. Organizational matters, such as planning andrealization of projects, were handled by the División de Cultura del Cómite
Organizador Olímpico de Barcelona'92 (COOB’92). Additionally, theOlimpíada Cultural Sociedad Anónima (OCSA) was established in order todeal with financial and juridical aspects.
According to the author, the great significance attested to the Cultural
Olympiad in the general context of the Olympic Games is mainly establishedby its inclusion in the Olympic Charter and Coubertin’s efforts to provide not
only space for an artistic extension but also to foster the development of aculturally characterized facet. Based on a historical retrospect, Roheconcludes that in many instances artistic elements did not meet up to the
expectations. So, of what value was the Cultural Olympiad in Barcelona? – Aprogram that, indeed, combined diverse historical, cultural, athletic, aesthetic,
national as well as international elements.

80

1988/89
Opening celebrations taken place only a few weeks after the ending of the
Olympic Games in Seoul 1988 offered visitors three main projects. Due tosome major technical and contentual issues, the music festival La Nit (TheNight) left the audience disappointed. The arrival of the Olympic torch in thecity was celebrated at La Festa (The Party), and the exhibition Barcelona, laciutat y el 92 (Barcelona, the City and the Year ’92) presented works
displaying the relation between the city and the Olympic Games. Most
exhibitors emphasized on the process of turning Barcelona into an Olympic
stage by including aspects concerning infrastructural changes, cultural
conditions, creating and renewing parks and squares and increasing the sizeof the airport. Due to its descriptive exhibits and the prevalence of the topics,
attendance was high leading to an extension to January 8th, 1989. Rohedescribes both projects, La Festa and Barcelona, la ciutat y el 92, as
successful. However, a negative trend concerning economic aspects alreadyloomed ahead. Within the first year (1988), a financial loss of 4,7 Mill. € wasrecorded and increased to about 14,5 Million € in the following year.
In 1989, the main exhibition Planeta Esport (Planet Sport) offered a great
athletic project visited by over 250.000 guests, attracting national as well asinternational media attention. Its central focus was to emphasize on various
significances attributed to sports. Divided into three topical sections, guests
were able to participate actively by testing their own athletic talent orobserving and assisting professional athletes in the so-called Espacios activos(Active Room), to experience visual demonstrations of other aspects involvedin the phenomenon ‘sport’ (perfection, violence, politics etc.) in the Espacios
pasivos (Passive Room), or they could visit the Espacios comunicativos(Communication Room), in which journalists from the newspaper El
Periódico, the radio station Cataluny Rádio and the TV-stations TVE andTV3 presented articles and documentations. Furthermore, the Communication
Room was used to host several congresses and symposia.
The I Festival Tardor (1st Fall Celebrations) presented 327 theatrical, dance
and musical performances, including known as well as unknown artists andgenerating high visitor numbers. In her diploma thesis, Rohe introduces five
events which, concerning visitor numbers and overall number of repeatedperformances, can be regarded as most successful by generating 68.1% of thesum of all events taken place during the 1st Fall Celebrations. The great
resonance can probably be attributed to the participants’ international
backgrounds. While many Spanish and Catalonian artists were present,international performers from 18 different countries participated as well.
Other exhibitions like the Expo Foto Seúl 1988 (photo exhibition from Seoul)
and Mujer y Deporte (Women and Sports), however, took a rather backseat

81

ill. 3: Ramon Casas und Romeu im Automobil. Poster of the exhibition El Modemisme
by Ramon Casas. Olimpíada Cultural: El Modernisme. Museu d'Art Modern.
Barcelona 1990.

position, even though they generated great interest reflected in high visitor
numbers.
While central projects were organized and financed by the OCSA featuring acertain continuous presence throughout the year, additional programs were
mostly supported by public or private companies. In 1989, 17.4 per cent auf
all expenses were spent on constructing museums and other building, 82.6
per cent were unevenly invested in the Cultural Olympiad program. The lion
share of 74.4 per cent of all funding was used to finance the basic program.
In sum, the balance of the year 1989 showed a deficit of roughly 15 Mill. €,which was offset by revenues from selling broadcasting rights andpermissions to television and the Writers’ Society.

1990
In 1990, the history of the city Barcelona was the topical focus. In the context
of this partly architectural range of topics, the exhibitions El Quadrat d’Or
(The Golden Square) and El Modernisme (Modernism) formed the centers ofattention. Despite the proposed finish date of January 10th and due to several
requests submitted by guests, El Modernisme was open for visitors until the
beginning of March 1991. Presented at the Museu dҾArt on a space of 2500
m², 500 chosen works displaying the significance of modernistic art forms for
Catalonian history and culture were exhibited, including paintings,
architecture, sculptures, jewelry and industrial art.

82

More than 7500 schools visited this exhibition reflecting its educational value
and appreciation. The organizers’ main effort to bring the city’s culture into
the classroom was also realized in the Escola Taller - Barcelona Ҿ92 (School
Workshop – Barcelona ’92). During the first year, 55 students analyzed thecultural pervasiveness in Barcelona and gained insight into aspects of the
program’s management. After six months, the students worked at threedifferent exhibitions initiated by the Cultural Olympiad: El Quadrat d'Or, El
Modernisme and Barcelona, la ciutat e el 92 (Barcelona, the City and theYear ’92). As one phase of the El Quadrat d'Or, students visited the district
Eixample, which includes 150 new, impressive art nouveau buildings. The
second part of the exhibition was situated inside one of the most famous
modernistic residences La Pedrera (The Stone Pit) providing visitors withinformation concerning architectural characteristics of Modernisme. Public
reactions were positive throughout, also generating high medial interest.
According to Rohe, these main exhibitions displaying the diverse Catalonianart style Modernisme presented the artistic and cultural heritage of the city
Barcelona. In the year 1990, only one event catered to the topic of sports.
Impressive moments of athletic competitions were illustrated mainly bynewspaper articles, posters from the Summer and Winter Games 1986-1992
and videos. Due to the positive public feedback, 2nd Fall Celebrations wereincorporated as well. Concerning financial matters, the exhibitions including
El Modernisme contributed the highest revenues. Overall, however, expenses
again exceeded earnings causing the Ano de las Artes (Year of the Arts) toclose with a financial loss of 620 000.-- €.

1991
In 1991, the Cultural Olympiad was kept under the motto Ano del Futuro(Year of the Future) and was mostly characterized by the main exhibition
Casa Barcelona (House Barcelona). Projects belonging to the basic program,
such as the Fatrimonio Historico Artistico (The Artistic-Historic Legacy)
centralizing the Senyalització histórica de la ciutat (historic significance ofthe city) and the Crónica cinematográfica 1989-1992 (Chronicle of theMovie Theaters 1989-1992) were open all year. Also, the 3rd Fall
Celebrations took place for the last time. Even though exhibitions like Un
siglo de deporte in Catalunya (A Century of Sports in Catalonia) andBarcelona Olímpico (Olympic Barcelona) focused on sport- and Olympicrelated topics, other events like the Casa Barcelona, an exhibition of modern
domestic appliances designed to reflect the artistic spirit of the 21st century,
generated higher interest.

84

Due to the lack of adequate sources, such as newspaper articles or books,
Rohe declares the year 1991 as difficult to analyze and refrains frompresenting visitor numbers or financial balances.

T-Shirt from the Estimada Terra Exhibition in Barcelona ’92, the greatest Exhibition in the
program of the Cultural Olympiad of Barcelona '92. As Olympic Education mission thousend of
school classes and Olympic tourists were learning the protection of natural differences andresources on our "Beloved Earth" between May and September 1992; the exhibition was later
presented worldwide. (Photo: N. Müller)

1992
The fourth and final year 1992 and its artistic and cultural program werecharacterized and influenced by the Olympic Games. Many exhibitions
included mostly Olympic- and sport-related topics. The program was divided
into two central projects: the Festival Olímpics de les Arts (The Olympic Arts
Festival) and exhibitions and events related to the topic Arte y Deporte(Sports and Art). By offering public presentations like El Deporte en la
Grecia Antigua (Sports in Ancient Greece), El Disseny Olímpic (Olympic
Design) and Festival d’Esports Autóctons (Festival of Native Sports),
organizers realized the topical connection between sports and art. The
exhibition dealing with ancient Greek sports, for example, visualized original
works of Hellenistic art. Its division into several topical areas such as“gymnasium” or “sport events” helped to further establish the link between
arts and sports.

85

The program began with projects under the motto Barcelona: dos millanys(Barcelona: Two Thousand Years) including exhibitions like Catalunya
Medieval (Medieval Catalonia) and Estimada Terra (Beloved Earth).
Catalunya Medieval presented various cultural, religious and artistic
influences that lead to the formation of Catalonian culture and art as well as
to the development of Barcelona as financial, political, institutional andcommercial center. Estimada Terra (Beloved Earth) attempted to illustrate
the reality of life on earth and was supported by the UNESCO. Divided into
different topical sections, visitors were able to get illustrative descriptions
and examples of aspects concerning our planet, the climate, environmental
issues and possible solutions. Instead of using plain pictures and informative
texts, the exhibition was a rather active experience, stimulating the senses by
installing special acoustic and visual effects.
Based on the preceded Fall Celebrations, the Festival Olímpics de les Arts
centralized not only theatre, dance and music in general but also incorporated
open-air events presenting local Catalonian dances and ancient customs.
From April to August ’92, more than 200 shows and over 500 theater, dance
and music performances took place including national as well as international
artists. In the category Dansa (dance), mostly contemporary Catalonian
dances were presented. World-famous musicians like Frank Sinatra and Elton
John were supposed to give the celebrations a more cosmopolitan
atmosphere. However, there were several unconventional staging events thattook place in public locations (Espacios abiertos) as well.

Conclusion
Even though Estimada Terra was not extended during the Cultural
Olympiad, the exhibition was later presented world-wide. Also, the project El
Deporte en la Grecia Antigua was on display in Brussels. The Festivald‘Esports Autóctons (Festival of Native Sports) attracted more than 10.000
people in only two days. 327.279 people visited the Festival Olímpics de lesArts, most of which attended theatrical stage performances. Concerning thenumber of daily performances, the musical section was regarded mostsuccessful presenting an average of 2.206 acts per day.
One day before the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games 1992 inBarcelona, the Spanish King presented five cultural awards in the categories
literature, architecture, painting, music and Olympism to internationallyrenowned artists. The highly remunerated awards were supposed tosymbolize the five Olympic art awards from 1912.
Even though Rohe attests a great significance to the Cultural Olympiad in thecontext of the Olympic Games in Barcelona, her evaluation on the basis ofreviewing historical facts shows that artistic projects as well as economic
factors did not always meet organizers’ expectations. The Cultural program86was supposed to guide visitors towards the upcoming Olympic Games byintroducing Catalonian culture to a world-wide audience. Within the first two
years, however, expectations were only partly realized. While a few
exhibitions centralized the Olympic Games and its context, most of the otherprojects focused on cultural and historic aspects relating to Catalonia. This
topical priority was most evident in the first two years of the Cultural
Olympiad. It was not until the final year of 1992, when exhibitions and otherevents primarily dealt with contexts concerning sports and the Olympic
Games, thereby marking the latter as climactic conclusion of the 4-year
Cultural Olympiad.
According to Rohe’s analyses, there was no continuous increase or
improvement of the cultural program, starting in 1988 until the Olympic
Games 1992, to be observed. Nevertheless, Catalonia, its history and its
culture were introduced and presented to an international audience, allowing
for a positive impression of the region and its people to develop.
In sum, the author concludes that even though cultural projects were able todraw visitors’ attention before the Olympic Games started, the survey ofGerman tourists taken by the Olympic Research Team of the University
Mainz revealed that only 37% of the audience following the athleticcompetitions also attended cultural events. This may be attributed to the lackof adequate distribution of information concerning the cultural program.
According to Rohe, improvements in setup, the inclusion and centralizationof more sport-related exhibitions and events and a more sophisticatedorganizational structure could have promoted an overall greater significanceof the Cultural Olympiad.

Summary of the unpublished Diploma Thesis at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz,
1999: Daniela Rohe: Die Kulturolympiade von Barcelona 1988-192. Darstellung, Analyse und
Bewertung des Kulturprogramms und ihr Stellenwert im Rahmen der Olympischen Spiele.

Summary and translation from German by Janine Lacombe.

87Sydney 2000 Olympic Games Cultural
Programme*
Craig Hassall

Introduction
The opportunity to present the Olympic Games in one’s home city is an eventthat can inspire immense pride but also pressure and a strong sense of
responsibility. For Sydney, a city on the edge of the world, at the dawn of a
new millennium, this was particularly the case. The aspirations of Baron de
Coubertin seemed a long way from our consciousness when we started toplan the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. As planning developed, however, wewere able to uphold his ideals and his beliefs in the power of the Olympic
movement to unite and celebrate a nation’s sporting and cultural prowessamongst our peers from around the world.
There was a particular challenge in Australia to balance both the sporting andcultural aspirations of the Games. After all, Australia is a sport loving nation.
Our outdoor climate, our keen sense of competition and our proven trackrecord of excelling in sport have given Australia an international reputation
as a nation of sport worshippers. However – there are many myths about
Australia that the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games sought to explode. The
image of Australians as cowboys living in the desert was replaced by thereality of a predominantly urban population living on the coastal fringes ofthe eastern extreme of the country. The slightly condescending notion of The
Crocodile Hunter character, naïve and terribly enthusiastic was replaced, I
hope, by a sense of a nation willing to show the world hospitality andfriendship – but in a new millennium of inclusivity and racial harmony.
There was, and perhaps still is, a gap between the philosophy of theInternational Olympic Committee and the practical reality of staging an eventof this complexity. A constant issue for the cultural programme was trying toturn the philosophy into a practicality. There was no blueprint from the IOC
as to their expectations in terms of scale or reach.
*This article is based on the presentation of Craig Hassal at the symposium “Cultural Olympiads as a
Challenge – Significance and Analysis of the Olympic Cultural Program from Atlanta 1996 till Athens 2004”(Mainz/Germany, June 15th 2006) to honor Prof. Dr. Dr. Manfred Messing on his retirement. Between 1997
and 2000 Craig Hassal was responsible of the cultural programme of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
Additionally, he managed the image portfolio and special events for Sydney 2000. The Olympic Arts
Festivals were the largest cultural programme ever mounted in Australia. The festivals commenced in 1997
and concluded with a six-week festival in 2000 featuring over 6,000 artists. Craig Hassall is currently
managing director of the English National Ballet.

89

Whilst on the one hand, this made our job as fluid as possible, it also meantthat we had nothing to fall back on when threats of budget cuts, which were
often, loomed on the horizon. Most areas of Games planning have a veryclear mandate. For example, the Athletes Village has to house a definitive
number of athletes and there are very specific requirements concerning the
expectations of the various sporting federations. For a sport loving nation,
looking after our sports people is second nature.
Australia’s Federal Government spends many millions of dollars each year
on the Australian Institute of Sport. The results are certainly evident in ourachievements on the international tennis, cricket and rugby circuits.
By contrast, arts funding in Australia is very scant indeed. Coupled with thefact that, within the IOC, the cultural programme is a very nebulous concept,
the potential for the cultural programme to be marginalised was great. The
host city contract for Sydney stipulated a four year cultural programme thatin some way reflected the culture of the host city, however there were no
parameters about how big or how long it should be, or how much should bespent on it. So in a way, it was difficult to align the development of the
programme with the overall architecture of the Games.

Gaining a Profile for the Cultural Programme
Gaining a profile for the cultural activities of any Olympic Games is a greatchallenge. Many people are not even aware that the Olympic Games have acultural component. Unless, of course, if you include the Opening andClosing Ceremonies. Often this is all that the world sees of the culture of thehost city or country. This is not to take away from these importantcomponents. Certainly, in the case of Sydney, the opening ceremony wastremendously important in promoting many of the brand values of a young
country at the dawn of a new millennium – youth, vitality, larrikinism,
landscape and many other themes came strongly through in this event.
The major boost for the sporting events – and indeed the major ceremonies –is that they are televised. Until the cultural component of the Games can havethis profile, symposiums like this will be necessary to promote the vital
cultural components of the Olympic movement. One important part of ourplanning for the Sydney Olympic cultural programme was to find a way toentice the non-sports media to take an interest in our activities. We figuredthat we would never have much success with the sports broadcasters as theirfocus was necessarily 100% on taking the official Olympic feed and backing
it up with talking heads trackside and athlete interviews.
For any Olympic Games, however, there is always a large number, thousandsin fact, of non-accredited magazine style journalists who come to the hostcity to file stories on the people, the fashion, the buildings – and the culture.

90

Enter – the cultural programme. At Sydney 2000, we established a large nonaccredited media centre, adjacent to Darling Harbour, the second largest
conglomeration of Olympic venues apart from Olympic Park. We thenaccredited the non-accredited. This involved accreditation of almost six
thousand media personnel. They were able to access a range of cultural
events and we prepared press packs on our key messages and themes. Manyof these journalists still attended the sporting events of course – however as
our events took place either before the fifteen days of the Games or atevenings, we were certain to attract a large number of them to our events.
There was a great example of this on the night before the official Opening
Ceremony. We already knew that thousands of non-accredited journalists
were in Sydney at this time, as were key members of the IOC. There wasnothing scheduled sporting-wise, so we decided to hold a huge concert at the
Sydney Opera House. At this concert, we featured our national opera
company, our national ballet company, our largest symphony orchestra, guest
prima ballerina Sylvie Guillem and opera legend Andrea Bocelli. In fact, wearranged for Mr Bocelli to hold the Olympic Torch on the steps of the
Sydney Opera House and sing an aria from Il Trovatore for the many
journalists, photographers and camera crews assembled there. Knowing of
the expectation of a sporting moment, we were fortunate that the torch was
handed from Pat Rafter, one of our most well known tennis champions, toAndrea Bocelli, and onto Melissa Gainsford-Taylor, a great female long
distance runner. It was a great moment and as he held the torch up to thenight sky, the Olympic Rings on the Sydney Harbour Bridge lit up signifyingthat the city’s celebrations had commenced. Not that we upstaged the next
day’s opening ceremony in any way at all, however we certainly gained awonderful profile for our many artists involved.

Laying the foundations
Nevertheless, in the Sydney bid, the cultural programme was presented as avery important component, and the broad objectives were expressed withpurpose and clarity. The key issue for Australia was that it wasn’t so much acase of reinforcing a world view of Australian culture. It was more about
establishing a view of our culture, because there really wasn’t much known
about the culture of Australia – particularly the indigenous culture of ourcountry – apart from our reputation as a sport loving nation.
One of the key pieces of work done in our preparation for a cultural
programme was also working out which messages were key to deliver to theworld. From the start, we decided to tackle things such as our place in theworld, our ability or lack thereof to reconcile our European and indigenous

91

cultures, our emerging identity as an urban population and our increasingly
diverse racial makeup.

The Cry of Elitism
A challenge faced by many arts organisations around the world is theaccusation that the arts is elitist and only for the cultured few at the highest
strata of any society. Those of us working in the arts are fully aware that thisis merely rhetoric, however the spectre of elitism follows us to this day. The
irony of mounting a cultural programme in Australia was that we wereactually able to hijack some of the defining characteristics of sport and use
them for ourselves. In Australia, sport has an interesting duality. In many
ways, it is ubiquitous. Children in back gardens all over the country playforms of cricket, rugby and athletics.
Swimming is a national pastime and tennis is almost a compulsory part ofgrowing up. And yet, our most revered citizens are our most accomplishedsports people. When Australia won The Ashes cricket test in 2005, there wasa ticker tape parade through the main streets of each Australian capital.
Unfortunately, when an Australian artist triumphs abroad – such as CateBlanchett winning an Academy Award – there is not quite the same level of
elation or public recognition.
Nevertheless, the arts were able to take this duality of support and use it to
our advantage during the Olympic Games cultural programme. For the firsttime in my memory, we could unashamedly promote the “elite” amongst ourvisual and performing artists.
One of the challenges for our cultural programme was to resist the temptation
to be all things to all people. There were many competing pressures on our
programme. Whereas we would not think twice about presenting the finest
athletes in the sporting events, we had a long battle to present only the bestartists in the cultural programme. This was not to the detriment of inclusivity
however.

Cultural programming
The structure that I inherited from the Olympic bid was, to be honest, quite
skeletal. Beyond the lofty rhetoric of the bid documents, there was little
actual operational detail. There was a modest budget and a mud map for a
four year celebration comprising four Olympic arts festivals.
Time was against us and the first festival was hastily organised and staged in
September 1997, in the first year of the Olympiad. It was called The Festivalof the Dreaming, which was themed around indigenous culture, and lasted for92

approximately three weeks. This was a tremendous success, although I think
it was more because it was a comprehensive and confident celebration ofindigenous culture for a mainstream audience, rather than its Olympic
pedigree. Ironically, before The Festival of the Dreaming, indigenous
Australians were most well known not as artists but as sports people. Lionel
Rose the boxer, Cathy Freeman the sprinter and Yvonne Goolagong – thetennis player as examples. After our festival, names such as Lin Onus, Rhoda
Roberts, Deborah Mailman had new meaning for the Australian public.
This was followed by a festival called A SeaChange. This was originally inthe bid as a rather tokenistic celebration of cultural diversity, however wechanged the brief to a celebration of the ethnic and geographic diversity in acountry of the scale of Australia. We held a series of events throughout 1998
all around Australia, mainly in coastal areas, in order to highlight thegeographical and cultural differences of each area of Australia.
It was not really a festival at all but rather an opportunity to showcase
national culture in the place where that culture was most relevant. Each event
was different – different heritage, different culture, different music.
Our aim with A Sea Change was to overturn the perception that Australians
were predominantly white Anglo Saxon horsemen, living in outback sheep
stations with vast pasturelands. The reality, with thanks to waves of post war
migration, is that Australia is a truly diverse cultural mix of many racial
types, with ensuing richness in culture and cuisine. Also – our the harshlandscape of Australia means that over 80% of our population live in urban
centres on the east coast of Australia, within 100 kilometres of the ocean. The
impact of the geography of the country was explored and developed throughthis festival.
One of my favourite events was a concert held at a place called Roaring
Beach, on the north coast of Tasmania. The name Roaring Beach was very
apt – it referred to the sound the wind made as it came off the Tasman Strait.
We had arranged a free concert featuring the Tasmanian SymphonyOrchestra. The skies were a little grey however we thought nothing of it. By
the end of the first act, the heavens had opened and the rain began to blow
horizontally across the stage. The valiant players gradually retreated further
and further inside the covered stage area until eventually we had to cancel theconcert. Not a single member of the audience left however, as they were all
local residents quite used to the conditions of Roaring Beach. In fact, they
hosted a barbeque after the cancellation for all concerned.
In 1999, there was a third festival, Reaching the World, which in the bid had
been identified as an international festival. It was, in fact, the least like a
festival of all four. The attempt to take Australian culture to the world was agargantuan brief on a miniscule budget. I readily concede that this was theleast successful of the four years’ events. We also realised as we began to93

plan the third event that the most significant component of the Olympiad was
the final festival and our focus shifted unashamedly to the final celebration.
In 2000, we expanded the event to a six week festival, commencing almost amonth prior to the opening ceremony. It was decided, not too surprisingly,that the iconic Sydney Opera House would play a central role in the culturalactivities of the Olympic Year. It was obvious really, however it worked. We
averaged 85% attendance over the period of the Games, with queues andqueues of hopeful buyers and the most eclectic audience that I had ever seenat the Sydney Opera House. It really proved to me that a cultural element canbe integrated into a sporting event very effectively if it is strategicallyplanned and done well.
I can’t stress enough the importance of the arts community. The mostmemorable moments were when these collaborations showed the local andinternational companies in their best light. Our Mahler 8 Symphony of aThousand filled the SuperDome – a basketball and athletics stadium.
Leonardo da Vinci’s Codex Leicester led to snaking queues to thePowerhouse Museum and the world premiere of our national indigenous
dance company Bangarra’s new work, was a sellout – the opening night was
only delayed for 15 minutes to allow the audience to watch the mens’ 200m
relay swimming final on the TV screens in the foyer – Australia won, by theway. Yet again sport and culture sat quite comfortably together.

Cultural legacies from Sydney
I wanted to briefly touch on the issue of legacy – a word thrown around withreckless abandon when discussing any event of the scale of the Olympic
Games. We also talked a lot about legacy in the early days however it isinteresting how those discussions dwindled as the reality of staging such an
event of scale became clearer. As the operational imperatives loomed, thelegacy elements withered on the vine. The only way to ensure that legacy
survives the reality of event planning is to imbed them so deeply into thestructural planning that they withstand the examinations ahead. The post
games use of venues was really only successful in Sydney when this had
been established well before the first sod of soil was turned.

Lessons for Future GamesAs far as the four-year programme of activities is concerned, the lessons areclear: stay focused, don’t spread resources too thinly, and try to achieve reach
without diluting the message. Another key objective should be to ensure that
communication with the arts community is handled with sensitivity andforethought.

94With careful planning, we were able to have Opera Australia and theAustralian Ballet both in the Opera Theatre in repertory; the Sydney
Symphony Orchestra shared the larger Concert Hall with the AustralianChamber Orchestra and the other main companies shared other facilities.
Admittedly it was challenge to manage all their requirements, and a great
deal of creativity was needed in how things were staged.

The Olympic Spirit
On a final note, I can’t speak about the Games without mentioning theextraordinary effect of the Olympic Spirit. This, for the cynical amongst us,
is a very powerful thing that overtakes any Olympic city. When I wasworking in Sydney on the Games, I went to as many events that I could findthe time to go to, and I loved it. The Olympic experience is euphoric. If you
have never been to an Olympic Games, I must tell you it’s like nothing else.
Everyone is cheerful and helpful and it really is a friendly competition; I
guess because it is an international event with a deep ethos of friendly spirit.
One day during the Sydney Games I went to watch the beach volleyball at
Bondi Beach where they had built an amazing 12,000 seat stadium right on
the beach. It was Brazil versus Canada. As I couldn’t support Australia, I’dsupport Brazil, simply because they had a live steel band of spectators
playing in the stadium. So there we were – Australians supporting Brazil in abrilliant atmosphere. The organisers explained the rules at the start of thematch and we were completely hooked – for a sporting event that I didn’tknow the first thing about, it was great.
My final thoughts then: In the early part of the planning, I’m not sure that
there was a great commitment to the cultural programme on the part of theorganising committee. In the minds of the committee and of mostAustralians, this Olympic Games was to be a great sporting event forAustralia. In the end, I believe we delivered a cultural programme of scaleand quality, largely through cooperation with the arts community. In our own
way, we displayed the Olympic spirit of friendship and international
collaboration and made our claim on the Olympic spirit for the artists ofAustralia and the world.

95

The culture of the first nation, the Aborigines, was an important part in the Sydney 2000 Olympics
during the Opening Ceremony, but also in several arts exhibitions. (Photo: N. Müller)

Response of Modern Pentathlon Spectators
about the Olympic Arts Festival Sydney 2000
Manfred Messing / Norbert Müller / Klaus Schormann
Coubertin’s Olympism springs from – even if he did not couch it in thesociological terminology of today – a criticism oft he progessive
differentiation of modern society in relative autonomous part systems and thecorresponding „disembodiment“ (for term see HEINEMANN 1998,). He is
not only concerned with enhancing the value of and athletic body, and soinitiating an educational process, but he also wants to “reunite the Muscles
and the Mind, once divorced, in the bonds of a legitimate marriage”(Coubertin 2000 [1906], 611). Eclectically he falls back on a pattern in a kindof retrospect utopia which bodily and mental “eurhythmy” (for Coubertin’s
term see Messing & Müller 2000a, 122) of man does not seem to have beensacrificed into a specialization of partial systems: the Greek antiquity andhere especially Olympia as a simultaneous climax of agonistic competitions
and artistic performances including the cult of gods and heroes.
Consequently, Coubertin (1935, 583) valued “beauty, the involvement of thearts and the mind in the Games” as an essential element of modern Olympics.
In a mutual help of muscle power and spirit Coubertin allocates the spirit
with the leading role, “providing that we are focusing on the highest forms ofartistic and literary creation […]” (cf., 583).
At the Olympic Games in Stockholm in 1912 not only one of Coubertin’s
favorite ideas, the modern pentathlon was realized and with that an example
set against one-sided specialization in sport, but also an Olympic art
competition came for the first time (cf. Lenk 1972, 32), that underlined theclaim of this festival to want to be more than an addition of world
championships in the same place. After the Games in London in 1948, the art
competitions were transformed into Olympic art exhibitions (cf., 36). Since
Barcelona in 1992 there have been regular “Cultural Olympiads” over a fouryear period with numerous events that usually have their climax at the timeof the athletic competitions (in Sydney the Olympic Arts Festival was under
the title “Harbour of Life” from August 18th to September 30th 2000; for the
four-year plan (cf. Good 1999, 164f).
The IOC has made as its goal of the cultural program to promote harmonious
relations, mutual understanding and friendship among the participant andvisitors of the Olympic Games (see also IOC 2000, 65).
This claim can only become reality if enough events are attended by the
Olympic visitors and found to be interesting. The state of information about
the cultural program during the Games was 89.3% (Sydneysiders) and 85.6%(tourists; calculated as a complementary answer to the statement “I didn’t get97any information at all”), much higher than Barcelona (65%) and Atlanta(59%; cf. Messing & Müller 2000a, 134). The assumption that Australia had
more information than the 103 foreigners questioned was not confirmed.
Newspapers and magazines belonged to the main information sources in
Sydney. Here it is surely of importance that the newspaper The Sydney
Morning Herald with the city of Sydney and Swatch belonging to the“Sydney 2000 Olympic Arts Festival Presenting Partners” published“Festival Updates” daily (cf. Olympic Arts Festival […] n. d., 48). Televisionand radio – here especially the program 2 BL 702AM (cf.) – were further
important informers. The Festival Program Guide (SOCOG Sept. 1999) is tobe mentioned as a further source, but one must differentiate between the
exhibition program, the program of performing and firm arts. To a lesser
degree internet, friends and posters were mentioned. As Germans had alreadyfound out in Barcelona 1992, travel agencies added little enlightenment on
the cultural program on their own initiative (Tourists: 3.6% before theGame’s and 4.8% during the events).

In addition to the particularly high level of information in Sydney, there is a
big majority who gave correct evaluation of the connection of sport and art in
the Olympic Idea (see Tab. 1).
The highly significant differences from the Germans previously interviewed
leads us to suppose that many Australian were made familiar with the basic

98

idea of Olympic philosophy intentionally – maybe via their children’s
Olympic educational programs.

Table 2 contains further attributions of an Olympic cultural program to theabove mentioned formula. We notice that secondary functions in all cases
considered take the first three places: the aesthetic factor stands on top of thegiven answers in Barcelona and Sydney, whereby the given answers “Itbrightens up the host city”, “a beautiful setting for the sport competition”,“aesthetic experience” can all be summed up together. This factor has
influenced the image of Barcelona and Sydney in particular, whereas Atlanta
drops down significantly with ranks five to seven. German tourists and thosequestioned in Sydney continue to see a chance for artists to present theirwork in front of a large audience in the cultural program. The consent tounderstand cultural events as an alternative for those less interested in sports
can be used to legitimate the ignorance of that field by passionate sport99spectators and stands in obvious contrast to the intention of Coubertin tounite both spheres.
The Germans in Atlanta give almost the same weight to this answer and thecategorizing of the cultural program as an Olympic tradition, but that is
obviously considered less binding for one’s own behavior (see Tab. 3).

It becomes obvious that the visitor quota of the Arts Festival in Sydneyremains at a low level, although the information level was intended to bemuch higher and the cultural program better placed by those questioned in
the primary Olympic context than in previous surveys.
Here, Buytendijk’s (1970, 96) hypothesis can be generalized, which
conforms the soccer spectators’ all-pervading and all-suppressing interest in
sport.
The cultural events most visited in Sydney were concerts and exhibitions,whereby due to missing concrete information here a comparison with
Barcelona and Atlanta is not possible. This is the reason why it has to remain
open, which resonance is the sport-related exhibition “1000 years of the
Olympic Games. Treasures of Ancient Games” (Powerhouse Museum),“Sydney 2000. Olympic Design of the New Millennium” (city Exhibition
Space), “IOC Art & Sport” (Store David Jones), “Sporting Life” (Museum ofContemporary Art), “Body Language. Art, Sport and the Cyber
Conversation” (University of New South Wales), “Shutter Speed. Thirty
years of sporting excellence” (State Library of New South Wales) havefound. For the complete effect however, we must also consider the time of
the Paralympics in Sydney. About 23% (Sydneysiders) and 29% (tourists)
noticed works of art in public places while walking around in Sydney. Due to100the large number of such objects and performances (e.g. street theater at
Darling Harbour) a higher percentage had been expected.
The data gleaned from the three Olympic Games leaves us in doubt as towhether Coubertin’s idea of symbiosis of sport and art (apart from theopening and closing ceremonies and the Olympic design) can in futire be
realized to a large degree, if art objects and productions cannot be moved
even closer to the sportive events.
References
BUYTENDIJK, F.J.J. (1970). Das Fußballspiel. In: PLESSNER, H. & BOCK, H.-E. & GRUPE,
O. (Eds.). Sport und Leibeserziehung. Sozialwissenschaftliche, pädagogische undmedizinische Beiträge, 95-103. München.
COUBERTIN, P. de (2000[1906]). Speech at the Opening of the Advisory Conference on theArts, Literature, and Sports. In: MÜLLER, N. (Ed.). Pierre de Coubertin 1863-1937.
Olympism. Selected Writings, 611-612. Lausanne.
COUBERTIN, P. de (2000 [1932]. Budapest (1911). In: MÜLLER, N. (Ed.). Pierre de
Coubertin 1863-1937. Olympism. Selected Writings, 431-435. Lausanne.
GOOD, D. (1999). The Cultural Olympiad. In: CASHMAN, R. & HUGHES, A. (Eds.). Staging
the Olympics. The Event and its Impact, 159-169. Sydney.
HEINEMANN; K. (1998). Einführung in die Soziologie des Sports. (4. Aufl.). Schorndorf.
IOC (2000). Olympic Charter. Lausanne.
LENK, H. (1972). Werte, Ziele, Wirklichkeit der modernen Olympischen Spiele. (2. Aufl.).
Schorndorf.
MESSING, M. & MÜLLER, N. (1996). Veranstaltungsbesuch und sportpolitische Polarisation
deutscher Olympia-Touristen in Barcelona 1992. In: MÜLLER, N. & MESSING, M. (Eds.).
Auf der Suche nach der Olympischen Idee. Facetten der Forschung von Athen bis Atlanta,
219-249. Kassel.
MESSING, M. & MÜLLER, N. (2000a). Coubertins philosophisches Konzept der Eurhythmie,
sein Postulat zur Einheit von Sport und Kultur sowie dessen Resonanz bei Olympiatouristen.
In: MESSING, M. & MÜLLER, N. (Eds.), unter Mitwirkung von PREUSS, H., Blickpunkt
Olympia: Entdeckungen, Erkenntnisse, Impulse. Focus on Olympism: Discoveries,
Discussion, Directions, 122-149. Kassel – Sydney.
Olympic Arts Festival (August 18 to September 30). Oympicart, exhibitions program. Sydney.
SOCOG = SYDNEY ORGANISING COMMITTEE FOR THE OLYMPIC GAMES: (Sept.
1999). Sydney 2000. Olympic Arts Festival. Sydney.
WEBER, M. (1980 [1918]). Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Grundriss der verstehenden Soziologie.
(5. Aufl.). Tübingen.

Originally published from Olympischer Dreiklang. Olympic Triad. Olympic
Studies 6. Agon Kassel, 2004, pp. 375-416.

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*

Staging the Olympic Arts Festival Salt Lake 2002
An Interview with Raymond T. Grant, Artistic Director
Raymond T. Grant / Manfred Messing“Artists are an integral part of the Olympic Winter Games, for they are likeathletes – both live on the verge of challenge and discovery.” (R. T. Grant)
The Olympic Arts Festivals had been in the focus of the Research team
Olympia at the University of Mainz since 1992. Spectators of the Olympic
Games in Barcelona, Atlanta, Sydney, Salt Lake City and Athens 2004
responded in standardized questionnaires to their awareness, their personal
meaning of the Olympic Arts Festival and their attendance. Additionally, inAtlanta an interview was conducted with Jeffrey Babcock, Director of the
Olympic Arts Festival 1996, by Alexandra Pfirschke and Manfred Messing.
In Salt Lake City, Raymond T. Grant, Artistic Director for the Olympic Arts
Festival from the Salt Lake Organizing Committee gave an interview toManfred Messing on February 25th, 2002. The following text is anabbreviated and condensed version of the original tape recording to givesome insight into the staging of an Olympic Arts Festival. Following is thearticle “On the meaning of the Cultural program for spectators in Salt Lake2002” with main results of an empirical survey at the Biathlon Venue.
What are the aims of the Cultural Program? Did you want to have a certain
image coming out from it and what did you plan before?
Those aims were first and foremost the highlights in America’s contribution
to the arts and humanities, hence commissioning of new works by American
choreographers, playwrights and musicians. Secondly and perhaps more
important was to use the arts to embrace the West and its cultures. In theearly studies that we have done we asked world visitors what they would
want to get out of a Cultural program. The response was that a lot of people
from outside the United States wanted to get a perspective on the AmericanWest. The problem we had with that was that everybody came with a very
stereotypical vision, cowboys and Indians for example. So, we wanted tomake sure that we celebrated Native American culture among others, but wewanted to do it in a way that was credible and authentic. It helped us to forge
partnerships with the tribes in the United States, in particular the ones in
Utah, to foster some partnerships with existing museums to help us curate
some of these experiences. Those would be two of the guiding aims: to*
Cf. Welcome to the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Arts Festival. In: Salt Lake Oranizing Committee (2001):
Olympic Arts Festival. Cultural Olympiad. Salt Lake City 2002, p. 2 (cover foreground: Pilobolus Dance
Theater photo).

103highlight America’s contribution to the arts and the humanities and thensecondly to embrace the West and its cultures.
In Sydney, the Olympic Arts Festival was also a political matter not to havedemonstrations from the Aborigines during the Games or in Atlanta, not tohave protests from the Blacks. Atlanta for instance had a big exhibition of
African-American Vernacular Art of the South. So, they were involved andthere was no fear that there might be a protest. Was this a thought for you,
too, or not?
Yes, it was a thought, but it did not become a political reality. We tried towork with the tribes, and I think the Organizing Committee thought broadly,
not just for the Cultural Program: Let us work with one institution that could
represent all of the tribes. But this was not a good decision. If Blacks andWhites cannot get along in America, why should Navajos and Cherokees!
And what I opted to do is not work with that one organization – it was called“The Native American 2002 Foundation” – because I quickly felt that the one
organization was not effectively representing all of the tribes. So, we did twothings: one is we decided to partner separately with some of the tribes to do
individual exhibitions, for example “The Navajo Nation”. We did an
exhibition in Lausanne and we did another one in Salt Lake City called“Discover Navajo”. We chose the Navajo because it was the largest Native
American nation by geographic area, not necessarily by population but byland mass. And then with the University of Utah we very carefully partnered
to bring all of the major tribes of Utah together to corporate an exhibition,
which is called “Utah’s First Nations”. It was the most exhilarating part ofwhat we have done and the most frustrating at the same time. And it took acultural perspective to bring a level of sensitivity to that. That allowed, I
believe, the tribes to feel that they have made a credible participation.
Who has written the texts? Was it written by English authors? Did you havecooperation with the chiefs and was it translated into their languages andback? I think it was very complicated.
Yes, very complicated. We had actually a series of curators who were Native
American. So, each tribe sent a representative on a broad curatorialcommittee to represent their individual tribe’s contribution. So, it was not asingle artistic director, it was individual curators who were responsible forthe representation of their tribes to put together the exhibition. And it worked
effectively in that capacity, for other things it would not have been a good
way to do a play. It would not have been a good way to choreographic dance,
but in this way it was, because the political issues were so sensitive. What I
did not want is to have a white PhD from the University of Arizona, telling
the Native Americans what their culture is about. So we tried to avoid thatcompletely.

104

Honestly there was a lot of infighting among the tribes and they said: Well,
you do not represent the Ute tribe, you are not Ute, or you are only ¼, so you
cannot speak to the Navajo. It was most successful that I found the native
American artist Allan Houser, who does these monumental sculptures that wehave in the City and County Building - one of them with the title "May wehave Peace". He is an artist who transcends tribal boundaries. At the
beginning this was very controversial: The University of Utah, the largest
institution of higher learning in the State refused to put his sculpture on theircampus not to disturb its delicate balance with the Indians. In fact Allan
Houser was an Apache married to a Navajo woman, but he spent eleven years
in Utah, so in the end no one could deny that he was an Utah artist in thatregard. Even the Navajo Nation wrote a letter to the University President
saying: You are making a mistake; all Native Communities would behonored to have a Native American artist presenting his work in the Athletes
Village to 3500 athletes from 78 countries. At the opening of the Athletes
Village, we had placed there Houser's bronze statue "Sacred Rain Arrow".
According to Coubertin Olympism is the fighting spirit on the one side andharmony on the other side. It is interesting that with art you could bring somepeople together which are rather difficult to unite.
The key to bring them together was giving them artistic latitude. If I had
told everybody this is how it has to be done, it would not have worked.
Instead of sponsorships we privately funded the entire Cultural Program,that is why in all of these materials you see no corporate advertiser or
corporate logos. That gave me as the Artistic Director artistic latitude, forinstance I could choose any photographer I wanted, I did not have to choose
one, connected to a certain sponsor and that proved to be very helpful,especially in that cases when artistic works were quite edgy for thiscommunity.
How did you select the artists?
Firstly, we defined the vision for what the Cultural Program was:x that we were to celebrate the achievements of artists right alongside
the accomplishments of athletes andx that we wanted to commission new works and select artists who
were interested in and exploring this notion of Olympism.
That created a plain field for us. It allowed me to think for instance about
dance companies that are athletic, in general about new commissioned works
as a result of the Olympic Arts Festival. One of those new works is based
upon the life of an Olympian, Florence Griffith Joyner. It is very American,on the score of jazz as an American art form. Winton Marsalis, probably oneof the great jazz educators in America, did the music and one of the most105

gifted choreographers in America, Judith Jamison, did the choreography. The
performance was a wonderful celebration of sport and art. We chose the
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre Company because we knew that they
were great champions of black heritage, something I felt the Salt Lakecommunity needed in terms of diversity.
We bad the Olympic Arts Festival Advisory Committee, but I could take orleave their advice and actually I bad quite a free hand in selecting the artists,
as long as I knew that they would broadly relate to our vision.
We did have some grant programs for communities who I asked to create
Olympic Arts Festival Community Events. There was an application process
for a grant from us with a review panel. I did not sit on the panel, I only madethe final determination for which communities would get grants. We had
about 70 applications and made grants to 30 communities.
It seems that you followed a little bit the guideline of Mr. Babcock, Artistic
Director in Atlanta 1996, by saying: We want to have the best artists we canhave and we set the aims.
Yes. I was actually getting some advice from Jeffrey Babcock. We set theaims somewhat narrowly in that we knew we were going to have a Festival
and focus it on the purity of the Games. I came on board in 1998, so there
was a Jot of dialogue about: Let us do a Festival in 1999, in 2000, in 2001
leading up to the Games! We decided against that for two very importantreasons: one was resources, the other the attention of world media. If wewere going to spend limited resources I wanted to spend it during the periodof time in which we would have the biggest impact to the world audience,and I knew from Atlanta's experience, that it is only during the period of theGames that the world media pay attention to the host city.
On official brochures I saw the logo "Cultural Olympiad. Salt Lake 2002."
The meaning of an "Olympiad" is a Jour years period. But this was notrealized …
No, it was not and technically we should probably not have used the term
"Cultural Olympiad". It was a decision of my part after a dialogue with the
Cultural Commission actually. At the time we were fighting for recognition
and importance within the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, and I felt if we
simply called something a Festival it would diminish its impact in terms of
being able to argue, that it needs to be considered as one of the pillars of the
Olympic Movement, and so we used the term Olympic Arts Festival andCultural Olympiad somewhat interchangeably.
Was the staging of the Arts Festival a little easier for you than for Mr.
Babcock, because the Mormons should have an interest to show their special
culture?

106

I think yes and no. It made it a little easier for the performing arts side,
because in Mormon culture you got great examples of amateur talent in theperforming arts like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. But there is not nearly
the same cultural focus on the visual arts, which we gave a strong
representation at the Arts Festival, however. When we made our decision to
focus on Ancient Greece in the exhibition "Athletes in Antiquity" as well as
on art and artifacts made by American tribes, we were keeping in mind thatin no Native American language a definition of art exists. The exhibited
objects from native American cultures are designed to be functional, they aredesigned to be used, broken apart, thrown out. It is very different.
How do you judge the attendance of the Olympic Arts Festival?
We had excellent attendance. We did a wonderful exhibition of the glass artof Dale Chihuly, enclosing his work "Olympic Tower". And it was very
important for me to make that plaza at Salt Lake Art Center inviting. We
actually thought to keep that outside of the security fence. The outdoor pieces
became our best advertisement.
If people are not coming to the arts, arts have to come to the people.
That is exactly right. So we brought some glass sculpture outside. It wascontroversial, because of the risk, that somebody throws a stone at it. Finally
it proved to be an excellent decision and we had a great response: first week
5000 visitors, second week 7000 visitors, last week 11000 visitors.
The same idea of open access we followed at the exhibition of four legendary
pianos in the Abravanel Hall Lobby. Between 1 and 4 pm every day youwere allowed to play on those instruments free of charge. I did not wantto say: They are museum pieces, you cannot touch them. One woman
caressed the Horowitz piano, and she said: I was in Russia, when Horowitz
played his last concert. - I wanted to make it accessible in that way and it
proved to be very successful. I was getting a new audience for classicalmusic as part of the Olympics. In a concert they were applauding in
between the movements and it was upsetting to some of the musicians, but
I considered it as a success to raise the interest of people, probably notengaged in that kind of music before.
We were giving something that was accessible and also kept ticket prices
relatively affordable. 38 % of the Olympic Arts Festival were free ofcharge, so even if you did not have any money you could still attend culturalactivities. At the same time when you bought a ticket to the Down HiliEvent you could buy a ticket to the opera and if you had any ticket to the Art
Festival - even a free event, it was also valid for free transportation.

107

Yes, this was the same thing in Atlanta, it was a good idea and it works
good here also. Concerning the function of the Arts Festival: Was it also a
gratification for the citizens of Salt Lake City who have suffered fromconstruction and many inconveniences during the preparation of the
Olympic Games?
No, it was not. We bad many of the plans for the Cultural Olympiad inplace before the road construction was really even that bad. It was prior to
our bid scandal, for example, a lot of our planning was already done, so wehave never created programs in reaction to it. It became very apparent

108

that this community felt that the arts were important to itself when the
Organizing Committee, trying to minimize a deficit, created a funding
program. If you gave a contribution you got certain benefits. I argued very
forcefully that one of those seven funds needed to be arts and culture.
As it turned out, more people contributed to arts and culture than to any
other fund. Some of the funders were demanding that their funds go to artsand culture and not go to a deficit; they wanted to know that their money
made possible a new commission, an art work, a new educational legacy.
Tonight we have dinner to announce the next days of our "Olympic
Imagination Celebration", which is a Festival for young people andteachers. It involves companies coming from outside the community
commissioning new work, but most importantly workshops for teachers inthe schools, so that they could talk about the arts in a way that does not
typically happen in schools here. Practically, the arts are not particularly
important in the schools when it comes to funding for music teachers or
instruments or band instruments or the like in the schools. That will be alegacy that will continue every year after the Games because we forged apartnership with the John F. Kennedy-Center in Washington D. C., sothat after our Festival this year it will become a "Kennedy-Center
Imagination Celebration" and Salt Lake has become only the 6th site in the
United States to be so recognized.
In the Utah State Capitol there is an exhibition of the Declaration of
Independence. Was the idea to have something for everybody from the UnitedStates very important and moving?
Right. We opened the exhibition of the Declaration of Independence on
February 1, and by the 14th of February we had over 30.000 people whohave come to see it. So it did prove to be that once in a lifetime
opportunity, and it was very important. We actually had a very large
exhibition of the Dead Sea Scrolls planned as well. I saw the Dead Sea
Scrolls in Sydney, and we were adding to that exhibition the St. Petersburg
Codex, the oldest copy of the Hebrew Bible. It had not left Russia since1948, I believe, and then September 11th happened, and the insurance went
up by 200.000 Dollars. The very fragile consortium - Israel, the Kingdomof Jordan, France, Russia, a few other individuals - everybody got very
nervous about lending the documents, so that was one of a couple ofprojects that actually were cancelled or never realized because of September
11th.

109

110

What about the relation of sporting art and art which is not connected withsport? Did you think about its balance?
I did and I looked with very careful interest at the Art & Sport Competition
that the IOC bad conducted that was then displayed in Sydney. I am very
fond of the early Pierre de Coubertin days, the period of 1906 to about 1948,
when the nature of competition was much more integrated. At Salt Lake 2002
we had two competitions, the Olympic Command Performance Rodeo andthe International Ice Carving Competition. Concerning the IOC Art & Sport
Exhibition, it is notable that the infrastructure of the IOC is much dependent
on the National Olympic Committees, which do a lot of the work, and I only
know from America that the United States Olympic Committee had very
little interest in participating in that competition a couple of years ago. It justbounced around from one administrator to the other in the USOC and nobody
really saw the possibilities of that. When l saw the works of the IOC
Exhibition - and I do not want to diminish all of the hard work –I found thatthey were a good part undistinguished. I walked away thinking either you are
a great artist or a great athlete. So we opted to try to make a link between
artists who are quite distinguished and having them create new works thatmight have a linkage to sport as oppose to finding athletes who would also
have an affinity for alike.

111

112

Concerning the Ice Carving Competition – I read that you even gave Olympic
Arts Festival medals.
We did. On the back of the medal is a poem originally scratched into aterracotta vase, buried in an Athenian grave approx. 740 B.C. The poem
describes the winner of a dancing contest. It reads: "He who dances mostnimbly of all, take this [vase] as your prize." Also we commissioned a
local artist to do a wonderful buffalo sculpture. The buffalo was an imageof the West. We sent out invitations to every one of the National
Olympic Committees, who were going to send athletes to the Games,saying I will pay for you to send an artist here in Salt Lake City, todecorate a buffalo and we will put that buffalo on display as a very large
public art project. Out of the 110 NOCs that we sent invitations to, and I
also sent an invitation to every Cultural Attaché, we only got 6
responses. When I saw there is not enough interest to warrant a major
investment, I used that very modern rendition model of a buffalo to create
the image of the Olympic Arts Festival Medal. We opted not to do it ingold but in nickel, being inspired by the notion of a peace medal, which
United States' Presidents would give to the Chiefs of Indian tribes. I also
gave out those medals to the winners of the rodeo. That was very
controversial, because of the Animals' Rights Activists' protest, and I
gave the medals to the artists that we commissioned to a new work forsome form of recognition.
Now there was another program that I very much wanted to see happen
and that related directly to competitions. We had plans to partner with theseven major music competitions in America. On one day during the
Olympics we would have a simultaneous concert in all of the Governors'
Mansions of winners from past music competitions and we were going todo that to celebrate musical Olympians. It did not happen although we
had about 40 States lined up to participate. But the funding just was notthere. It was a lovely idea because of the Delphi Games. They began asmusical competitions, as musical celebrations and our project would be akind of honoring that.
It was an idea of Mr. Babcock in Atlanta, and I think you had followed that
we should have some cooperation between international artists at Olympic
Arts Festivals. When I saw the exhibition "Women Beyond Borders" I foundthis idea realized in the miniature cedar boxes sent out to 33 countries andchanged by 122 foreign and 20 Utah artists into artwork documenting andhonoring women 's voices and visions.
That is right. There was another project we did: a quilt wascommissioned. It is actually at the airport, and pupils from each State, andthese were fifth graders, did just a little section of the quilt, so that you could
create a mosaic almost.

113

The Artwork inside the airport, where thousands of Olympic visitors are
passing by, is indeed a very nice welcome.
It is a gateway and we used it that way. Actually our plans were more
extensive. We were going to put more celebrity pianos at the airport to allow
people to play. After September 11th it became more of a security issue, so
ultimately we did not put more pianos out there, but one of them in the lobbyof the IOC-Hotel.
In the Piano Gallery at Abravanel Hall Lobby I noticed it from young people:
O my goodness, this is van Cliburn's instrument! Or: This is Horowitz's
instrument! But the real magic is: You mean, I could play it? And then wejust say: Yes, sit down and play.
At the closing ceremony they made a painting on the ice, which appeared tome as a symbol of the melting of art and sport.
Yes. Exactly. And I cannot take credit for the ceremonies. It was a separate
group, but they even looked to some of the talents of the Cultural Program,
Savion Glover for example, the wonderful tap-dancer.
Could this painting not have been saved which was done at the moment when
the Games had ended, to keep it as a kind of heritage?
I would argue the reason why that was so magical is because it was going tolast for a very brief period of time and it was something for the audience,
because quite honestly it did not communicate well on television. Part of themagic in the stadium was, that everybody recognized, I am here and I am
seeing this creation right in front of me, and tomorrow it is gone.
This makes a connection to Chihuly with his ice work. It is for a certain time,
but you can’t keep it.
That is right. A good example in Chihuly’s work is this wall of ice he did for
Jerusalem, as a metaphor of the melting of tensions. You saw it at one
moment and then a couple of hours later you saw it differently, a collapsing
thing. Chihuly is very much influenced by Native American baskets that havecollapsed over time.
Was it your responsibility to plan for the "look of the Games" or was adifferent department in charge of Olympic design?
There were two separate areas: one on any of our media designs, on
everything that we have done for publications, the other to define a
specific look for Arts and Culture, which incidentally broke all of therules of the IOC. The Rings and the word ARTS became a wonderful
iconography for usin front of a cultural venue and alike. When you look at
the front page of this program brochure with the typical lapislazuli and114amber colors, there are artists of the Pilobolus Dance Theatre in theforeground and a sports figure in the back. We have done four or five of
these publications, each one with a different image, but still with the sports
figure in the background. So the celebration of arts and athletics became
important, thank to our own designer, which was dedicated to Arts andCulture and the integration of allour works.
There are some people in this community, who came to know the
Olympics through a cultural experience.
The bid committees are often not aware what art has to do with the Olympic
Games! The main point of a feasibility study is: Can we finance it and do wehave enough stadia?
This is my experience in America, too. In my research, when I read the bid
books at Lausanne, the Arts Festival is a minor section, almost like anafterthought. But if a company thinks about relocating a business inanother city, they include the quality of the life of their employees in thedecision. We know about this from our experiment merging culinary
experiences with cultural ones. We called this special event "The Art of theTable".
Foreigners mostly do not associate the U.S. with culinary arts. The
stereotype is rather the fast food chains.
We invited 45 celebrity chefs from the James Beard Foundation - Beard
is recognized as the father of American cuisine. On 14 evenings giftedchefs from throughout the United States - people are paying a fortune to
get into the restaurant when they are in New York - prepared special
dinners, offered to Olympic Art Festival patrons. And the chefs loved thisconnection with the arts. As a matter of fact Dale Chihuly helped us withhis glass sculptures to decorate the dining room at Abravanel Hall.
After a differentiation of society into smaller and smaller areas, we are now
in a time, where we have to integral these small areas again. In the arts, it is
Wagner's idea of a "Gesamtkunstwerk", which the Final Ceremony cameclose to. Perhaps in winter it is easier to realize?
It is a little easier in winter. Maybe it is just the setting of this town: You are
not very far from the Arts Festival Venues, from a concentration ofcultural activities. We bad an interesting experience with this tap dancer,
Savion Glover. After his concert at Abravanel Hall, people stayed in thelobby until midnight, wanting his autograph and alike. So I brought the bandout and we had a wonderful conversation, the artists were mingling with theaudience. Everybody enjoyed the food of the time, we discussed politics, we
discussed the news of the day, but the basis was a cultural celebration. And it
was very intimate in the lobby of a big ball, so it was not 3000 people, it was115

just the people who were gathered there and there is something quite
communal about that.
I think you should be at the upcoming Lausanne Conference on Art
Festivals to communicate your experience.
I would love to. I found some of the past Cultural Directors have been very
helpful to me but the Cultural Commission could do much more bypromoting great and inspiring working-sessions.
Originally published in Müller N. / Messing M. / Preuss H. (eds.):
From Chamonix to Turin.Olympic Studies 8. Kassel 2006, pp. 289-304.

View to one of the engaged students of the Research Team Olympia (University of Mainz)
collecting questionnaires by the Modern Pentathlon spectators in Sydney 2000 (Foto N. Müller)116

On the Meaning of the Cultural Program for
Biathlon Spectators in Salt Lake 2002
Research Team Olympia University of Mainz*
In Salt Lake 2002 the Research Team Olympia cooperated with theInternational Biathlon Union in an empirical investigation of spectators at
the Biathlon venue "Soldier Hollow" (see also Preuß et al. in this book).
One aim of the survey was an evaluation of the Olympic Arts Festival
from the spectators' point of view.
The attendance of a cultural program during the Olympic Games depends
among other factors on information and promotional activities. In generalmass media are an important channel for these tasks, additionally avariety of program guides provided specific information about the
Olympic Arts Festival during the Winter Games 2002 (see Tab. 1 and 2).
The chart of examples below shows that information was especiallyoffered by mass media, while the publicity of travel agencies and even at
the local tourist sites (posters e.g.) could have been more effective.
Tab. 1

Information and promotion about the Cultural Program before theOlympic Games
ChannelMultiple answers possible
n
%
498
44.1

Television and radio reports
Magazines and newspapers

472

41.8

Travel agency

24

2.1

No information at all

151

13.4

If the information about the Cultural Program really leads to a visit of
events will also depend on the importance ascribed to that Program. At
least 17% respectively 35% of the respondents considered the visit ofcultural events during their stay in the Host City as very important orimportant, 27% respectively 13% chose the answer "less important"respectively "unimportant" (no answer 8%).
• Research Team members in Salt Lake City: Norbert Müller, Manfred Messing, Holger Preuß, Marc
Buchwalder and Michael Desch.

117

Tab. 2 Information and promotion about the Cultural Program inSalt Lake City
Multiple answers possible%nChannelNewspapers

463

41 ,0

Program guide

394

34,9

Poster or placard (e.g. in hotel)

138

12,2

Travel guide

1 12

9.9

No information at all

167

14.8

The following table shows that citizens of the greater Salt Lake area
and Utah agree to seven proposed functions of the Cultural Program in ahigher percentage than spectators from other states in the U.S. or abroad.
Tab. 3 „What relationship do you see between the Cultural Program
and the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City?" (multiple
answers possible)

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The priority of “brightening up the host city” by the Cultural Program
might be an effect of the huge iconic sport photos which could not be
overlooked in downtown Salt Lake City and in fact were not part of
the Cultural Program. They have transformed Utah's capital "into amythical cathedral of champions through the Cityscape Program.
Environmental designers have taken the sport photo series shot byJohn Huet and enlarged the images to enormous scale, covering thefaces of 12 buildings. “[…] The wraps are part of a vista that catches
the eye no matter where one t urns”.1
From that description it could be expected that more than 28% of the
respondents would give examples in an "open question", which artistic
forms struck their interest while walking around in Salt Lake City.
The opinion that the Cultural Program combines art and sport is shared
only by 39% respectively 26% of the respondents. However around
84% agree in another question to the statement “The Olympic Idea
combines sport and art”. In that point the Salt Lake 2002 spectators
excel spectator groups in Barcelona 1992 (40%), Atlanta 1996 (23%)
and Sydney 2000 (72%) considerably (see Messing/Müller/Schormann
2004, 403). Not only in their understanding of art as a central part of
the Olympic Idea but also in their behaviour of visiting the Arts
Festival, the Biathlon spectators take the lead with 45 % (Barcelona
37%, Atlanta 34%, Sydney 29%, ibid., 405). In Salt Lake City
especially concerts, different events and exhibitions were preferred by
Biathlon spectators visiting the Arts Festival (see Tab. 4).
Tab. 4 “In which categories did you visit events?”
Program category

Multiple answers possible
n
%
296
26.2

Music/concert
Events252

22.3

Museumlexhibition/visual arts

208

18.4

Dance (modern dance)

64

5.7

Theatre47

4.2

Opera/ballet (classical ballet)

26

2.3

It can be concluded that the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Arts Festival
was a relatively successful one. Although not all of the projects could
be realized (see Interview with R. T. Grant), the understanding of the1

Brochure: Salt Lake 2002. Games Vision. Salt Lake 2002 Creative Program, 6.

119

inner connection of Olympic sport and art was higher than at three
former (Summer) Olympic Games and the biathlon spectators weremore involved in visits of the Cultural Program. lt seems that theArts Festival in Salt Lake 2002 has set a benchmark for WinterGames which needs further study to measure the achievements ofcultural programs in the future.
References
Buchwalder, M. (2004). Olympiabezogene Einstellungen und Sozialstruktur von
Biathlon- Zuschauern bei den Olympischen Winterspielen in Saft Lake City 2002 im Vergleich mit Pentathlon-Zuschauern in Sydney 2000 - Ergebnisse
standardisierter Befragungen. Diplomarbeit am Fachbereich Sport der Johannes
Gutenberg- Universität Mainz. Mainz.
Messing, M., Müller, N. & Schormann, K. (2004). Local Visitors and Tourists at theModem Pentathlon in Sydney 2000 - a Contribution on the Internal
Differentiation of Olympic Spectators. In M. Messing, N. Müller & H. Preuß(Hrsg.), Olympischer Dreiklang. Werte - Geschichte - Zeitgeist (OlympischeStudien, Band 6, S. 375-416). Kassel: Agon.

Originally published in Müller N. / Messing M. / Preuss H. (eds.):
From Chamonix to Turin.Olympic Studies 8. Agon Kassel 2006, pp. 305-308.

120

Country Music Band playing during the Biathlon Competition break, Soldier Hollow 2002
(Photo: M. Messing)Athens 2004 Cultural Olympiad:
Its Rhetoric, its Potential and its Challenge
Eleni Theodoraki
The Olympic Games are returning to their roots for nourishment from theeternal source of inspiration of Olympic scholars; Ancient Olympia, Athens,
Greece. The challenge of hosting the Games and the Cultural Olympiad
associated with them present a major ambition for every nation, which
respects its nationals and the wider global community. Greece is facing thismajor ambition now as the Sydney Games are only months away and the
Olympic Flag will be passed on to the Athens Mayor symbolizing thetransfer of responsibility to the next host city.
A lot has been written about the significance of the institution of the Cultural
Olympiad for international understanding, peace and cultural development
and many have debated the contribution of such programs to the showcasingof host nations’ culture to the many and varied audiences. The substantive
basis of this paper, however, is of a strategic nature and it forms a prism
through which the author views expressed objectives of the Greek organizers
and the strategic capabilities of Greek cultural organizations. Finally, theauthor presents the Cultural Olympiad project in terms of a strategic vision,
linking necessary inputs to throughput processes which can lead to certain
outputs that Greece and the Olympic Movement could be proud of.

1 The Rhetoric
The Athens Olympic Bid documents provide a wealth of material on thecity’s commitments as regards the Culturaö Olympiad while subsequent
publications from the Greek Ministry of Culture present a more up-to-datepicture of the intentions of the Greek organizers.
"Land of liberty and democracy [...] at the crossroads of three continents[…] in the Southeast corner of Europe [...] in Greece where the Olympic
Games were born and revived" Athens 2004 BID Committee (, 1996 Vol. I,
p. 1-3). It is with such proud rhetoric that the bid documents draft the gloryof Athens’ past and the dynamism of its present day position in relation to its
cultural `capital´ and capabilities.
References made to the Cultural Olympiad focus on the educational andcultural programs of the Games and their respective themes. In addition, thenature of the opening, closing and medal ceremonies are discussed in termsof 1) their relevance to Olympic values and Olympic Charter directives and2) their basic features, i.e. sites and venues chosen. The passage of the123Olympic Flame is also presented as one of great significance to the cultural
program along with the youth-camp activities.
The following section presents the foci identified in the bid documents andthe statements made by Greek Ministry of Culture.
"At the beginning of the third millennium of the Christian era,
Greece's wish is that the Athens Games of 2004 will restore theOlympic ideal of harmonious interaction between the physical andintellectual functions to its rightful place in the new conditions
created by technology. At the centre of history, of culture and of allother creative endeavours is Man, and it is on the relationshipbetween man and nature, the spirit, history and culture that thecultural programme of Athens focuses." (Athens 2004 BID
Committee, 1996 Vol.III p. 4)
The starting point for the 2000-2004 Cultural Olympiad is the Celebration of
the year 2000 to coincide with the Sydney Olympic Games. The Ministry of
Culture has signed an agreement for active Creek Cultural presence inSydney 2000 an in doing so the transcontinental bridge between Australia
and Europe is, in this regard, strengthened with the added Olympic
dimension.
Another point of action relates to the birth of Christ and involves theparticipation of Orthodoxy in international events. This is meant to involve
the Holy Land and other sites of significance (Mount Athos, Sinai
Monastery). A theological / Olympic dimension of the year 2000 is therefore
sought by the organizers.
The thematic guidelines of the Cultural Olympiad program are intended to
be flexible in order to embrace and cater for international interests but
without being ambiguous or vague. Each thematic guideline will be in placefor each of the four years 2000-2004. The first theme concerns the culture ofpeace, coexistence, and reconciliation. It is based on the fundamental
principle of the right of peace, and the revival of the Olympic Armisticeunder the UN auspices, is a clear manifestation of this approach.
The second theme concerns the culture of social cohesion and involves
attempts to abolish cultural and educational inequalities and the creation of aculture of tolerance amongst people.
The third theme concerns the culture of the Information Society and seeks tostrengthen the provision of opportunities for the abolishment of regional
inequalities enabling free access to educational and cultural information andin so doing removing the barriers for enjoyment of cultural goods andcultural creation.
The last theme encompasses culture as an area in which tradition andinnovation can be combined for all forms of cultural expression and thewhole program will culminate in the opening and closing ceremonies of theGames to be held at the Olympic Stadium in Athens.

124

The educational program of the Games running parallel to other cultural
events will aim to promote the Olympic Ideal and will consist of 1)
international seminars on the subject of Olympism, with the participation ofeminent academics and experts, 2) university level exchange program
involving the preparation of research projects connected to Olympism and 3)
international sports seminars on the present and future of the Games andspecial programs for children and adolescents (Athens 2004 BID Committee,
1996 Vol. III p. 2).
The cultural program will center on Athens, but there will also be parallel
events in other parts of Greece whose traditions and symbolic significanceare important. These will include Olympia, where the Games were born,
Delphi, the navel of the world, and Ancient Epidaurus. In order to accentuatefurther the international character of Olympism, events will also be held incountries other than Greece. The cultural agencies of Greece, such as the
National Theater companies, the symphony orchestras, the cities on the
National Cultural Network, the Athens Festival, the museums etc. will workwith corresponding agencies abroad to mount events connected with thetheme of the year. This will also apply to artists or organizations from othercountries that will be invited to submit creative work on each year’s theme.
Each theme will be the starting point for creative work across a wide
spectrum of activity and co-operation, and the artists, scholars etc. will havescope for the production of events of all kinds (Athens 2004 BID
Committee, 1996 Vol. III p. 6).
A significant breakthrough, which the Athens’ bid document introduced wasAthens’ promise to examine the possibility of giving a competitive nature toits cultural program, thus reviving – from a more modern point of view – theCultural games which were part of the Olympics from 1912 to 1948 (Athens
2004 BID Committee, 1996 Vol. III p. 8).
Conferences, meetings, festivals, various events that will be taking
place during the four years period and will culminate in the year
2004, will feature the Cultural Olympiad as a permanent institution(Ministry of Culture 1998, pp. 2-3).
This promise, Athens intends to keep as later publications from the Ministryof Culture confirm.
Cultural Olympic GamesThe Greek Ministry of Culture has promoted the idea that the Cultural
Olympiad will become a permanent institution, which extends over theperiod of the four years between two successive Olympic Games andculminates with the Cultural Olympics. Greece envisions these Olympics ofCulture as the Olympics of the Spirit and Arts and sees itself as thepermanent scat of the institution that will co-operate effectively with the125carious cities which will be assigned the organization of the Olympic Games(Ministry of Culture 1998, p. l).
As regards the field in which the Cultural Olympics will become active,these include the humanities, the fine arts and the protection of cultural
heritage. An international consulting committee will elaborate the more
specific fields and forms of participation both on a national and on an
individual basis and the constitution of the judging committees will secure
the satisfactory representation of cultures/nations/regions and fields ofcompetence (Ministry of Culture 1998, p. 3).
The organizing authorities will be working on a rotating basis according to
the sector of culture (cinema, festival, exhibition, e.g. Biennale of Venice,Music Competition etc.) and the emphasis will be on facilitating new
creators.

2 The Potential
Athens, one of the most glorious cities of Antiquity, is today amongst themost vigorous large cities of the Western World, as can be seen by the
millions of visitors it attracts each year. On the borderline between east andwest, it continues today to serve as the cultural crossroads it was in the past.
It is not only historical memory and the wonderful archaeologicalmonuments, which endow Athens with light and brilliance. The modern city
lives in the present day, while keeping the past alive. The city of the arts andletter, of the poets, the philosophers and the Panatheneic Festival, the city inwhich democracy was born and grew to maturity, is today a bustling modern
capital. The heart of Athens beats around the clock, and the city can provide
anything its residents and visitors might desire. The are some 70 theaters andwide ranges of artistic events take place every day. The city has numerous
archaeological, ethnological and historical museums, located in the suburbs
as well as in the center. In the panorama of life that Athens offers, the mostprominent features are the traditional Greek hospitality `filoxenia´ and theoutgoing nature of the capital’s residents. Athens has modern hotel andtourist amenities to cater for the countless visitors it receives each year.
In modern Athens, the cultural myths of antiquity are not confined to themuseums. They are still alive, which is why the city is one of the mostimportant cultural centers in Europe. The Greeks are lovers of culture as they
are of sport and in the period since the Second World War Athens has made
spectacular progress on both fronts. Among relatively recent achievements
are the `Music Megaron´, a cultural institution of international repute withtwo concert halls and seating audiences of 2,000 and 600 respectively. Eachsummer, the ancient theater of Herod Atticus is a venue used as part of theAthens Festival events. The social and cultural physiognomy of Athens

126today is one of creative dynamism, aesthetic innovation and true to the spiritof universality (Athens 2008 BID Committee 1995, pp. 78-79).
The greater Athens area is home to 38% of the country’s workforce and theeconomy concentrates on the service sector, with manufacturing as thesecond most important activity. Attica contains a large number of ancientmonuments and tourist sights, while Piraeus is the country’s most important
harbor. The area covered by the municipality of Athens is the economic andadministrative heart of the country and its activities are concentrated almost
entirely in the service sector, which includes culture and tourism.
The Cultural Olympiad 2000-2004 and the Cultural Olympic Games of 2004
will be hosted in the already existing cultural facilities available throughout
Greece. The events will take place in the existing indoor and open-air
exhibition spaces or cultural halls, ancient theaters or other `natural´ settings.
Special emphasis will be given to places with historic reference such as
Athens, Olympia, Epidaurus, Thessaloniki, Olympos, Philippoi etc.
The Greek government granted the guarantee of the Greek State to the IOC
that the Olympic Games will receive the financial support of the government
and that the necessary infrastructure projects will be funded. The Mayor of
Athens has also pledged the full support of the municipality (Athens 2004
BID Committee 1996 Vol. I, p. 9). The longstanding commitment of theauthorities is also evident in the money earmarked for the wider cultural
program of the 2004 Games including all events to be held from 2001-2004,
which amounts to $30 million, at 1996 prices.
The political parties represented in the Greek parliament have also expressed
their unreserved support for Athens. This political consensus reflects the
profound desire of the Greek people for the Games. Similarly, the municipal
authorities of Athens have firmly promoted the Athens 2004-`cause´regardless of the changes of the local elections every four years. “A glorious
capital of the past, a vigorous major city today.” (Athens 2004 BID
Committee 1996 Vol. I, p.12).
It appears that the `cultural capital´, in the managerial sense of the word, isof such breadth and quality that organizer would have more challenge in
representing it all rather than finding enough material to work with. The
reputation of the city speaks for itself and in so doing raises a set of highstandard expectations which organizers need to meet.

3 The Ultimate Challenge
It is often acknowledged that the organization of the Athens 2004 Cultural
Olympiad is a challenge for the agents involved. The volume of the workand the visibility, which the events will attract, make it imperative for theorganizers to work hard for the noble cause. A number of strategic
management approaches are expected to be used by various stakeholders and127the participants and observers of the Cultural Olympiad will judge theoutcomes in relation to a) what was promised and b) what was expected.
Without strategic views of the task ahead any organizing committee would
be preceding blindfolded. It is to this effect that organizing committees of
the Olympic Games produce the masterplan and its component elements,
which cover all aspects of administration. The organization of the Olympic
Games demands the completion of a great number of processes within a tighttimeframe. To complete the processes in time and within the pre-agreed
budget, organizers need plans, which will be used for the control of progress
and the timely interventions of corrective action as and when required. The
cultural section of the masterplan encompasses the works of the Cultural
Olympiad under the sub-program of Culture and Education. All parts of themasterplan are designed in line with the principles of organizational
effectiveness and are intended to allow: clarity as regards the aims, userfriendliness, control at various levels and support of the individualsdelegated with the task. Part of the complexity of the Cultural Olympiad
stems from the multifaceted agents/organizations involved with culture. The
coordination of activities to build up the momentum required is particularly
demanding and for the operation to succeed managers need clear visions.
These relate to a) what it is they seek to achieve, i.e. what constitutes highquality in the Cultural Olympiad, b) what inputs need to be made in terms ofresources and milestone achievements and finally c) what type of processes
will coordinate the delivery of the Cultural Olympiad related services(ATHOCOG 2000).
For Greece the Athens Games are a matter of supreme national and cultural
significance, as they will serve as a bridge between tradition and thepotential of modern Greece, allowing the country to contribute to thedevelopment and promotion of the Olympic Ideal in the modern age. The
significance of the Games on the economic level is particularly great, andmany sectors of Greek economy will benefit. A considerable number ofmajor technical infrastructure projects are already being constructed in
Greece today, and the Games will provide an opportunity for the expansionof these works. Last of all, the incentive which the Games will provide forthe young people of Greece to improve their sporting performance and, moregenerally, to redouble their collective efforts and use their creative capacity
to the full will be an invaluable benefit to Greece (Athens 2004 BID
Committee, 1996 Vol. 1, p. 20).
Writers in the field of organization theory argue that there is not one best
way to plan. The nature of, for example, the decision making mechanisms
and the level of intervention, will depend upon a number of factors such as
the age, size, structure, culture, extent of professionalization, the nature of
the operational environment etc. to name but a few. In seeing the work oforganizations like a process of inputting resources, processing them and then128

delivering outputs one can visualize how organizations – and individuals
inside them – operate. Albeit simplistic, in terms of how much detail can bemeaningfully included in such a representation it provided a starting point
for the novice and the strategic thinker alike. To this effect the following
diagram lists a number of inputs, throughput processes and outputs which
the author envisions as important to the successful strategic development of
the Athens Cultural Olympiad.

InputsThroughputs

Outputs

Infrastructure in culturalsites and development
systems

Geographic
representation

Solidarity in the region andimproved relationships withneighboring countries

Co-operation with the
Balkru1 States

Altruistic incentives Faith in human agency andand transparent
Citizens' involvement inmanagementcity affairs

Greek authorities toengage themselves andlead by exru11ple

Cultural program
relevance

Enhancement and further
development of 'Filoxenia'
valuesCharismatic leaders toenthuse the citizens

Countries'
participation

Economic growth inCultural and Tourismi d

The organization of the 2004 Cultural Olympiad offers a unique
opportunity to its host to achieve aims that would have been
unattainable under other circumstances. Apart from the wider
international impact which can normally be expected and delivered, theCultural Olympiad celebrations have the potential for certain, moreesoteric, to Greece, outcomes/outputs. The enhancement of solidarity inthe wider geographical region is one of them. The reconstitution ofbelief in `human agency´ and `filoxenia´ values is another, andultimately, the growth of tourism and cultural services that are so
important for the Greek economy. For the above to be attained, theorganizers need to consider the necessary strategic steps of fostering therepresentation of cultures across the Greek nation and not just found in
the greater Athens, Central Greece and Peloponnese districts. Similarly,
the programs’ relevance to the Greek context can help prevent
mismatches and the strong recruitment of participants from various
countries can provide a rich `tapestry´ for the onlooker. Furthermore,129the incentives need to be altruistic and management transparent toprevent clientelistic favoritism and conflicts of interest.
If the above can be perceived as the processes which will lead to theoutcomes, then the inputs to the processes are the cultural infrastructure, thecooperation with the neighboring countries and the strong leadership of rolemodels and agents in the local and national authorities.

4 Concluding Comments
Having explored the intentions of the Greek organizers and the capacity of
the infrastructure, one, as expected, seeks to assess the actions taken so far.
As researchers in the field document (Mataranga 1998):"the Greek Ministry of Culture has taken the first stages of planning
but cultural agents which will also stage events are still a way
behind in retrieving information and planning.”
After the April 2000 national election in Greece, the aforementioned
Ministry has been granted further responsibilities for the organization of the
Olympic Games as a whole and Minister Pangalos has already expressed his
intentions to work on the strategic direction and organizational issues of the
Cultural Olympiad related programs. Despite such reassurances, thosefamiliar with Greece administrative culture wonder whether any rational andelaborate planning can function properly.
As organization theorists attest to (Mintzberg 1994), the comforting andlogical sequence of planning gets upset in the real world of large systems.
Clear objectives often disguise conflicting purposes and these reflect thedivergences among the temporarily allied groups in complex politicalorganizations.
The significance of what is at stake will, one hopes, dawn on people
involved in so that the contested boundaries of politics and power will give
way to collegiality and conscientiousness. For it is not just the big wellthought out plan that counts but the will of the people of Greece and theircommittment to the world at large.
References
ATHENS 2004 BID COMMITTEE: Athens 2004 Volumes 1 & III. Athens 2008 Bid
Committee: Athens, Greece, 1996.
ATHENS 2008 BID COMMITTEE: Athens 2008. Athens 2008 Bid Committee: Athens, 1995.
ATHOCOG: Master Plan. Athens Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games: Athens 2000.
MATARANGA, E.: Strategic Analysis of the Athens Cultural Olympiad. Unpublished Master
Thesis: Loughborough University, UK, 1998.
MINISTRY OF CULTURE: The Cultural Olympiad, Ministry of Culture: Athens, 1998.
MINTZBERG, H.: The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning. Prentice Hall: Hempstead, 1994.

Originally published in Messing, M. / Müller, N. (eds): Blickpunkt Olympia.
Olympic Studies 5. Agon Kassel 2000. pp. 337-34.

130

A great vision for Athens 2004 was realized: The Olympic competition of Shot Put(men and women) were held in the Olympic Stadium of Ancient Olympia. (Photo: N. Müller)

The Theater of Herodes Atticus by the Acropolis, main site of the Cultural Olympiad of Athens 2004 (Photo N. Müller)

The Cultural Olympiad of the Athens 2004
Olympic Games: A Tribute to Culture,
Tradition and Heritage*
Roy Panagiotopoulou

Introduction
The organization of the Olympic Games (OG) in Athens in 2004 wasunquestionably a milestone for Greece’s economic, social and culturaldevelopment. It is clear that the Games provide one of the most important
symbolic opportunities for a country to become the center of interest
worldwide, to bring a positive change to its image and position itself as awell-known destination on the world map. Moreover, the Games offer
organizers major opportunities for international communication and cultural
diplomacy. The Olympic Games are more than a Game (Garcia 2004)
because; apart from the athletic competitions they offer as well a parallelcultural program. Although the connection between sports and culture has along history the organization of the Cultural Olympiads (CO) or Olympic
Arts Festivals (OAF) seems to suffer an identity crisis from the early stagesof its inclusion in the modern Olympic Games until nowadays (Good 2000:
257).
The connection between sport and culture in the Olympic Games has a long
history. It dates from the antiquity, but the cultural program has been
included in the modern OG at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics (Messing 1997:276) and has started as an arts competition. After 1948 following the strong
critics of the IOC President A. Brundage the competitions were terminatedand in Melbourne in 1956 they shifted to “special exhibitions” whichdeveloped to an arts festival2 following the demands of the Olympic Charter
which imposed to the Organizing Committees of the Olympic Games

This article is based on a presentation at the symposium “Cultural Olympiads as a Challenge – Significanceand Analysis of the Olympic Cultural Program from Atlanta 1996 till Athens 2004” (Mainz/Germany, June
15th 2006) to honor Prof. Dr. Dr. Manfred Messing on his retirement.
2
From 1912 to 1948 (seven summer Games) 145 medals were awarded in Olympic arts competitions (Good
1999: 161). Nevertheless, these competitions proved to be problematic and after a long debate IOC
President Avery Brundage convinced the IOC members to terminate the arts competitions because to hiswords “half the time the entries have been so mediocre that medals have not been awarded”. Furthermore,
the character of the Games should guarantee amateurism and “one can be practically sure that under present
conditions the winners of Olympic Fine Art medals will do everything possible to capitalize on their
victories professionally.” (Good 1999: 161 and 2001: 162-164).
*

133

(OCOGs), that they ought to organize a cultural program in the Olympic
Village and in the host city.3
In this paper, I’ll try to discuss the relationship between ancient and modern
culture and its interrelationship with the Olympic Games. I will commentvery briefly on the Opening Ceremony of the Athens 2004 Games, one of
the major cultural events of the OG with a universal appeal. Further, I’ll
present the organization of the Cultural Olympiad 2001-2004 from the
aspect of its organizational structure, its cultural program and the effects on
athletes, spectators and the Greek citizens. Finally, I will try to evaluate thiscomplex and ambitious project regarding its impact on the cultural
infrastructure and creativity for Greece.

The Relationship between Sport and Culture
For the ancient Greeks, the concept of civilization had a broad meaning,which included sports, fine arts, and education. No other civilization or art inancient or modern world gave sports such a primordial position as antiquity(Andronikos 1982: 146).4 The purpose of civilization was to influence all
human activities and to promote moral, artistic and spiritual development. In
this way, harmony between the body and the spirit was achieved.5 The
Olympic Movement is based on precisely those principles.
Apart from the ancient Greek philosophy, the spirit of the Renaissance andthe 19th century influenced Pierre de Coubertin’s ideas to accept the notionthat “an ideal education that, like the Greeks, integrated training for the mind
and training for the body.” (Mandell 1976: 27). Further the social andeconomic acquirements of that time, like the interest in reviving classical3

According to Rule 44 of the Olympic Charter: 1) Each OCOG must organize a program of cultural events
which shall be submitted to the IOC Executive Board for its prior approval. 2) This program must serve topromote harmonious relations, mutual understanding and friendship among the participants and otherattending the OG. By-Law to Rule 44: 1) The cultural program must include 1.1. Cultural events organizedin the Olympic Village symbolizing the universality and the diversity of human culture. 1.2. Other eventswith the same purpose held mainly in the host city, with a certain number of seats being reserved free ofcharge for participants accredited by the IOC. 2) The cultural program must cover at least the entire period
during which the Olympic Village is open. (IOC, 1999:. 68-69, Garcia, 2001a: 197, Fauquembergue 2004:
217).
4
However, except those who support this statement there are also some academics who claim that the “imageof the Greek intellectual athlete proves to be pure myth” (Young 2004: 83) when he remarks that with thepossible exception of Plato who was a great philosopher and a great athlete (he won victories in wrestling at
Delphi, Nemea and Isthmia and maybe at Olympia (Gardiner 1930: 128 cited by Young 2004: 80-81), there
are no other sources naming a great athlete and intellectual. This might be true but it is also evident that the
combination of body exercise and education were the main pillars of ancient Greek pedagogical system.
5
These ideas inspired Coubertin to describe “Olympism” as a “spiritual attitude resulting from a double
worship: that for physical effort and that for harmony.” (Coubertin 1967 [1918]: 65, translated by Manfred
Messing and Norbert Mueller 2000: 185). They also leaded the intellectuals to develop the meaning of“eurhythmics” that is the harmonious, balance between the body and the soul (Messing and Mueller 2000,
and the marketers to explain the link between arts and sports and the organization of the CO as the“marriage of the body and the soul” (Good 2000: 257). These vague and general statements concerning thecommercial promotion of the CO have little meaning to Coubertin’s pedagogical program and the Olympic
ideals.

134

Greek civilization, the industrialization and the new technologicalachievements facilitating transportations and communications offered a
fertile ground for the public to adopt the notion “a sound mind in a soundbody” (Coubertin 1986 [1887] 1.151 in Young 2004: 80) and to gain interestin reviving the Olympic Games.
The Athens 2004 Games were oriented to rejuvenate the link between theancient and the modern Olympic Games. Following this priority, one of thecentral messages of the Athens 2004 Games was that: Sport is Culture.
Nevertheless, modern Greece, with its own pace of life and its own needs
and values is naturally significantly different from the Greece of antiquity.
Therefore, new ways of promoting the old ideals and the connection ofancient and modern Olympic Games had to be worked out and presented tothe public.
The Athens Games promoted the Olympic heritage as their main message
and tried to create a link between modernity and antiquity, aiming toemphasize on the ancient values for sport, Olympic spirit and culture. The
catchword Welcome Home epitomized this effort and gave to the Games
their specific frame of reference.
In modern times, the connection between sport and culture takes a morematerialistic viewpoint. Sport marketers believe that they can increase theattention paid to events by the audiences by incorporating non-sport
activities and other events (Garcia 2001a: 194). Cultural activities contributeto sport events by identifying and promoting those features that enable
television viewers, participants, spectators, etc. to translate the events into
personal experiences (Chalip 1992, Green 2001). From the combination ofsport and culture a polysemic structure derives, which generates multiple
meanings based on multiple narratives, embedded genres and layered
symbols (Chalip 1992).6 Therefore, the production of cultural programs in
sporting context can assist the development of narratives, genres andsymbols (Garcia 2001a: 195).

The Opening Ceremony
One of the most promoted cultural moments of the Games consists in thepresentation of the opening ceremony. The only cultural event included in
the broadcasting rights fees and therefore very well promoted and coveredby all types of media. Olympic opening ceremonies in their current form
give the opportunity to a nation to present its narrative and to demonstrate its

6

Chalip defines “multiple narrative”, as the creation of varied stories that attract diverse audiences,“embedded genres” as different kind of activities serving as parallel and simultaneous invitation tofascination, and “layered symbols” as ceremonies and rituals representing more than a mere game or contest(Chalip 1992: 90).

135Opening Ceremony Athens 2004 (Collection Lambis Nikolaou)past in an idealized way. Due to the huge commercialization of the OG, thisnarrative serves not only as an affirmation of national identity but also as anextended advertisement for the host nation offering an opportunity topromote tourism, international corporate investment, trade, improvebargaining position in international negotiations, impede a political ideology
controlling domestic social inequalities and strengthen cultural diplomacy(Hogan 2003: 102).
The Athens 2004 Opening Ceremony, especially its beginning with thecountdown of 28 heartbeats and the following “dialogue” between thepercussionist in the ancient Olympia Stadium and the one in the newly
renovated main Olympic Sports Complex known as the (OAKA) Stadium
offered one of the most emotional moments of the whole Opening
Ceremony, because first of all, it showed in an explicit way the connectionof ancient and modern Greece with the OG and secondly, it expressed the
feelings of a nation.

136

The Opening Ceremony visualized a journey through time and history givinga primordial position to the Greek classical era, as it is known, throughglobally well-known art work.7 Art and culture became the vehicle forreconstructing the narrative of the Greek historical evolution and its
connection with the OG. It combined in an artistic way sport and culture andit presented the main ideological message of the Athens Games, that is, thehuman scale and harmony between body and spirit. Thus, the Opening
Ceremony fitted exactly into the ideals of the Olympic Movement andfulfilled the obligations deriving from the Olympic Charter.

Organization of the Cultural Olympiad
Comparing the organizational scheme of the Cultural Olympiads in thesummer Olympic Games of Barcelona, Sydney and Athens, all having
duration of four years, we realize that three different concepts have been
adopted. In Barcelona there was a semiautonomous private enterpriseconcerning administration and resources allocation affiliated to theBarcelona Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (COOB). In
Sydney the organization of the Olympic Arts Festival (OAF) was included to
the Department of Image, Special Events and Olympic Arts Festivals which
stud directly under the control of the Sydney Organizing Committee for the
Olympic Games (SOCOG) (Garcia 2000: 155 and 2001b). In Athens the CO
was completely independent from the ATHOC and referred to the Ministryof Culture.
The Cultural Olympiad of Athens officially lasted for four years, between
2001 and 2004. The institution Promotion of the Hellenic Cultural Heritage
SA (HCO), responsible to undertake the organization was originally createdby the Law 2557/1997 (Government Gazette 27.1.1997) directly after
winning the bid. This was a public enterprise functioning under private law
and under the control of a public entity the Ministry of Culture which
provided almost the entire budget and had the juridical control.8 Although
7

The main segments of the Athens 2004 Opening Ceremony were: Countdown, welcome, raising of the
Greek flag, Allegory (three iconic periods of Greek sculpture symbolizing the evolution of Greek
civilization), Clepsydra (chronological colorful parade depicting stylized figures from Greek frescos,
mosaics, sculptures and paintings from prehistoric to modern times), the book of life, the olive tree, theathletes of the world (parade), Oceania (song), Olympic cities tribute, obligatory part (opening of theGames, raising of Olympic flag, Olympic oaths), journey of the torch, lighting of the cauldron, finale(firework). See Opening Ceremony Media Guide, Games of the XXVIII Olympiad, Friday August 13,
2004, p. 21, 31 and 36.
8
In the Barcelona 1992 Games, they established a private enterprise the “Olimpica Cultural Sociedad
Anonima” (OCSA) which was a society of the COOB and depended on a consortium composed by many
COOB board members and representatives from major Catalan and Spanish cultural institutions. Its
separation from COOB had some negative effects of image associations and distanced many activities fromthe Olympic events. In the case of Sydney the Olympic Arts Festival (OAF) was a totally integrated part of
the SOCOG and belonged to the Department of Image, Special Events and Olympic Arts Festivals.
Additionally an advisory group (the SOCOG’s Cultural Commission) acted as a liaison between theAustralian government, the cultural institutions and SOCOG (Garcia 2000: 155).

137

this enterprise was created from the very beginning of the Gamespreparation period, its initial functioning followed the overall practice of theorganization of the Games which was characterized by enormous delays
during the first three years. The nomination of the Board took place in 20019
almost at the same time when the first year activities were about to start.
Moreover, the final program of activities was published in March 2003 thatis 15 months before the beginning of the Games (Aggelikopoulos 2004c: 2).
The relationship between the HCO and ATHOC was not an easy one andwas characterized by a series of tensions. Long disputes concerning the
responsibilities but also the main guidelines of the program between the
Ministry of Culture and the Organizing Committee for the Athens 2004
Olympic Games (ATHOC) caused more delays. Finally, the two institutions
found a balance to share responsibilities and areas of activities and the firstplan of the cultural program was decided.
The cultural activities forming the CO were programmed and organized bythree different institutions:x The Ministry of Culture, which created a new institution named
Promotion of the Hellenic Cultural Heritage SA, which after 2002changed its name to Hellenic Culture Organization SA (HCO).
x The Organizing Committee of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.
x The Municipality of Athens, along with the surrounding
municipalities of Attica hosting Olympic venues, and themunicipalities of the other Olympic cities (Salonica, Patras,
Heraklion and Volos).
In addition to these institutions, in 1998, one year after winning the bid, Mr.
Venizelos – at the time Greek Minister of Culture, Juan Antonio Samaranch-at the time president of the IOC and Federico Major – at the time Director
General of UNESCO founded the International Foundation of the Cultural
Olympiad. This Foundation was enacted by a Greek Law decree and has its
official headquarters in Ancient Olympia. The International Foundation of
the Cultural Olympiad has established relations with more than 70 National
Cultural Olympiad Committees (following the organizational scheme of the
IOC’s National Olympic Committees) in support of the Olympic Movement.
The Foundation has also close co-operation with Beijing and Turin.
Furthermore, it announced two international awards: the Kotinos prize toacknowledge the work of famous artists, and the Kouros / Kori prize toreward the young creators (www.cultural-olympiad.gr/3/31_en.html).
9

Due to many problems and disputes among the Board of the Hellenic Culture Organizations and theMinistry of Culture many changes of its President from its inaugural establishment up to 2008 took place.
Precisely, during the preparation period (2001-2004) six presidents were nominated (M. Kakogiannis, T.
Patrikios, R. Maslias, E. Giannakopoulos, M. Pavlidou and S. Mavros). A new President Mr. Siopsis is incharge from 2007 onwards.

138

The Budget
According the IOC rules each candidate city has to present an outline of its
cultural program and to foresee a budget for its realization. Nevertheless, theIOC does not insist that the host city adhere to that budget. Therefore, thefinancial means dedicated to this purpose vary significantly over thedifferent host cities and over the years, peaking at the Games period. All CO
except the one for Athens had to survive with a small or very small budget
comparing the financial means available for the organization of the sports
competitions or even the opening ceremony. Moreover some of them had
seen their budget shrinking to a considerable amount.
In Barcelona which was the first city to run a series of four annual arts
festivals covering the whole preparation and Games time period the cultural
program was financed with a total of US$59 million10 and in Sydney an
initial budget of A$51 million was reduced to A$21 million for the wholefour year period (Good 1999: 165).11
The Athens CO made an initial budget allocation reaching the amount of
US120 million (Cartalis 2000: 22 and 2003: 49), all deriving fromgovernmental sources. This considerable amount of money was justified
because Greece wanted to capitalize on the “thirst” for culture and new
cultural practices which would “attract the hundred of thousands of culture
enthusiasts, who at the same time adore and follow sports.” (Cartalis ibid.).
In the case of Athens the initial budget instead of being cut back it has
increased and the final costs for the four year program concerning only thegovernmental part reached 143 million euro. The revenues were only 3
million euro (N.N. 2004c). This was the most expensive CO ever!12 Moreprecisely the expenditures were:10

Initially the whole cultural program was valorized in 51 million US$ (Subirós 1991: 86, Garcia 2000: 156)
but after the two first years of activities the COOB encountered funding difficulties mostly in finding
sponsors and reduced its financial support at 2.2 million US$ reducing the presentation of a basic cultural
program of the Olympic Arts Festival. The City of Barcelona has supported financially the “Autumn
Festival”.
11
The final amount varies according to revenues acquired by sponsoring ticketing etc. C. Hassall reported
that the Sydney’s OAF budget would reach the A$30 million for the whole period (Good 1999: 165). It is
worth to mention that the Atlanta’s initial budget was estimated to US$40 million, but by the end of theGames it has been cut back to US$25 million (Good ibid.: 165).
12
Concerning the final costs of the Olympic Games and the Cultural Olympiad many different calculations
and comments have been published in the Greek dailies. This was another Greek particularity because 6months before the opening of the Games after the March 2004 elections a change in the Government took
place and the new political party in charge (New Democracy) started from the very beginning to accuse theprevious government of PASOK of wasting public money and of various scandals concerning thefinancing of the numerous works related or not to the obligations concerning the Games preparation. This
caused a variety of calculations and “final” estimates of the total costs of the Olympic Games (Cartalis2004). According to a moderate estimate the Greek State gave 7.202 million euro (80.4%) and the ATHOC
1752 million euro (19.6%) (The business of sport 12.11.2004, http://www.business.sport.gr/onenew.
asp?id=1792). The fact is that the expenditures for the Olympic works exceeded the original budget of
4,602 billion euro by approximately 25% (PricewaterhouseCoopers 2004: 22). To this sum, we must add
over 1.0 billion euro for security expenses, which were not foreseen in the calculations for the costs of the139

Tab. 1: Hellenic Cultural Olympiad expenditures for 2001-2004 (mill euro)
SectorEuro (in mill)
Percentage
Cultural program
82.46*
57.5
Administration expenses
48.00
33.4
Promotion
13.05
9.1
Total
143.51100.0* 7.8 million were given for promotion but are included in the culturalactivities expenditure. Therefore, this amount should be added to the13.05 million raising the total amount for promotion to approximately 21
million euro (14.6%).
Source:Aggelikopoulos (2004a), ‘La grande bouffe’ of the Cultural Olympiad, Newspaper
Kathimerini, 14.11.2004.

During the four years the money (in million euro) spent for cultural activities
was for 2001 8.50 (10%), 2002 21.37 (25%), 2003 33.84 (40%) and 2004
20.87 (25%).13 More precisely the breakdown of HCO expenditures for thecultural program covered the following activities.
Tab. 2: HCO expenditures for the cultural program (in mill euro)Category of activity
Exhibitions
Music
TheatreDance
Literature
Audiovisual and Archaeology
Architecture
Digital cultural products
Multiple events
Acquiring of new collections
Conferences – meetings
Immunisation program(UNISEF)
Total

Euro (in mill)
18.00
16.00
11.00
6.68
1.99
1.30
0.808
0.173
14.00
2.20
2.11
6.47

Percentage
22.29
19.82
13.62
8.27
2.46
1.61
1.00
0.22
17.35
2.72
2,62
8.01

80.731*

100.0

overall project. According to current EU estimates, expenditures for the Olympic Games raised the statebudget deficit by approximately 6.1% of the GDP (Moschonas 2005). This was one of the main reasonsthat Greece has been under the EU financial monitoring from 2005 up to 2007 (Panagiotopoulou 2008
under publication).
13
This calculation is based on a CD with the economic results distributed by the Ministry of Culture toselected journalists. The Final Report of the activities and financial expenditures of the Hellenic Cultural
Olympiad SA although it was published in a three volume publication it was never given to the public.
Only some selected figures were presented in press conferences and a CD was given to the journalists.
Thus the various sums published are mostly calculations by journalists and not the logistic account of theenterprise. Further, as it happened for the costs of the Olympic Games the political controversies were
extremely hard and the politicians involved in the organization of the CO exchanged accusations and madetheir own calculations drawing their personal results (Mavros 2004: 1-4, N.N. 2004b, Aggelikopoulos
2004b).

140

* The difference in the total sum of expenditures is due to the rounding up
of some amounts and to the differences in the calculation of certain
events with multiple financial sources.
Source:Aggelikopoulos (2004a), ‘La grande bouffe’ of the Cultural Olympiad, Newspaper
Kathimerini, 14.11.2004.

The Cultural Olympiad and its Cultural Program
The introduced phrase, For a Culture of Civilizations by the institution
Promotion of the Hellenic Cultural Heritage SA has summarized the broader
scopes of the entire program. Although, during the Games it has changed
into Celebrate Culture, it is evident that the main idea was to accentuate theinternational and multicultural character of the Olympic cultural activities.
These activities were not only planned to take place in Greece but also inother countries. The main idea was to strengthen the bonds of mutual
understanding through cultural activities. The organizers made it clear in abulletin when they state “… to confirm the universality of culture in thedawn of the new century”.14
The ǾCO, as an institution, consisted of three distinct areas (www.culturalolympiad.gr/st/html):
x The first area refers to the arts and culture and includes all thecultural events.
x The second area refers to the culture of everyday life.
x The third area refers to the institutionalization of the Cultural
Olympiad.
The Greek contribution to the CO was incorporated into the general program
named the Domain of Culture. This program consists of nine networks:
Theater, Music, Visual Arts, Architecture, Dance, Cinema, Photography andBook-Literature. The core of this network was the Ministry of Culture which
coordinated all activities of the public and private agencies involved, inshaping the program of the CO. Furthermore, a network coordinating themuseums and archeological sites was established, as well as two networks
for the preservation and the promotion of cultural heritage. From thisconfusing organizational scheme derives that a distribution of
responsibilities among the institutions caused at lot of organizational andfinancial problems.
Another aim of the organizers was, to achieve social support andparticipation in the Olympic festivities in Greece and the neighboring

14

For more details concerning the activities of the Hellenic Cultural Olympiad SA see, Cultural Olympiad
2001-2004. ‘For Culture of Civilizations’, Ministry of Culture, Promotion of Hellenic Cultural Heritage
SA, Athens: 2001: 19.

141

regions of the Balkans and the Mediterranean countries. For this purpose,four special programs called Major Programs were organized. These were:
x The New Balkans (2001-2004). It consisted of inter-Balkan
activities in science, arts (e.g., music festivals, painting andphotography exhibitions, literature, etc.) aiming to counteract
suspicion and Balkan “marginalization” and to foster the coexistence of people in the European war zones.
x Agora (2002-2004). Builds a cooperation framework with the local
community organizations and declared as its main scope, the artistic
rejuvenation of a street or a square in a city giving the opportunity
to the inhabitants to “discover” their own town and its artists. This
program included 45 different towns.
x Harbors of Mediterranean (2003). From Barcelona to Smyrna andfrom Marseille to Alexandria harbor-towns participated in a seriesof cultural activities in order to point out the everlasting cultural
exchanges of the Mediterranean cities and their relationship withthe sea.
x Cultural Routes (2003-2004). These were small flexible arts groups
traveling all over the world, presenting or performing representative
achievements of the Greek cultural production and in that way,
creating small Greek festivals.15

Athens 2004: Greek artists(Dimitris Mytaras)
with sports related
paintings in the VIPLounges of the Olympic
Sites (Photo: N. Müller)

15

Collaboration in organizing various exhibitions and cultural events took place with Barcelona, Stockholm,
Tokyo, Rome, New York, Nicosia, Moscow and Madrid; see Cultural Olympiad, Program of Events for2003 and 2004, Ministry of Culture, Athens: 2003.

142

One of the Official Olympic Lithographies (Collection N. Müller)

Tab. 3: Cultural activities organized by the Hellenic Cultural Olympiad
2001-2004
Category of activity
2001
2002
2003
2004
Music
- opera3
3
1- symphonic12
1
1- modern
2
2
4
Dance
2
1
3
Theater- ancient drama
1413- modern
4
1
3
Exhibitions- sports related113- other2
42
12Book – Literature2
2
1
Architecture11Archaeology
3
2
Conferences 42
2
1
Meetings
Audio-visual1
2
3
Digital culture
1
2
Events (mixed)
5
5
3
6
Total
20
32
23
37
Source:Cultural Olympiad, Report on 2001-2002 and Program of Events 2003-2004,
Ministry of Culture, Athens: 2002, Cultural Olympiad, Program of Events for 2003
and 2004, Ministry of Culture, Athens: 2003.

However, in order to activate as many cultural agencies as possible in the
Greek periphery, the HCO initiated also a program called Hellas 2004
through which it coordinated and financed diverse cultural activities all over
Greece. During the whole period 110 programs were realized which included
more than 250 events or performances (Aggelikopoulos 2004c: 2). A briefreport of the main activities of the HCO in its 4-year period is presented in
the following table:

Improvement of cultural infrastructure
Apart from the above major scheduled events in Athens and the hundreds ofsmaller events taking place in the periphery, the Ministry of Culture, on theoccasion of staging the OG, financed the renovation works of many144

museums in Athens such as the National Archeological Museum, theAcropolis Museum, the Byzantine and Christian Museum. Further, thefollowing new museums were constructed: the Islamic Art, and the
Glyptotheque. Outside Athens, the museums of Olympia, Delphi andMarathon have been renovated as well. These works contributed to a great
degree in increasing the number of Greek and foreign visitors to themuseums and proved to be a very successful investment that serves toimprove the tourist infrastructure of the country.
Two collections were acquired. The first is the Hellaffi collection of big size
painted advertisements for movies made between 1950 and 1975. The
collection includes posters and portraits of movie stars painted by wellknown Greek artists. The second is the Greek part of the photo archive of the
Swiss photographer Fred Boissonnas who traveled through Greece in thefirst half of the 20th century and made many photos of the countryside,
common people and their everyday life (N.N. 2004a: 17). Further, some few
new artistic works mostly musical or theatrical productions (e.g. Bob
Wilson, V. Papathanasiou, M. Theodorakis et. al.) have been promoted.

AttendanceSome researchers (Messing 1997, Messing and Mueller 2000a, Garcia 2004,
Garcia and Miah 2005) remarked that many activities of the CO in previousorganizations could not attract many visitors because the spectators of theGames show no interest to visit museums with special exhibitions andperformances like operas etc. because this kind of a program attracts only
elite people and not the wider public. However, in the case of Greece, things
were different. Taking into consideration that the number of foreign visitors
was not very high,16 and the majority of the Games spectators were Greek,
the interest in visiting the museums with their new buildings, new artcollections and special exhibitions dedicated to the OG who returned home,proved to be a strong incentive and increased the number of museums
visitors.

16

The main reason was the persisting negative media reporting prior to the Games, Panagiotopoulou 2005.

145

Tab. 4: Number of state museums visitors in Attica (in thousand)Museum
2002
2004
2005
2006
Byzantine and Christian**
31.03019.15556.61063.185National Archeological**229.123 155.368 362.866 368.398
Popular Art
5.914
6.466
8.439
16.997
Epigraphical
2.173
3.383
3.252
3.648
Canellopoulos
9.590
13.205
Kessariani Monastery
20.41616.20922.14016.468
Numismatic
7.421
8.045
7.707
7.353
Archeological Pireaus***
6.371
3.692
Historical Museum of
19.83018.20616.75218.062Modern Greece
National Picture Gallery
224.482 453.212 143.494 150.477
Benaki144.788 237.896 196.620 238.988
Other*
14.47516.28721.52119.945
Total
715.613 951.124 839.401 903.521* Other: Museums in Lavrion, Spetses, Kythira and Moshe Tsistraki** Closed for renovation 1.10.2002 – May 2004***
Closed in 2005 and 2006
Source:Fund for Archeological Revenues, National Statistical Service of Greece,
www. statistics.gr/gr_tables/S820_SCI_2_TB_02_#_Y.html

The museums which during the Games organized specialized exhibitions
such as: Six leading sculptors and the human figure and Imperial Treasuresfrom China, by the National Picture Gallery, Folds and Pleats: Drapery
from Ancient Greek Dress to the 21st Century Fashion and Our Place:
Indigenous Australia Now, by the Benaki Museum, Henry Moore, A
Retrospective. The last of the Classics at the National Glyptotheque and the
National Archaeological Museum with the exhibition on The Agon: Sport,
Spirit in Ancient Greece, had all increased their attendance considerably.17
Apart of that, all the big events which in some way had a connection with
the OGs managed to attract high rates of attendance.18
Unfortunately, there is no empirical evidence about people’s participation to
the CO or their opinion about the program and its connection to the sport
17

For instance, the National Gallery announced that more that 150.000 visitors have visited the Six leading
sculptors and the human figure exhibition, which was a breaking “record” for a summer exhibition in
Athens. For this exhibition which included works of Rodin, Mayol, Bourdel, Brancouzi, Giacometti andMoore, a total amount of 550.000 euros were spent (450.000 from the CO and 100.000 from sponsoring).
The entrance during the Games was free of charge and after the Games 50.000 tickets were sold (P.K.
2004).
18
Two major exhibitions Sport and Art - Exhibition of the awarded works of the IOC Contest at the Cultural
Center of the City of Athens and Transcultures - from Local to Global at the Athens Concert Hall (newwing) were also well attended.

146

competitions and the Olympic ideals. There is only a research19 about theattitudes of the spectators concerning primarily their opinion about the
combination of sport and culture as universal values and motivation formutual understanding and friendship. According to the analysis of thequestionnaire of this research 76.3% of the respondent believed that throughthe marriage of sport and culture the Olympic ideals come to theirfulfilment.20 It is worth to mention that only 39.2% of the respondents(51.2% Greeks and 28.6% tourists) attended a cultural event or
performance.21 These facts indicate the well known organizational problems
of previous CO, which were, the insufficient promotion of the cultural
program, the lack of time to participate in athletic and cultural events, thecosts etc.

The Cultural Program of the Athens Organizing
Committee for the Olympic Games 2004
The ATHOC undertook the task of organizing a parallel program of cultural
events in the different Olympic cities, inside and outside the Olympic
venues, including the Greek periphery following the route of the Olympic
Flame. The content of the program was based on the perception that Sport is
Culture.
The program ATHENS 2004 - Culture which included 422 events began withthe lighting of the torch in Ancient Olympia on the 25th of March 2004 andended on the 30th of September of the same year with the ending of the
Paralympics.22
The exclusive cultural program of the Games aimed to transfer the Olympic
experience beyond the competition venues. All Olympic festivities and art
events were designed to interact complementary with the city functions,maximize the Olympic City experience and offer free access to the public(Pyrgiotis 2005). The program was divided into 4 parts (Official Report of
the XXVIII Olympiad, vol. 2: 27-30).
19

The data refer to a study conducted by M. Messing and N. Mueller including all summer Olympic Games
from Barcelona 1992 to nowadays. Specifically for Athens 1519 questionnaires addressed to tourists(foreign and indigenous visitors) and to Greeks living in Athens attending the competitions of modern
Pentathlon. The sample covers 21% of the spectators. See Messing, Mueller and Schormann 2008: 212 f.
20
This was a clear increase compared to the respective answers in Barcelona (39.9%), in Atlanta (23.1%)
and in Sydney (72.1%). This stance may be influenced by the historical consciousness of the Greek visitors
who recognize the connection of sport and culture as a specific characteristic of Olympism (Messing,
Mueller and Schormann 2008 ibid: 225). But also as a sign that many of the foreign visitors are familiar
with the cultural achievements of the Antiquity and its classical era, and the organization of the ancient
Olympic Games following the Welcome Home watchword of these Games.
21
Compared to previous organizations this percentage has increased from Barcelona (36.5%), Atlanta(34.4%) and Sydney (29.0%) (Messing, Mueller and Schormann 2008, ibid : 226).
22
The 422 events were divided in 4 different sections containing: torch relay 41 events, four Olympic cities
27 events, Athens 249 events and Paralympics 95 events (Pyrgiotis 2005: 36).

147

x

The Torch relay Ceremonies: In addition, with the ceremonial partof the torch relay, a number of cultural and artistic events wereorganized at the different cities where the torch stayed overnight. In
total 31 happenings were organized in central locations of the cities.
Whereas, in the four “Olympic cities” the events inside theStadiums were part of the football preliminaries.
x The Decoration of the City, the Olympic Venues and Places of
Olympic and Public Interest. Additionally different artistic events
such as dances, pantomimes, acrobatics, street theatre groups andmusical concerts were organized in open public places with the
purpose of creating a festive atmosphere.
x The Cultural Program was organized in the Olympic Village, theMedia Villages, the Olympic venues of Hellinikon and Marcopoulo(suburban areas of Athens), the Faliron Water Plaza, and at theSponsor’s Hospitality Centre.
x The Paralympic Games: These were special cultural events in a
number of cities and at the Megaron Concert Hall.
As far as the Artistic Program is concerned, it was divided into the following
units:
Visual Art Exhibitions (Official Report of the XXVIII Olympiad, vol. 2: 3334).
x Great Travellers to Athens in the 15th to 19th Century
x Views of Athens by Contemporary Greek Artists
x Monument to Now
x Magna Grecia: Sport and Olympic spirit in the Periphery of theHellenic Worldx Olympic Athens at its best (interactive art installations).
Catch the Light: A Promenade in Athens (five different routes were
designed that connected 15 historical and cultural locations). These were:x Reflections of Athens: A walk in the ancient part of the city centre,
which included short film performances projected on wallbuildings.
x Landscapes under Athens: These were interactive installations onpedestrian walkways connecting the archaeological sites.
x Texts for Athens: Included, small texts written by famous writers
about the City of Athens projected on wall buildings
x Faces of Athens: These were, children’s photo portraits exhibited in
the National Gardens
x Sounds of Athens: music bands playing along the pedestrian walkaround Acropolis.
The main purpose of the entertainment festivities organized in the
installations of the Olympic venues was to entertain the athletes and the
media personnel. The program of the festivities included cultural events, live148

concerts, disco and open air movies, etc. However, despite the variety ofentertainment, the most successful activities in terms of attendance were thefollowing two: The Internet Cafes, which operated in seven rooms with 300
PCs in total, achieved a 100% attendance (Official Report of the XXVIII
Olympiad, vol. 2: 38-39). It became the preferred form of entertainment for
the athletes and media crews. Meanwhile, the many athletes and theirsupport personnel, (coaches, managers etc.) upon the completion of theirathletic obligations, their preferred mode of entertainment was, to stroll inthe old areas of Athens such as Plaka, and Monastiraki, where apart from theregular tavernas and other establishments, the so called “National Houses”
were open during the whole night, selling beer and ethnic food. This type ofentertainment proved to be very successful in terms of rates of attendance.
The good weather and the festive atmosphere made part of the successful
story. In general, the cultural activities organized by the ATHOC had a more
popular character; they were free of charge and usually organized in outdoor
spaces. The main purpose was to create a festive atmosphere(Panagiotopoulou 2006).

The City Festival of the Municipality of Athens
The City of Athens had its own program of cultural and art events, under themain heading, The City Celebrates. The target audiences were the visitors to
the City and the local residents especially in the periphery of the city, outside
the actual Olympic areas. This particular activity was named Neighborhoodsof Athens, and lasted for the period of the 13th of August to the 30th of
September 2004, with more than 600 artists taking part in it. (Cultural Event
2004 - The City celebrates 2004: 2-3).
Among the hundreds of small and big activities, one of them prevailed andthis was the open-air exhibition, Athens by Art. It was an attempt to makeGreek contemporary art accessible to the passersby wandering around thecity streets. 83 works and more than 100 young artists presented their works
in a very ambitious exhibition aiming to open a dialogue between thepresented works and the public spaces they were hosted (150 things to see in
Olympic Athens, www.cultureguide.gr 2004: 32).

Other Institutions
Apart from the above public institutions, which undertook the task oforganizing the CO, a series of other public institutions such as the Hellenic
Festival (Athens and Epidaurous), the Municipalities surrounding Athens,
the Municipalities of the other Olympic cities, etc. and private museums andagencies came up with special programs dedicated to the Olympics.

149

Welcome for the French Minister of Sports Jean-François Lamour (2nd f. l.) in the exhibition"Pierre de Coubertin et le miracle grec". This exhibition was established by the Int. Pierre de
Coubertin Committee (CIPC) in collaboration with the City of Athens and the Institut Françaisd’Athènes as part of the City Festival of Athens from June 6 to August 30, 2004. (Photo: Scholl)

For instance, 27 Galleries in Athens collaborated with the ATHOC andorganized exhibitions of mostly contemporary art painters and sculptors.
Further, private museums held related thematic exhibitions such as Gifts ofMuses: Music and dance reflections from ancient Greece (Athens Concert
Hall), In Praise of the Olive (Academy of Athens), Hercules the Greatest
Hero (Gaia Center – Goulandris Museum of Natural History), Olympic
Cities – Gods Becoming Men. Adventures of Contemporary Art (FrissirasMuseum), My Favourite Sport – The Olympic Games through the eyes ofchildren (Museum of Greek Children’s Art), Athens 1896 – 1st International
Olympic Games (National History Museum of Athens), Pierre de Coubertin
and the Greek Miracle (Technopolis), Leonardo e lo Sport – The Great
Maestro is revealed in Athens (Melina Cultural Center), Olymphilex 2004.
Philately in an Olympic Style (European Exhibition and Promotion Center),
The Sport Science – From Science Museum to Athens’ Eugenides
Foundation (Eugenides Foundation), The Olympic Spirit through the voiceof the children (Cultural Center of the City of Athens) (150 things to see in
Olympic Athens, www.cultureguide.gr 2004: 8-47).
It is not an exaggeration to say that Athens in the summer of 2004 became ahive of cultural events. More than 1000 parallel events took place during themonth of August 2004, an extremely large offer for all visitors and locals.
The question is how many of the events could a normal spectator of the150

Games – who attended different sport events all day – enjoy, taking into
account that the 16 Olympic venues and the more than hundred different
places of cultural performances and events were spread all over Athens.
The Athens 2004 Cultural Olympiad was too big and ambitious to beevaluated in a systematic detailed or comprehensive way. Any attempt toevaluate the CO becomes even more complex, because each institution
published its own guide of events making it extremely difficult to gain an
overview. 23

Conclusion
In order to summarize the institutions involved in the CO and their culturalactivities during the Cultural Olympiad of Athens 2001-2004 I will stress
two points:
1. How was the Cultural Olympiad connected to the Olympic Gamesand
2. How successful was the Athens Cultural Olympiad.
The CO of Athens was connected to a high degree, with the general idea of
Olympism and of harmony between the body and the mind because thecentral theme of this narrative was the connection of the Ancient to themodern Olympic Games and the projection of the ancient ideals. Therefore,
the symbolic connection between sport, culture and the Olympic Games wasvery powerful. This aspect was the core for programming of all kind of
events and art exhibitions where there was a direct or indirect reference tothe body, the sports in antiquity, with special emphasis to Ancient Olympia,
Olympic spirit and, of course, the Olympic movement. This was particularly
true for the big events of the official organizations, for example, the different
museum exhibitions (the National Museum, the Museum of Cycladic Art,
the Benaki, the National Gallery, the Glyptotheque, Technopolis at the Gazi
exhibition area), the open-air exhibits as well as the different promenades,
were all dedicated to the above themes.
It could be said that this connection was overemphasized. However, it is also
an unanswered question of how consistently the Olympic ideals were
promoted and if the harmony between body and mind was finally understood(Messing & Mueller 2000b).
Another open question is the degree of public participation. Many of theofficial events were expensive and targeted the older ages and the welleducated public. It is a fact, that the spectators of the Athens 2004 Olympic
Games were mainly Greeks. Therefore, it is not adequate to compare it with23

During the Games time several websites beside of the Games official website were operating offering
information about various cultural activities and maps, e.g. www.mediainfo2004.gr,
www.athensattica.com, www.athensguide.com, www.athenspolis.gr, www.athensnews.gr,
www.gogreece.com/maps/athens, www.culture.gr, www.culture2000.tee.gr, www.cultureguide.gr andothers. This information was addressed to those who had an internet access and the ability to search
information.

151

previous events. It is also well known that the Greeks demonstrate a strong
national identification with the Olympic Games and for this reason; their
participation was very high, with massive visits to the Museums, exhibitions,opera performances, classical drama and dances. This is a new phenomenon
never been noticed in previous events of this magnitude (Garcia 2004,
Garcia and Miah 2005). The preferences of the foreign visitors were mainly
the free of charge events in outdoor spaces and particularly the parties at thecity centre, like in Monastiraki square, while the athletes and the supporting
personnel preferred the happenings at the Olympic Village.
A city / country that is willing to spend a lot of money in order to organize
the Olympic Games and the Cultural Olympiad, has to fulfil the following
two objectives:
x Promote the city / country to the international public and thus
improve its image internationally andx attract as many visitors / spectators as it can to cover part of its
expenses.
Up to now these objectives have never been achieved by a CO, because they
could not provide a clear connection between the cultural activities andsport, the Olympic venues and the preferences of younger generations being
the majority of spectators with limited time, economic affordability and withmodern taste for the arts. (Garcia 2004, Garcia and Miah 2005). In Athens it
was done differently. There was a good effort to overcome these
deficiencies, however, in my opinion the overwhelming amount of culturalactivities organized at the same time and geographically dispersed, reduced
the potential for larger attendances. The result was that it ended to a cultural
pandemonium: colorful, diverse, multicultural, original, unforgettable!
Finally, how successful was the organization of the CO of Athens? If thisquestion has to be answered with a yes or no, I would say, yes, it was
successful. However, we have to examine the different objectives of thisorganization, separately.
The Cultural Olympiad, contributed considerably to the projection of apositive image for Greece and its artists worldwide as well as nationally.24 In
summary, for the entire four years period, the organization of the Cultural
Olympiad has achieved the following tasks:
Institutional Interventions:x Contributed considerably to the development of the International
Foundation of the Cultural Olympiad as the permanent institution
for the promotion of the Cultural Olympiad worldwide.

24

During the four years the CO has organized events in the following cities: Frankfurt, Berlin, Osnabrück,
Rome, Milan, London, Birmingham, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Lisbon, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Geneva,
Moscow, Nicosia, Belgrade, Sofia, Bucharest, Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney, Chicago, New York, Ottawa,
Mexico City, Johannesburg, Beijing and Tokyo. In Greece beside Athens events have taken place in:Salonica, Patras, Heraklion, Volos, Delphi, Olympia, Epidaurus, Corinth, Pyrgos, Ioannina, Rhodos, etc.

152

x

It rejuvenated the already existed institutions like the Athens
Festival, National Picture Gallery etc.
x Contributed to the improvement of cultural infrastructure like therenovation of the Athens National Archaeological Museum as wellthat of Olympia, Delphi and other.
x New institutions were founded, like the New Benaki Museum, theIslamic Art Museum and the Sculpture Gallery.
x Two new collections (photography and paintings for the cinema)
were added to the cultural treasure of the Greek Museums.
x New chances were given to institutions in the periphery, like
amateur cultural organizations, local governments in order toorganize cultural events.
Artistic Opportunities:
x Many artistic events were organized worldwide in countries suchas, Spain, China, Italy, United Kingdom, Sweden, Japan, Serbia,
Bulgaria, Croatia etc., giving the opportunity to promote thecultural production of Greece and the country in general.
x A number of art events were organized in all arts beyond the usual,offering the Athenians new artistic experiences.
x There was a promotion in Greece and abroad of many new and wellknown Greek artists.
x It focused on a substantial number of activities in the promotion of
the connection between sport and culture.
As we can see there were substantial gains from the whole exercise,
however, there were also considerable shortcomings.
x The lack of cooperation and co-ordination of the activities between
ATHOC, the Ministry of Culture and the Municipality of Athens
laid not only to delays of the program but increased as well thecosts and caused overlapping of events.
x The four year cultural program was an extremely expensive projectfor Greece’s economy. The sponsoring policy brought very poor
funding due to the low interest of international and nationalsponsors to finance cultural events.25 If we consider the amount ofmoney spent, more infrastructures should have been created that
could be capitalized after the Games as tourist attractions.
x Many events such as major exhibitions or theatre and music
productions could be scheduled as a part of an international
exchange program with other museums or cultural institutions.
25

Preuss (2004: 129) remarked that the total number of corporations sponsoring the Athens 2004 Olympics
decreased “owing to the promise to not further commercialize the Olympic Games, but also owing to thefact that Greece is a relative small market and therefore the interest of sponsors is lower.”

153

x

The marketing arrangements and the promotion campaigning was
not coordinated among the three major organizing institutions sothey could not develop a common and comprehensive policy of
promotion.
x There were too many dispersed programs running simultaneously,
which prevented the interested public from tracking them downbecause of the insufficient and vague information.
x Different guides and programs for the activities were published byseparate organizations. A lot of information regarding the program
was offered online, but the majority of the visitors had no access tothis service either because they had no information or no internet
access.
x The events in the Olympic venues of Elliniko and Markopoulo, theOlympic Village and the Media Villages, had a more popularcharacter (usually these were music and disco concerts) with noreference to the spirit of sports and the Olympic ideals. Especiallythese events were scheduled to attract the athletes and theirsupporting staff.
x Because of security reasons, all art exhibitions and music concerts
were prohibited in the OAKA complex, the main sports centre.
In conclusion, the institution of the Cultural Olympiad has not yet found thegolden mean, which will allow it to coexist with the sporting activities of the
Olympic Games, for the following reasons:
1. At this time, a consistent narrative did not exist and there were no
specific symbols to identify and link the Cultural Olympiad with
the Olympic Games.
2. There is no agreement with the media to negotiate broadcastingrights, therefore the Cultural Olympiad and the other arts activities
were not presented by the television (there is no footage, Garcia
2001a and 2001b).
3. There exists no specific agreement with the sponsors to combine
their sponsoring activities with a cultural program in the Olympic
venues. Only few sponsors organize a program with a clear
reference to sport and culture.
4. A balance between more ambitious artistic events for “elite”
spectators and popular art performances should be worked out.
Nevertheless, the organization of the Athens Cultural Olympiad was, to myopinion, a successful and extremely expensive endeavor and contributed tothe strengthening of the institution with the additional participation of othercountries. It gave a strong push to the Cultural Olympiad itself with the richprogram of activities balancing the foreign and local events with the ones
that were dedicated to sport and the Olympic Games.

154

In this way, the central catchword of the Athens 2004 Cultural Olympiad
For a Culture of Civilizations was fulfilled and all visitors – foreigners or
Greeks – enjoyed the festive atmosphere and the great variety of cultural
events experiencing to Celebrate Culture as well.

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Eleftherotypia, 7.2.2005 [in Greek].
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23.4.2004, p. 11 [in Greek].
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157

The Opening Ceremonies of Munich 1972 andAthens 2004 - A Comparative Structural Analysis
Katja Meyer
For Coubertin, the Olympic opening ceremonies constituted an opportunity
to spread the idea of his Olympism. 1 Thereby, the question arises whether
essential elements of the Olympic idea are indeed represented in the opening
ceremonies. In this context, are there differences observable at the opening
ceremonies past 1980, which presented staged spectacles, compared to thosetaken place prior to that? Based on the opening ceremonies of Munich 1972
and Athens 2004, those questions will be attempted to be answered.
The problem is analyzed using MacAloon’s model illustrating his theory ofspectacle in modern society:ill. 1: MacAloon’s performance system of the Olympic Games2

1
Synonyms for the term ´Olympism` are: Olympic Idea, Olympic spirit, Olympic Ideal and Olympic
Principles.
2
MacAloon, John J.: “Olympic Games and the Theory of Spectacle in Modern Societies”. In: id. (ed.). Rite,
Drama, Festival, Spectacle. Rehearsals Toward a Theory of Cultural Performance. Philadelphia 1984, p.
262.

Left side: Opening Ceremony Munich’72 (Official Report Munich’72, Vol.1) andOpening Ceremony Athens 2004 (Collection Lambis Nikalou)

159

MacAloon views the Olympic Games as a specific cultural type ofpresentation in which genres like ´spectacle`, ´festival`, ´ritual` and´competition`3 are linked to each other.
In the center of his ramified model is the truth – namely the underlying
thought of the system, which constitutes the idea of Olympism. The center issurrounded by the frame of athletic competitions/games, which is again
surrounded by a ritual-frame integrated in the frame of the festival-element.
In MacAloon’s model, all four reference frames (Truth, Game, Ritual andFestival) are linked to the question whether or not they correspond to thetruth (e.g. “Is this ritual?”). The entire scheme is surrounded by the frame ofspectacle. However, since the Olympic Games are said to be spectacles par
excellence since the beginning 1930s, this structural element is not linked tothe question of truth, but to the statement “This is spectacle”.
MacAloon’s model does not only serve as basis for a sociological analysis of
the Olympic Games, but also, as incorporated by Messing/Jüngermann’s
structural analysis of the opening ceremony of Barcelona 19924, as
theoretical reference to a formal observation of Olympic opening
ceremonies.
Based on MacAloon’s model, the following research questions can bederived:x Which elements of the Olympic Idea are realized in the opening
ceremonies? Are there differences to be observed between Munichand Athens?
x Are there athletic or competition-related elements incorporated in
the opening ceremonies?
x Do rituals symbolize Olympic values? Has the realization of rituals
undergone changes?
x Are the opening ceremonies to be considered festivals?
x Which significance does the spectacle have in the context of the
opening ceremonies?
x

Structural Elements of Olympic Opening Ceremonies
Ideational Foundations
In his quest for the truth, the basic principles of Olympism, MacAloon refers
in his model to the sentence: “We respect each other because we are the3
MacAloon uses the term ´game`. Due to the context, a translation into ´(athletic) competitions` appears
appropriate.
4
Messing, Manfred/Jüngermann, Martin: „Zur Strukturanalyse der Eröffnungsfeier von Barcelona 1992“. In:
Norbert Müller and Manfred Messing (eds.). Auf der Suche nach der Olympischen Idee. Facetten derForschung von Athen bis Atlanta. Kassel 1996, p. 187-217.

160

same in our differences”.5 Thus, he centralizes the question of humanequality and postulates this aspect as ideational foundation. But isn’t the
Olympic Idea far more complex than that?
In order to not prevent further reflection on its meaning, Coubertin denied
giving an unambiguous definition of Olympism. In the new edition of the“Fundamental Principles” in the Olympic Charta 1990, the IOC attempted toprovide an official definition of the term ´Olympism` and the included aims
thereof for the very first time. N. Müller summarized the accruing principles
in five points:6
x The harmonious connection of body, mind and willpower;x The mission to put the sport in the context of this development,
leading to the ´right of sport` to be considered a human right;
x The connection of sports with culture and education;x A participating youth based on experiences of sports practice withstructuring a better and peaceful world;x Renunciation of any kind of discrimination, instead promoting of
mutual respect, friendship, solidarity and fair play.
Therefore, the Olympic Idea is characterized by variety. MacAloon’s model
refers to only one aspect of Olympism, namely the one of mutual respect.
The author, however, considers this rather limited view as insufficient for astructural analysis. Even though MacAloon’s “Truth” is doubtlessly one of
the fundamental principles of Olympism, as final meaning it proves to be too
abstract. At this point, a more precise definition of the “truth” seems to be
essential.
Referring to the “Fundamental Principles”, to Coubertin’s writings as well as
to several Olympic studies7, the author illustrates her conclusion bymodifying the center of MacAloon’s diagram. Thereby, the pivotal Olympic
values are: human perfection, peace, social interaction and understanding aswell as ancient spirit and consciousness of tradition.8

5MacAloon, John J.: “Olympic Games and the Theory of Spectacle in Modern Societies”. In: Id. (ed.). Rite,
Drama, Festival, Spectacle. Rehearsals Toward a Theory of Cultural Performance. Philadelphia 1984, p.
262.
6
Müller, Norbert: “Olympismus”. In: Peter Röthig et al. (eds.). Sportwissenschaftliches Lexikon, 7th ed.
Schorndorf 2003, p. 415.
7
See, among others, studies conducted by Lenk 1972, Rösch 1972 and Schantz 1996.
8
The terms used are not to be considered as separate units but, at least in part, as dependent on each other (i.e.
“social interaction/understanding” and “peace”).

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IS THIS THE TRUTH?

ceasefire
freedomequality

peace
international
understandingsocial interaction andunderstanding

internationalism

ancient spirit andconsciousness ofnotion ofparticipation
aspiration for maximum
performancessolidarity

Olympic
symbols

Remembrance of
the ancient
Olympic Games

human perfection
harmony ofbody andmind

notion of fairness

involvementof arts

ill. 2: The modified center of the special presentation framework of Olympic GamesIn which ways those ideational contents of Olympism are realized in the
opening ceremonies is supposed to be analyzed by reference to the types ofpresentation “competition”, “ritual”, “festival” and “spectacle”.
Athletic or competition-based presentations
Presentations with an athletic character are found in both opening
ceremonies (i.e. the Mexican and Bavarian dance interludes in Munich andthe presentation of ancient and modern disciplines in the context of the
program feature “Clepsydra” in Athens). Those elements, however, are not
to be considered athletic competitions but can be ascribed to the realm ofspectacle or included in a ritual. Thus, a differentiated sport is not162represented in the opening ceremonies and is therefore excluded ascomponent.
Rituals
Kurt Weis defines rituals as “culturally standardized actions with a symbolic
meaning”, which are implemented during traditional occasions.9 According
to Hahne/Schönberger, rituals establish historical continuity and raise
participants’ awareness of being a part of a great and long historical
tradition.10
Classified as Olympic rituals of the opening ceremonies are: reception of thehead of state of the hosting country, entry of the participating teams,
speeches of the organizing committee as well as of the IOC President,
official opening by the head of state of the hosting country employing a
specified wording, the carrying and hoisting of the Olympic Flag while theOlympic Anthem is playing, the torch runner’s arrival in the stadium, theignition of the Olympic Flame, athletes and officials swearing the Olympic
Oath employing specified wording, playing the National Anthem of therespective hosting country and the symbolic release of doves.
If rituals of the opening celebrations are idle elements or if they indeed
symbolize Olympic values will be analyzed in the following.
The teams’ entrance combines national and international elements.
Following their national flag, each delegation marches in their official
uniforms. According to MacAloon, the parade displays a cooperative unit
despite such segmentation.11 All participants – regardless of their origin andathletic potential – have the same status. Athletes’ equality and solidarity aredemonstrated. Furthermore, the notion of participation is symbolized by theathletes.
As supranational symbol, the Olympic Flag displaying the Olympic Rings12
gives the rite of carrying the Flag a unifying connotation. In addition, therecital of the Olympic Anthem contributes to Coubertin’s postulation to
include the arts by textually recalling the ancient Olympic Games.

Weis, Kurt: „Rituale“. In: Peter Röthig et al. (eds.). Sportwissenschaftliches Lexikon, 7th ed. Schorndorf
2003, p. 454.
10
Cf. Hahne, Werner/Schönberger, A.: „Ritus, Ritual“. In: Hans Gasper et al. (eds.). Lexikon der Sekten,
Sondergruppen und Weltanschauungen: Fakten, Hintergründe, Klärungen, 3rd ed. Freiburg 1991, p. 890.
11
Cf. MacAloon, John J.: “Olympic Games and the Theory of Spectacle in Modern Societies”. In: Id. (ed.).
Rite, Drama, Festival, Spectacle. Rehearsals Toward a Theory of Cultural Performance. Philadelphia 1984,
p. 252.
12
According to Coubertin, the five intertwined rings (blue, yellow, black, green, red) symbolize the fivecontinents, which are the unified; the combination of six colors (with a white background) represent colors
found in all national flags.
9163

Also, the ignition of the Olympic Flame has its origin in the ancient Games.
According to Messing/Jüngermann, the Flame is considered – among others– as “symbol of caring of the hearth fire, around which a human community
gathers”.13 The release of doves follows. Nowadays, the dove is considered asymbol of peace.
Therefore, most of the rituals symbolize Olympic Principles.
The follow-up of the opening ceremonies are regulated in the Olympic
Charter. Concerning the content and procedure of those program elements,
continuity has been remained from the beginning of the Games to this day.
However, it can be stated that the realization of the rituals underwent somechanges. According to the protocol, program parts were executed by thebook in Munich. In contrast, ceremonies were included in staging
productions in Athens 2004: The head of state’s arrival ritual was
accompanied by a boy, who had crossed the artificial lake in the middle ofthe stadium in a boat, passing a small Greek flag to the ATHOC-President.
Furthermore, the hoisting of the Olympic Flag was introduced by children
carrying olive branches and the opening set-phrase was backed by a peal ofbells. Such performances attributed to rituals being more adapted andincorporated in Athens than in Munich.
Festival and Celebrations
According to MacAloon, the question of the reference frame “Is thisfestival?” can be answered by the presence or absence of joy and the feelingof happiness.14 The English term ´festival` originates from Latin ´festum`
meaning ´festival, celebration` (in German ´Fest, Feier`).
According to Gebhardt, festivals and celebrations are necessary social
conditions essential for the legitimization of social order since groups andinstitutions (here the IOC) are able to use such as platform to present, reflect
and re-establish their aims and objectives.15 Thus, the opening ceremonies
contribute to the structural maintenance of the entire Olympic system.
Even though festival and celebrations are often joined in reality, aterminological differentiation seems useful in order to further characterize
the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games and to identify them as
partially festival or celebration:

13
Cf. Messing, Manfred/Jüngermann, Martin: „Zur Strukturanalyse der Eröffnungsfeier von Barcelona
1992“. In: Norbert Müller and Manfred Messing (eds.). Auf der Suche nach der Olympischen Idee. Facetten
der Forschung von Athen bis Atlanta. Kassel 1996, p. 198.
14
Cf. MacAloon, John J.: “Olympic Games and the Theory of Spectacle in Modern Societies”. In: Id. (ed.).
Rite, Drama, Festival, Spectacle. Rehearsals Toward a Theory of Cultural Performance. Philadelphia 1984,
p. 262.
15
Cf. Gebhardt, Winfried: „Fest und Feier“. In: Günter Endruweit et al. (eds.). Wörterbuch der Soziologie.
Band 1: Abhängigkeit – Hypothese. Stuttgart 1989, p. 206.

164

Gebhardt defines the festival as an unregulated and unplanned space open tovery diverse contents.16 This, however, cannot be transferred to ceremonialacts, which are mostly characterized by regulated protocolar rituals.
According to Bollnow, a festival always refers to something joyful. 17
Opening ceremonies also include serious elements (i.e. the Olympic Oath)leading to the conclusion that – globally – they are not consistent with what
is considered a festival character.
In contrast to the festival, the celebration is a “mostly intentional andreflected event”, which oftentimes is based on a consciously prepared idea or
philosophy (here: the Olympic Idea). Furthermore, celebration is anappropriate social realm of setting and communicating values. In reference
to Gebhardt, the celebration is planned down to the smallest detail. Typicalelements are speeches (here: official speeches), the symbolic act ofsomething (here: releasing doves) and ceremonious/classical music (here:
the Olympic and the National Anthem).18 Additionally, the celebration ischaracterized by moments with a higher potential of significance (here: forexample the Olympic Oath). Unlike the festival, the celebration is not only
coined by joy and can also be serious. Thus, the Olympic opening
ceremonies are indeed “celebrations” by definition, thereby justifying thename.
In the context of festival, however, festive elements can also be
incorporated. Bollnow states that bright colors, light and illuminating
clothing and a “festive brightness” are features of festiveness. “Seriousness
and strength” of the festival are replaced by lightness, freedom and a relaxedatmosphere reflected, for example, in a smile. Such exuberant mood is best
presented in dance performances.19
Several elements with a rather festive character can be observed in the
opening ceremonies in Munich: “greeting of the schoolchildren”,20“presentation of Mexican folklore”21 and the ritual of igniting the Flame.22
The children’s bright clothing and their carefree attitude, the Mexicans’

16

Cf. ibid.
Cf. Bollnow, Otto Friedrich: Neue Geborgenheit. Das Problem einer Überwindung des Existenzialismus,
2 ed. Stuttgart 1960, p. 215.
18
Cf. Gebhardt, Winfried: „Fest und Feier“. In: Günter Endruweit et al. (eds.). Wörterbuch der Soziologie.
Band 1: Abhängigkeit – Hypothese. Stuttgart 1989, p. 206.
19
Cf. Bollnow, Otto Friedrich: Neue Geborgenheit. Das Problem einer Überwindung des Existenzialismus,
2nd ed. Stuttgart 1960, p. 222.
20
Cf. Video: MÜNCHEN 1972. Übertragung der Eröffnungsfeier der Olympischen Sommerspiele in
München 1972 im Bayrischen Rundfunk. 1:22´20.
17

nd

21

Cf. Ibid. 1:40’22.

22

Cf. ibid. 1:53’26.

165

joyful dance and the runners’ – dressed in white – effortlessness contributed
to a festive atmosphere during the program parts.
In comparison, the ceremony in Athens included far more festive elements
than the opening ceremony in Munich. At the beginning of the opening
ceremony, the lively rhythm of the Zeibekiko during the ignition of the
Olympic Rings on a water surface fosters a festive mood. Also, theceremonial element of “Raising of the Greek Flag” including the welcomingof the head of state and playing the National Anthem employ festive
characteristics. The “heaviness and significance” of the scene is relieved by
the boy with the Greek Flag. Furthermore, the choir dressed in white
contributes to a festive impression. Unlike other scenes which were
presented in the dark stadium, this program part took place with full or
reduced flood lightning. In contrast to Munich, the cheerful and waving
participants entering the stadium as well as the colorful parade “Clepsydra”,
accompanied by a hovering Eros, added to the festive atmosphere in Athens.
The last parts of the program “The Journey of the Torch” and “TheLightening of the Cauldron” also included festive elements. Suspended
actors with glow sticks gave the scene certain lightness; and with the ignitionof the Flame and the fireworks a kind of serenity arose. The opening
celebrations of Athens are therefore framed by a festive mood.
Spectacle
The presentation type “spectacle” occupies a rather dominant position in
MacAloon’s model: the Olympic Games are said to be spectacles par
excellence23, which is why this reference frame is not connected to aquestion but to the statement “This is spectacle”.
MacAloon defines spectacles as visually striking events which appeal tospectators due to their mass, proportion or color. In order to successfullyarrange a spectacle, a strict division of performers and audience is necessary.
In contrast to the ritual, the participation in a spectacle is rather voluntary
and not mandatory. Also, spectacle is a dynamic form calling for movement,
action and variety and reflecting such in the spectators’ excitement. It is not,however, restricted to a specific mood and can evoke joy as well as awe.24
The most spectacular elements of the opening ceremony in Munich arecertainly the Mexican dance performance, the release of 5.000 doves and thelarge number of athletes entering the stadium.

23
Cf, MacAloon John J.: “Olympic Games and the Theory of Spectacle in Modern Societies”. In: Id. (ed.).
Rite, Drama, Festival, Spectacle. Rehearsals Toward a Theory of Cultural Performance. Philadelphia 1984,
p. 245.
24
Cf. ibid. p. 246.

166

During the opening ceremony in Athens, spectacular elements are scatteredthroughout the entire gala: the clearly audible heartbeat during the video
countdown, the drummers, the Olympic (fire) Rings on the water, the 17meter high Cyclades’ head, the dancers on top of dice, the colorful“Clepsydra”, the veil covering the athletes, the physical review of the
Olympiads, the hovering torch-bearers, the ignition of the fire, the fireworks
etc. Therefore, these elements can be described as one big spectacle-staging.
The evening gloom also adds to this overall impression. Due to the lightdark-contrast in the stadium, the ignition of the fire, for example, is far more
spectacular than the one at noontime in Munich.
According to MacAloon, the reference frame of spectacle is to be viewed
critically since the images generated in the spectacle relate to actuality likeappearance and reality (here: the Olympic Idea).25 For that reason
Messing/Jüngermann raise the question to what extent the values presented
in Olympic opening ceremonies refer to “authentic and existing ideals or ifthey are mere expressions of image cultivation legitimizing the overallsystem”.26
In order to find an answer to this, a change in perspective has to take place.
Up to this point, formal reference frames such as competition, ritual, festival
and spectacle constituted the basis for analyzing the ideational content of the
opening ceremonies. Now, their implementation based on the Olympic
Principles will be discussed.
Topical Implementation of Olympic Principles
The analysis of the representation of Olympic Principles during the opening
ceremonies is based on the Olympic values defined above.
Peace
The ritual of releasing doves is regarded a symbol of peace and is a firmly
established record feature.
The opening ceremony of Munich was an important contribution to thedemilitarization of the Olympic protocol. The Olympic Flag, for example,
was not carried by soldiers but by former Olympic Champions into thestadium. This act was mostly based on the intention of promoting peace. By
refraining from military elements, the organizational committee of Munich
attempted to set an example in a difficult global political time.
25
Cf. MacAloon, John J.: “Olympic Games and the Theory of Spectacle in Modern Societies”. In: Id. (ed.).
Rite, Drama, Festival, Spectacle. Rehearsals Toward a Theory of Cultural Performance. Philadelphia 1984,
p. 262.
26
Messing, Manfred/Jüngermann, Martin: „Zur Strukturanalyse der Eröffnungsfeier von Barcelona 1992“. In:
Norbert Müller and Manfred Messing (eds.). Auf der Suche nach der Olympischen Idee. Facetten derForschung von Athen bis Atlanta. Kassel 1996, p. 205.

167

During the opening ceremony of Athens, the “Run through the Olympiads”
recalled impressively the absence of the 1916, 1940, and 1944 Olympic
Games due to both World Wars. The interruptions during the run (falls or
abrupt stops) were a noticeable appeal for a peaceful world without war. The
olive branch, a global symbol of peace and freedom, 27 can be interpreted as
key element of the ceremony in Athens. Prior to the entrance of the different
nations, an olive tree appeared in the middle of the stadium, the carrying of
the Olympic Flag was introduced by children holding olive branches, theflag during the “Run through the Olympiads” showed an olive branch andthe official emblem of the Games was an olive wreath.
Social Interaction and Understanding
The Olympic Games are supposed to serve interaction and understanding.
Coubertin believed that athletes from all over the world meeting each otherwould result in mutual respect, sympathy and appreciation for one another:
To ask people to love one another is merely a form of childishness. “To ask
them to respect each other is not utopian, but in order to respect each otherthey must first know each other“.28
The Olympic Flag with its five rings was designed by Coubertin and isregarded a symbol of unifying nations; and the teams’ entrance can beinterpreted as an effort toward a more international solidarity. Impulses
towards a denationalization were first given in Munich.29 As symbol ofinternational understanding, the German final leg runner of the Olympic
Torch relay was accompanied by athletes from different continents.
Furthermore, the oracle of Apollo called for “brotherly friendship”.
The opening ceremony of Athens included the following internationalist
elements: the sound of a human heartbeat interlinking all people, the fivebells representing the continents, the presentation of the global Olympic
Torch relay, the message from out of space in the spirit of an international
collaboration and the giant veil covering the athletes. The latter symbolized
impressively the “global community”. Athletes’ differences (complexion,
costume etc.) disappeared underneath the big veil demonstrating equality.
Human Perfection
The value “human perfection” can be interpreted as the goal of personal
development, which is transferable onto other parts of life, through27
Cf. ATHOC (ed.): Games of the XXVIII Olympiad. Friday August 13, 2004. Opening Ceremony Media
Guide. Athens 2004, p. 50.
28
Coubertin, Pierre de: „Die philosophischen Grundlagen des modernen Olympismus. Botschaft, verkündet
durch Rundfunkübertragung am 4. August 1935“. In: id. (ed.). Der Olympische Gedanke. Reden und Aufsätze.
Schorndorf 1967 [1935], p. 154.
29
This is mostly due to the fact that Munich organizers of the first Olympic Games in Germany after the
propaganda Games 1936 in Berlin were motivated to act contrary to any kind of nationalism.

168

participation in sports. According to Coubertin, only the interaction of body,mind and volition leads to a harmonious human being.30
The involvement of arts and the spiritual life in the Olympic Games intended
by Coubertin is – in addition to the cultural program – best realized during
the opening ceremonies. As a result of the collaboration of different art
disciplines like music (National Anthem, Olympic Anthem), dance (folklore
performance in Munich, Zeibekiko in Athens), fashion (athletes’ costumes),architecture (stadium) and craftsmanship (flower bows in Munich, peoples
clothing carrying posters in Athens), the opening ceremony of Munich andAthens can be described as total works of art.
Referring to words of the bishop of Pennsylvania in July 1908, Coubertin
demanded that the participation should be regarded more important by theathletes than the actual victory. Generalizing he added: “What counts in life
is not victory, but the struggle; the essential thing is not the conquer, but tofight well”.31 Athletes represent this ideal by participating in the opening
ceremonies (teams’ entrance).
Ancient Spirit and Affinity of the Games to their Modern Past
The only direct reference to the ancient Games is established by the oracle of
Apollo during the ending of the ceremony in Munich. Other than that there
was no allusion to the ancient or modern history of the Olympic Games.
During the opening ceremony in Athens, the closeness of the Games to theirancient past was represented by the program part “Welcome”, including adrummer in the stadium of Olympia, the presentation of ancient disciplines
in the context of “Clepsydra”, women whose dresses were shaped likeclassic vases carrying posters during the entrance of the nations and theincorporation of olive branches throughout (ancient laurel wreath).
Additionally, the initial video sequence showing runners referred to the first
13 ancient Games in which the stadium race was the only discipline.32
The program element “Olympic Cities Tribute” reminded of the tradition of
the modern Games. Introduced by a video in honor of Coubertin and
Vikelas, a runner symbolically passed through the Olympiads. In the context
of “Clepsydra” specially chosen disciplines from the 1896 Games were
presented.
Therefore, the value “ancient spirit and consciousness of tradition” got
special attention in Athens. This seems reasonable since the Olympic Games
2004 returned to the place of their origin and their re-establishment in 1896.

30
Cf. Lenk, Hans: Werte – Ziele – Wirklichkeit der modernen Olympischen Spiele, 2nd ed. Schorndorf 1972, p.
44.
31
Coubertin, Pierre de: „Die ´Treuhänder` der Olympischen Idee. In: id. (ed.). Der Olympische Gedanke.
Reden und Aufsätze. Schorndorf 1967 [1908], p. 21f.
32
Cf. ATHOC (ed.): Games of the XXVIII Olympiad. Friday August 13, 2004. Opening Ceremony Media
Guide. Athens 2004, p. 24.

169

Conclusion and Interpretation
The comparative structural analysis of the opening ceremony of Munich
1972 and Athens 2004 was based on the question, to which extent elementsof the Olympic Idea were illustrated. MacAloon’s model, differentiating
between the five frames “spectacle, festival, ritual, game/competition andtruth/underlying idea”, served as theoretical reference. The last reference
frame was then modified, thereby extracting the central aspects of Olympism
and its values: peace, human perfection, social interaction and understanding
as well as ancient spirit and consciousness of tradition.
Contrasting both opening ceremonies revealed a partial change in some ofthe elements. On the one hand the implementation of rituals has changed.
While ceremonious aspects were simple “checked off” in Munich, they wereembedded in stage-like performances in Athens. The consistent known was
therefore combined with something completely new. This also correspondswith organizers’ pressure to orchestrate interesting and television-compatible
formats since simple re-runs do not appeal to the audience. Nowadays, it is
the producers’ of the opening ceremony chief task to provide television
entertainment because without the financial means of the TV-networks the
Olympic Games would no longer be fundable.
On the other hand the significance of rituals in the context of the opening
ceremonies has changed. Ceremonial elements dominated the program in
Munich. Only the “greeting of the schoolchildren” and the “oracle of
Apollo” represented artistic and entertaining acts. Show acts, however,dominated in Athens: only 6 of 10 program parts were ceremonial. Thus far,in the context of the opening ceremonies show elements gained inimportance.
The mentioned transition to more artistic and entertaining parts can be
attributed to the organizers’ efforts to produce the ceremonies mediagenic
and to entertain the audience. This is also the reason for an increase offestive and spectacular elements during the opening ceremony in Athens.
Furthermore, it can be observed that the opening ceremonies are primarily
created for TV-audience since – in contrast to Munich – there were manyscenes which were definitely better to be observed via television than fromspectators in the stadium (i.e. details of the parade “Clepsydra”, bird’s eye
perspective of the burning rings on the water). Based on those observations
the opening ceremony of Athens can be described as TV-spectacle.
Furthermore, the comparative structural analysis showed that both, Munichand Athens, conveyed ideals and goals of Olympism during the opening
ceremonies. Significant differences between the two hosting cities could not
be confirmed.

170

However, it became apparent that most rituals symbolize Olympic
Principles. The festive character of the event has proven to be a suitable
place for communicating values.
During the evaluation of the contentual presentation of Olympic Principles
in the opening ceremonies – using the values peace, human perfection, social
interaction and understanding as well as ancient spirit and consciousness of
tradition – it became obvious that they indeed had been represented, also
including values which are excluded in the competitions due to theaspiration to offer maximum performances (i.e. idea of participation). Due tothe longer duration in Athens, the incorporation of values mentioned above
was quantitavely higher.
Summary of the unpublished Master Thesis at the Johannes Gutenberg
Universität Mainz, 2005: Katja Meyer: Olympische Eröffnungsfeiern in
München 1972, Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000 und Athen 2004 – eine Analyse
in Bezug auf olympische Wertevermittlung, TV-Spektakel und die
Darstellung des Gastgeberlandes.
Translation from German by Janine Lacombe.

171

Italyart- The Cultural Olympiadof Torino 2006
Piero Addis*
The Cultural Olympiad of Torino 2006 have been declared by IOC one of thebest Cultural Olympiad.
I’ll try to explain the way we have been working to get this result. To best tap
into the wealth of cultural opportunities offered by the territory, theOrganizing Committee has worked together with the local authorities andCultural Institutions, to put together an exciting programme, packed with
events and best meeting IOC guidelines, the expectations of an international
public (including sports fans but also the general public) and of local
audiences.
To ensure effective cooperation we requested the creation of a coordinating
commission which selected the events to be included in the cultural
programme for the Winter Games.
The guidelines and themes identified where the yardstick for selecting theartistic and cultural offer best suited for the bill of the Cultural Olympiad. In
keeping with the requirements of the Olympic Charter, the programme wasalso planned so as to provide an insight into the best that Italian culture has tooffer, and enhance the cultural heritage of Torino and Piemonte.
As a result, the joint work of the Departments of Culture and cultural bodies
involved in the project has yielded a rich programme including exhibitions ofcontemporary, ancient and classical art, classical, cultured and popular music
concerts by some of the best international artists; plus many other exhibitions
and special events in town and in the Olympic valleys.
The programme is proposed as an Arts Festival. Its vision is primarily
contemporary, looking at the time of the Games, while offering an insight
into the past and the great cultural heritage of Italy, outlining the future.
The Region and the Local Authorities have been active in canvassing the
major cultural institutions to ensure that their agenda for 2006 would give
special consideration to the Olympic period, both in terms of event planningand in terms of access opportunities.
This policy has produced an enrichment of the bills and programmes of all
primary cultural institutions, which have planned dedicated productions,inspired by the guidelines of the Cultural Olympiad as to themes andprotagonists, with an eye to international development prospects.
So all events has been chosen jointly.

*

Head of Arts and Culture Turin 2006.

173

Beyond the specific cultural programme of Torino 2006, the main local
government with the support of the most relevant banking institutions haveplanned actions to promote the local artistic and cultural heritage, so as todisplay its full glory throughout the period of the Olympic Games.
In town, great emphasis has been placed on the museums and landmark
places and buildings.
Outside the city, cultural sites and destinations have been promoted throughbrochures and other communication media, produced specifically for the
Olympic event and leveraging on its strong international appeal. The key
points for targeted cultural promotion linked to the Olympic event have been
extending accessibility, signposting the network of museums, upgrading
reception services, producing quality and effective communication materials
An Olympic card, purposely created for the Olympic event, providing accessto a number of museums has increased visitor flow by cutting down the costof admittance tickets and encouraging the public to explore the rich museum
offers in the territory.
Moreover, together with the Regione Piemonte and the Città di Torino,
TOROC has supported several projects submitted by other art organisations(such as study centres, galleries, foundations…) focused on themes linked to
the Olympic event. They included music bills, conferences, purposely createdshows, all adding to the variety and excitement of Torino’s cultural life.
For the purpose of laying out the guidelines for the Cultural Olympiad, we
called upon a team of outstanding experts, who met several times during
2002. In setting out the guidelines, those experts had to face a two foldchallenge: identify distinctive features of local identity for the city andmountains, to be presented to the highly diverse public of the Olympics andthe Paralympics, while avoiding commonplaces and clichés, to enable theterritory to appear on the world stage with a new, fresh and immediate image.
The end result of the team’s work was a document entitled Let the bodies tell
the story – Guidelines for the Torino 2006 programme of cultural and art
events which accompanied TOROC and the partner institutions in designing
the artistic and cultural events.
The link between culture and sport was found in the concept of “body”, theprotagonist in sports and art alike, with its intelligence and creativeness.
One of the main challenges of this edition of the Cultural Olympiad has been
the concept of the Program. TOROC has decided to create a system with theauthorities and the cultural institutions. We have worked as a real team that
has involved the whole territory.
All the initiatives are not meant to stand alone: they all fit into a strategy forcultural heritage promotion, targeting the increase in tourist flow, in line witheconomic and structural changes taking place in the area
The second main challenge has been linked to the ticketing and price areas.

174

The price policy rests on precise guidelines issued by IOC as well as thebroader aims I have just mentioned. Hence the need to balance free and payfor events. Moreover, the exceptional nature of the Olympic event means that
wherever possible, season-ticket holders should also be catered for.
In this regard, TOROC and the Culture Departments of the three authorities(Città di Torino, Provincia di Torino and Regione Piemonte) have planned aticket price policy that didn’t raise the “regular” price for shows, as well as it
has provided for several free-entry events.
The third challenge has been the good result of one of the main tasks of the
Art & Culture department: to implement the Look of the Games. The
Cultural Olympiad had their own coordinated image, and their own logo,
which derived from the Look designed for the Games.
The most obvious application of this image has been the “dressing up” ofculture sites. Just like competition venues, they have been personalised so as
to signal to all onlookers that the venue in question was hosting a Cultural
Olympiad event.
All events listed in the official cultural programme have been thus identified
and I really can say that every single event worked in perfect harmony withour claim: Art and Culture, together for Sport.
Originally published in Messing M. /Müller N. (eds.):
Olympism – Heritage and Responsibility. Olympic Studies 10. Agon Kassel
2008, pp. 339-344.

175

Evaluation of the Cultural Program Beijing 2008 Survey by Modern Pentathlon Spectators
Michaela Ivak
Since the Olympic Games in Sydney 2000, a scientific cooperation wasestablished between the Research Team Olympia/University Mainz,
Germany and the President of the International Union of Modern Pentathlon,
Dr. Klaus Schormann.
On August 21st and 22nd 2008, an onsite survey was conducted by students of
the University Mainz before the beginning of men and women Modern
Pentathlon competitions as well as during break-time.
1,781 valid questionnaires, 1,499 in Chinese and 282 in English wereanalyzed:
Tab. 1: Number of people asked relating to their origin, 21/22.08.2008
OriginBeijing City
Beijing area
China
China total*
Other countries

Number of people
asked
1,046
87
366
1,499
282

Total

1,781

Percentage
54.7
4.5
19.1
84.2
15.8

100

*China total = Beijing City + Beijing area + other China

The following questions were considered in this special evaluation for themembers of the IOC Commission for Culture and Olympic Education:
1. Why did you decide to be a spectator at the Olympic Games?
2. What do you associate with Pierre de Coubertin?
3. Have you attended any cultural events (of the Olympic cultural
program)?
4. Which cultural events have you already seen or do you intend to see?
5. What do you think about the events you have attended?

177

1 Why did you decide to be a spectator at the Olympic
Games?
The most frequently given answer by international spectators to the survey
question about the reason for attending the Olympic Games was attend aworld event with 93%. The answer experience something exciting came close
second (86.6%), with experience the immediate atmosphere (85.0%) justbehind the answer support athletes (85.2%).
Tab.2: Reasons to be a spectator of the Beijing Olympic Games
DomicileInternational

National

Yes (N)%Yes (N)%

attend world event

240

93

1,091

91.6

experience
atmospheretradition of attending
Olympic Gamessupport athletes

221

85

1,395

85.5

97

41.3

563

61.8

225

85.2

1,124

75.0

see peak sport.
performancesee sth. exciting

212

84.1

921

85.6

223

86.6

653

70.5

meet with friends

147

61

173

23.5

travel China

150

62

221

30.7

travel Beijing

171

69.2

290

38.8

work duties

39

16.9

149

20.4

most medals

58

25.1

365

46.7

These results give an idea of the importance spectators place on experiencing
the situation for themselves.
It is clear that this special experience does not only depend on the sports
program (see peak sporting performance: 84.1%), even though this is at theforefront at the Olympic Games. The enrichment of the Games offered by178cultural events shows that, in the eyes of the spectators, the Games are far
more than a “higher level world championship”. The ability of the Games tobring people together, thereby fostering peace appeals to people all over theworld through the media.
A comparison between 1,499 Chinese and 282 international Olympic visitors
shows that the Chinese regard seeing sports events and peak sporting
performances higher. This aspect can be explained by the sense of allegiancetowards the athletes felt by the huge number of fans, which is stronger on anational than on an international level (identification with success of theChinese athletes and thus their own country), or the general desire of theChinese to be the best nation.
It is striking that both, the Chinese and the international visitors, rated
experience atmosphere very high. This specific atmosphere needs to be
examined more closely, as for some the friendly co-existence of different
cultures is an aspect of the particular atmosphere, while for others it is theatmosphere of the competition or just the celebration itself. However, it isclear that among the visitors asked (Chinese and international) the Games
were not just about a sporting event; the cultural framework also played an
important role.

2 What do you associate with Pierre de Coubertin?
When asked who the founder of the Games is, 80.3% of the Chinese knewthat it is Pierre de Coubertin. This means they are aware of the historicalbackground and thereby display a definite interest in the background of the
Olympic Games and not just the sports competition per se.
The fact that 80% of the Chinese asked were aware of the founder of theGames leads to the conclusion that the population was well prepared for the2008 Olympic festival. This is less surprising among the international guests
as the majority of them are experienced Olympic visitors.

3 Have you attended any events of the Olympic
cultural program?
Figure 1 shows that 45% of the international visitors asked had attended
various cultural events. Therefore, it is clear that there was strong interest in
the cultural program offered. Here, it must be born in mind that Olympic
visitors did not have a lot of spare time to visit other events apart from thesports competitions. Taking this into account, the figures show a keen interestin the cultural program. A score of around 45% is especially high when one
realizes that the cultural program was poorly publicized, which leads to the179conclusion that attendance at the cultural events was largely a result ofindividual initiative.
60

54,7

55,1

55
50

44,9

45,3

45
40
35

International

30

China

25
20
15
10

Yes
No
Figure 1: Cultural program attendance of international audience and Chinese spectators

The difference between the number of Chinese and international visitors
should not be over-estimated. Due to the language, it was much easier for
Chinese citizens to choose from the program (including search) and travel toevents than it was for international visitors.
There is also the question of whether other factors influenced attendance on
cultural events. The first comparison is based on age. Here, there were no
significant differences between the international and the Chinese survey
participants. As illustrated in the following figures there is only a slight dropin the age group 30-49.
70
60
50

10-19 years
20-29 years

40

30-39 years
40-49 years

30

50-59 years
60-82 years

20
100international

national

Figure 2: Cultural program attendance by age - international and Chinese spectators

180

The lowest level of interest in among international visitors in the agecategory 30-39 at 36.8%, followed by the age category 40-49 at 44.2%,
which is remarkable, as these seem to be the most solvent groups. We may
infer that the age-group 10-19 is linked to those two categories as they are
most likely part of families.
With 265 “yes” answers the age-group 20-29 amounts to the largest categoryof the Chinese audience in terms of quantity. The age-group 50-59, however,constitutes the highest percentage value. In order to be able to plan thecontent of the cultural program accordingly, this information can be regarded
important for establishing for which audience cultural events are of particularinterest.
Tab. 3: Cultural program attendance in figures (N)Age-group
10-19

20-29

30-39

40-49

50-59

60-82

Yes
China
International
Total
China
International
Total
China
International
Total
China
International
Total
China
International
Total
China
International
Total

No
172
7
179
265
28
293
122
21
143
56
19
75
25
18
43
16
17
33

Total
141
11
152
212
36
248
119
36
155
44
24
68
16
20
36
15
20
35

313
18
331
477
64
541
241
57
298
100
43
143
41
38
79
31
37
68

Another related variable analyzed was the “number of nights in Beijing”. The
answers to this show that cultural program attendance increased with a higher
number of nights spent in Beijing, even though this factor must be put into181

Beijing Opera as important cultural event by the Beijing Olympics 2008 (Collection Zeling He)

perspective for Chinese visitors concerning figures higher than 15 nights, as
in comparison with the increase in the number of nights the attendance
figures do not increase proportionally. Most of the stays were between 8 and
14 days. If the length of the Olympic Games (14 days) is considered as well,it can be assumed that the national audience is potentially more prepared to
be interested in a cultural program during the Games, while the international
audience consumes cultural events mainly during the phases before and/or
after the Games.1 Here, too, the information factor regarding the cultural
program must be considered as well. If there had been greater“externalization” in form of advertising, there might possibly have been
higher visitor figures.
80
69

70

64,1
57,1

60
50
40

42,9
Yes

35,9

31

No

30
20
10
0
1-7 nights

15 nights or
more
Figure 3: Cultural program attendance in % linked to the number of nights spent in Beijing (andsurrounding area) – international spectators
1

8-14 nights

More than 14 days = period extended to before or after the Olympic Games.

182

80

75,6

71,9

70
60
50

53
46
Yes

40

No

28,1

30

24,4

20
10

0
1-7 nights

8-14 nights

15 nights or
more

Figure 4: Cultural program attendance in % linked to number of nights –Chinese spectators

4 Which cultural events have you already seen or doyou intend to see?
The lack of advertising and information is especially reflected in thefollowing two figures. No more than 17% of the international visitors asked
could say that they had visited an exhibition or been to a concert or play.
Most of the visitors included sightseeing among their cultural activities.

100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0

international
national

Figure 5: Attendance at various events – international and Chinese spectators

183

Among the Chinese questioned, the number of exhibitions visited andplays/concerts attended is somewhat higher. Such a result is generally to be
expected. However, for future events, it would be desirable to attract moreinternational visitors to the city’s cultural program.

5 What do you think about the events you have attended?
For question 5, an appreciation for the cultural events attended was required.
Here, again, there was a difference between the international and the national
audience as differing value judgments can be assumed due to differing
cultural, socio-political and economic backgrounds. As a result, forindividual aspects such as level of organization, entertainment or thefinancial factors (expensive/cheap) there can be characteristics which must be
assessed differently.
Tab. 4: Assessment of the Cultural Program
Criteria
International
Informative/entertaining
informative
averageentertaining
Well/badly organizedwell organized
averagebadly organized
High/low levelhigh levelaverage
low level
Chinese/international
Chineseaverageinternational
Expensive/cheap
expensive
averagecheap
Interesting/uninteresting
interesting
averageuninteresting

National
%
69.8
18.1
12.1
%
56.0
21.0
23.0
%
62.5
28.5
9.0
%
56.0
23.0
21.3
%
21.0
37.0
32.0
%
75.6
16.5
7.9

184

%
79.3
16.3
4.4
%
42.3
21.7
36.0
%
75.2
17.0
7.8
%
66-9
20.7
12.4
%
36.3
42.4
21.4
%
89.0
9.0
2.0

It can be seen that both, national and international visitors, considered thecultural program mainly as informative; and only a few thought itentertaining. For the organization, the scores differ slightly. Slightly morethan half of the international audience (56%) considered the organizational
level of the cultural events as good, while the Chinese audience tended to beless satisfied (42.3%). This may be linked to higher expectations from thelocal organizers and also to a better understanding of the organizationalsituation with regard to the cultural program (linked to higher number ofcultural events attended).
When asked to rate the level of the cultural events attended, 75.2% of theChinese and 62.5% of the international visitors judged them to be high level.
As the events attended were predominately of Chinese origin, here again thecultural differences should be considered when interpreting these results(What constitutes/defines “high level”?).
A study of the Chinese and international characteristics shows that mainly
Chinese events were attended by both, national and international, audiences.
The international events held up very well among the international audience(21.3%) and the domestic audience (12.4%), when one considers thatinternational events represented only 24% of the cultural program. The
remaining 23% (international) and 20.7% (national) gave the response“average”, which can be included in the assessment of the international aswell as the Chinese events attended. This gives an approximate value of
32.8% of international and 22.8% of domestic visitors for the international
program, which suggests a totally balanced view with regard to the interest ininternational and national events.
With regard to the entry prices for the events, the answers indicate no clear
trend, which is possibly due to the difference in incomes of the national andinternational visitors. Overall, it shows that the prices of the events wereappropriate and wholly affordable.
A positive and very important element for this work is the result of theinteresting/uninteresting assessment. It shows that the majority of theinternational and domestic audience considered the cultural events to beinteresting with only a very small number rating them as uninteresting.
Overall, it can be seen that the audience of the cultural program regarded
events as averagely well organized, of an above-average level, very
interesting and informative rather than entertaining. The predominately
national events and in comparison well-attended international events wereaffordable particularly for the international audience.

185

Olympic medals are not only symbols of highest archivment by the Olympics but also artistic
creations (Photo: N. Müller)

Summary
The results of this analysis show that Olympic cultural events were an
extremely worthwhile part of the Olympic Games program in Beijing. It isalready apparent from the first question asking about the reasons forattending that Olympic visitors are concerned about more than just seeing
sports competitions. The findings about attendance figures of cultural eventswith an average of around 50% show that this is quite a high percentage
given that the events of the program were little advertised externally.
However, this result based on question 3 loses some of its significance inquestion 4, especially considering that 83% (international) and 68%(national) of the answers given relate to visiting places of interest. This
heterogeneity between questions 3 and 4 leads to the assumption (alreadystated in the previous chapter) that visitors knew little of the concepts andcontent of the Olympic cultural program. The events attended were regarded
as a whole as predominately interesting (82.5%), informative (74.6%) and of
a high level (68.9%) by the audience, which can be considered a very goodresult and speaks in favor of the organizers. Another interesting result is thelowest level among the age category 40-49 and the increase in cultural
program attendance in line with a longer length of stay.

187

Evaluation of the Cultural Olympiad by
Biathlon Spectators in Whistler during the
Olympic Winter Games 2010 in Vancouver
Katie Scholl / Katharina Galuba / Research Team Olympia
University Mainz
During the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, the “Research Team
Olympia” led by Prof. Dr. Norbert Müller,
Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz,
questioned a total of 553 biathlon spectators
in Whistler. The surveys were conducted in
the stands as well as in the standing sector on
February 16th and 18th. The data collected
was then evaluated by Katie Scholl andKatharina Galuba. This evaluation only
includes statements relating to the Cultural
Olympiad (questions 14 to 19).
The Cultural Olympiad of Vancouver

ill. 1: Emblem of the´Cultural Olympiad`

The host city Vancouver decided to present a
cultural program in form of a Cultural
Olympiad. For the very first time, a series ofthree art festivals formed a two-year cultural
program - from 2008 to 2010 - complementing
the Winter Olympic Games.1 From January
22nd until March 21st 2010 an extensive
international program was offered presenting
over 600 artists at 60 locations over a 60-day
period. In addition to this program andill. 2: Emblem of the ´Wintercompletely in line with digital technology, aOlympic Games` in
Cultural Olympiad’s Digital Edition (CODE)
Vancouver
was presented.
Athletes and spectators alike were given theopportunity to communicate online – via the internet – or on site in the streetsof Vancouver and also to model and structure CODE2 and its motto1
http://www.vancouver2010.com/more-2010-information/cultural-festivals-and-events/about-culturalolympiad/ (Nov. 15th 2010).
2
http://www.vancouver2010.com/more-2010-information/cultural-festivals-and-events/code-connect-createcollaborate/ (Nov. 15th 2010).

Left side: Views from cultural activities in Vancouver 2010 (Photo: Katharina Galuba)

189

“Connect. Create. Collaborate.”, for example in form of daily-awarded“Picture-of-the-Day Contest” via Facebook and Twitter fan pages. Just like
its athletic siblings Winter Olympic Games and Paralympics, the Cultural
Olympiad had a special emblem3 (cf. ill. 1 and
2) and therefore used the recall value of a
Cooperate Identity.
On street lights in downtown Vancouver,
advertising posters of the Cultural Olympiad,
including its emblem, were attached right next
to those of the Olympic Games (cf. ill. 3). The
joint presentation of all three emblems (WinterOlympic Games, Paralympics and Cultural
Olympiad) is - in terms of a new marketing
concept – a first in Olympic history. Up to thispoint, the three events had been advertised
ill 3: Advertising banner offor separately.
the ´Cultural Olympiad` inFollowing the tradition of the Olympic
downtown Vancouver
Research Team, 566 biathlon spectators
were questioned during two competitiondays. Next to questions concerning athletic events, the subject area (14-19)
focused on the cultural program and its perception by Olympia visitors.
Gathered results are supposed to provide insights into the following aspects:- Level of information of the questioned Olympia visitors concerning
the cultural program prior to the Winter Olympic Games;- Level of information of the people questioned at events of the
Cultural Olympiad 2010 in Vancouver during the time of the actualGames;- Subjective perception of a connection between cultural and sport
events during the Winter Olympic Games;- Qualitative and quantitative attendance at cultural events inVancouver.
The following evaluation presents results of questions 14 to 19.
536 out of 566 biathlon spectators provided an answer to the question “Didyou get any information about the cultural program, which is being promoted
during the Vancouver Olympic Games?”. Considering only valid replies(excluding 30 “missing answers), about 49% received such information andabout 51% did not receive any. Since the survey took place on February 16th
and 18th, the percentage of informed people could have increased until the
final biathlon competition day. The assumption that the lack of information
linearly increases due to an increasing distance from the Olympic spectator’s
3
The emblem of the Cultural Olympiad included the symbol of the official Winter Olympic Games in
Vancouver (figure welcoming friends with open arms). In contrast to illustrations 1 and 2, the figure refers to
the connection between the Cultural Olympiad and the Winter Olympic Games.

190

Oplace of residence to the host city of Vancouver/Whistler cannot be
confirmed:
Table 1: Relation of people informed about the cultural program to people notinformed about it depending on place of residence (absolute values).

Residence

1
2
3
4
5

Informed

Uninformed

72

55

Preponderance
of informed
people
+17

25

25

±0

41
31
93

46
59
83

-5
-28
+10

Metro
Vancouver/Whistler
British Columbia(without 1)
Canada (without 2)
USA
outside Canada/USA

The following two tables provide information concerning the time in which
the information was received as well as the type of media used to obtain theinformation. The internet was the most important source of information prior
to the Olympic Games. Travel agencies, however, placed lowest in the
ranking (cf. Table 2).
Table 2: Ranking of stated sources of information for the Olympic Cultural
Program prior to the Olympic Games

Source of information
Internet (N = 338)
Magazines/newspapers (N = 337)
Television/radio (N = 338)
Other people (N = 337)
Travel agency (N = 338)

affirmed
%
62.7
44.8
43.5
22.0
5.6

At this point it should be mentioned that in a time prior to the prevalence of
the internet two surveys (Barcelona 1992 and Atlanta 1996) were conductedby the Research Team Olympia at the University Mainz (“Forschungsgruppe
Olympia”). When German Olympia tourists were questioned about whatsource of information for the Olympic Cultural Program they used, travel
agencies had a similarly limited significance.
The internet upheld its leading position as source of information for thecultural program also during the Olympic Games in Vancouver (cf. Table 3).

191

Table 3: Ranking of stated sources of information for the Olympic Cultural
Program in Vancouver

Source of information
Internet
Program guide
Newspapers
Acquaintances
Poster/placard
Travel guideAffirmed(N = 337)
53.1
49.9
40.7
22.6
22.0
16.0

Besides the internet, the program guide (surely, also in terms of completenessof the range of offers) as well as recommendations from acquaintances
proved to serve an important information function. Additionally, it has to be
noted that information received from several sources may appear reinforced
and complemented to the individual spectator.
Information, in form of a guide for example, itemizing the cultural program
clearly according to place, time and genre is obviously not yet sufficientenough to motivate spectators to recognize such range of events as an
essential part of their respective Olympic experience. Thus, conveying themeaningfulness of the connection between sports and arts as part of the
Olympic idea has to be focused additionally. Basically, this seems to havebeen achieved in Vancouver since only 36 people questioned replied to notrecognize any relationship between the cultural program and the WinterOlympic Games at all. However, as the following table exemplifies, thearguments pro an Olympic Cultural Program are dominated by aesthetic
values.
Table 4: “What relationship do you see between the Cultural Program and theWinter Games in Vancouver?”Statement

The cultural program combines art and sport.
Cultural events and exhibits traditionally belong to the Olympic
Games.
It brightens up the host city and the host country.
It allows the athletes and spectators to experience aesthetic
beauty.
It provides a beautiful setting for the sporting competitions.

192

Yes
N = 566
%
29.5
21.9
40.8
27.6
27.4

Ice sculpture in front of the Biathlon Stadium in Whistler 2010 as an artistic performance(Photo: Teresa Thome)

The Research Team Olympia (University of Mainz) on the way to the Biathlon spectators survey
in Whistler 2010 (Katharia Galuba, Katie Scholl, Lisa Reithmann, Teresa Thome, Dr Norbert
Müller, Andreas J. Müller; Photo: Teresa Thome))193

It gives those tourists/family members who are less interested in
25.6
sport an alternative.
Despite an impressive cultural program and various related sources of
information, only 28.6% of all people questioned in Vancouver stated to havebeen able “to attend the cultural exhibitions and events of the Olympic
Cultural Program besides the important sporting events”. 30.9% negated such
explicitly and 40.5% avoided any kind of statement concerning this aspect,suggesting a “no” since an interest in culture is actually attributed aprestigious value. Therefore, there seems to be no reason to neglect reporting
the visit of a cultural event.
Referring to previously attended events as well as events planned to visit inVancouver/Whistler, a ranking emerged as follows:
Table 5: Visited events or planned to visit

EventOpen air events near the venues
Museum/exhibition/visual arts
Music/concert
Events/exhibitions from the Aboriginal Art Program
Opera/theater
Modern dance/classical ballet

Visited orplanned tovisit
N = 566
%
30.4
21.7
21.6
13.4
4.4
2.8

69.6% of all people questioned did not even attend free-of-charge open air
events near the venues or do not plan to do so. A large proportion of thesurveyed people seem to be comparable to the image of soccer spectatorsdrawn by Buytendijk (1970, p. 96):
“The kind of interest for eleven or umpteen times eleven soccer players is
profound everywhere, sincere, lasting, all-pervasive and all-extrusive andfulfilling. It exceeds the interest for art and science – very understandably – itis, however, more general and intense compared to being interested in foodprices, world peace or the passing of a niece or nephew – not to mention
natural disasters or parliamentary debates.”Thus, this result is not caused by the lack of information because only 5% of
the people questioned reported explicitly to have not received any kind of
information regarding the cultural program during the Olympic Games.

194

Outlook
One possibility to generate a greater comprehension of spectators for theconnection of muscles and mind with regard to Ancient Greece and as
aspired by Coubertin is to broadcast his related principles during competition
breaks on large electronic display panels (cf. Sydney 2000). At the sametime, Coubertin’s idea of eurhythmics should be made apparent and tangible
by developing a suitable program considering aspects of structural balanceand Olympic-related topics and standards. During the planning stages as wellas during the evaluation of a cultural festival it is also desirable to consider
not only quantitative standards (number of new exhibitions, visitor numbers,
awareness measurements, viewing figures etc.) but also to ask the question towhat extent the cultural program contributed to the artistic presentation of
Olympic values. Grant puts it similar (2006, p. 1): “the magic of the Olympic
Movement […] is in how individual communities who are invited to host theGames reinvigorate the Movement” (for analyzing the balance of a cultural
program on the example of Turin 2006 see Messing 2008). By raisingawareness concerning the philosophical foundations of the postulated unityof sport and art during the Olympic Games, spectators who are strongly
focused on athletic competitions would be more likely to develop a certain
interest for some parts of the cultural range offered, especially, if there is a
noticeable connection to sports.
References
Buytendijk, F. J. J.: “Das Fußballspiel”. In: Plessner, H./Bock, H.-E./Grupe, O. (eds.). Sport undLeibeserziehung. Sozialwissenschaftliche, pädagogische und medizinische Beiträge.
München 1970, 95-103.
Coubertin, P. de: “Eröffnungsrede der Beratungssitzung von Kunst, Wissenschaft und Sport“.
Discours ‘de ouverture de la conférence consultative de arts, lettres et sports. In: id. Der
Olympische Gedanke. Aufsätze und Reden. Schorndorf 1967 [1906], 17-19.
Grant, R. T.: Contrast, Culture, and Courage: A Cultural Administrator’s tribute to Pierre de
Coubertin (posted February 23rd 2006). Accessed online on March 8th 2007 at
http://www.artsmanagement.net/modules.php?op= modload&name=News&file=article.
Messing, M: “Zur Ausgewogenheit des Kulturprogramms bei den Olympischen Winterspielen
und Paralympics in Turin 2006 – ein Versuch zur Operationalisierung des EurhythmieKonzepts von Coubertin“. In: Wacker, Chr./Marxen, R. (eds.). Olympia – Ideal und
Wirklichkeit. Festschrift für Norbert Müller zum 60. Geburtstag. Berlin 2008, 283-313.

195

Olympic Spectators’ Resonance concerning
the London 2012 Festival
Manfred Messing / Norbert Müller / Klaus Schormann
Surely, Coubertin was aware of Modern Pentathletes’ eurythmic balance
being restricted to the realm of sports. He viewed his educational ideal, however, more holistically in the combination of sports and arts. During the 1912
Olympic Games in Stockholm one of his favorite ideas, namely the Modern
Pentathlon, was not only realized, thereby taking a stand against one-sided
specialism in sports, but for the first time Olympic art contests were
implemented1, creating a pentathlon of muses2 including architecture,
sculpturing, painting, music and literature.3 After the 1948 Games in London,art contests were turned into Olympic art exhibitions. Since Barcelona 1992,“Cultural Olympiads” take place regularly over a 4-year period including
various events which climax during the time of the athletic competitions. The
London 2012 Festival also constitutes such finale of a Cultural Olympiad.
Bill Morris, Cultural Olympiad Board Member and Director of Ceremonies,
Education and Live Sites summarized in a PowerPoint presentation
impressive numbers characterizing the extent of “the largest UK-wide
cultural festival ever staged”:
Table 1: Scale of Achievement (Morris 2012, n.p.)

•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

13,006 performances and events
621 productions and projects
1,270 venues across the UK
160 world and UK premieres
200 commissions
176 permanent art works
18m Cultural Olympiad attendances and participation
19.8m Festival attendances and participation
80% of attendance was at free events

1

Cf. Lenk, Hans: Werte, Ziele, Wirklichkeit der modernen Olympischen Spiele. Schorndorf 1972/2, p. 32.
Coubertin, Pierre de: “Forty Years of Olympism, 1894-1934”. In: Norbert Müller (ed.). Pierre de Coubertin
1863-1937. Olympism. Selected Writings. Lausanne 2000 [1934], p. 743.
3
Cf. Coubertin, Pierre de: „Speech at the Opening of the Advisory Conference on the Arts, Literature, andSports”. In: Norbert Müller (ed.). Pierre de Coubertin 1863-1937. Olympism. Selected Writings. Lausanne2000 [1906], p. 611.
2197

Huge efforts were made to inform the population about the cultural festival.
550.000 brochures were distributed and 2.25 million festival supplements
were published in the English newspapers Telegraph and Guardian.
About 2 million interested people – “many from younger age groups and aninternational profile” (Morris 2012, n.p.) - used the respective website to get
information.
The London 2012 Festival was launched in June “to cut through pre Gamesand allowed people to get into the spirit” (ibid.).
Due to the already mentioned as well as due to further information channels
awareness concerning the cultural festival was high (cf. Table 2):
Table 2: Awareness of the London 2012 Festival (Morris 2012, n.p.)

•
•
•
•

Awareness of the London 2012 Festival reached 41% in London and
29% across the UK.
85% of attendees say London 2012 Festival was a positive addition
to the Games (64% of all those aware of Festival).
The BBC reach of London 2012 Festival content was 36% of the
population.
Due to the link to the Games the Festival infiltrated news and sports
sections of newspapers leading to wider awareness of the
programme:– 16% of media stories appeared in the news pages– 8% in the sports pages.

How much information did you receive about exhibitions and cultural events*of the Cultural Olympiad (London 2012 Festival)?
26% a lot
43.6% little
28.5% none at all
Did you attend any exhibitions or events of the London 2012 Olympic
Cultural Festival during the London 2012 Games until today?
all:
32.8% yes
67.2% nolocals:34.4% yes
65.6% notourists:
31.3% yes
68.7% noSurely, 43.6% of the spectators at the competitions “Modern Pentathlon”
questioned by students of the universities of Kaiserslautern and Kiel andcompleting a written questionnaire (total 753) received only “little”
information about exhibitions and cultural events of the Cultural Olympiad(London 2012 Festival) and 28.5% answered “none at all”. 26% indicate tohave received “a lot”.
*
Results of the Questions concerning the Cultural Olympiad (London 2012 Festival) on the Survey by Modern
Pentathlon Spectators in London 2012 on the basis of 753 (from 945) filled out questionnaires.

198

The degree of knowledgeability is dependent on at least three factors, namely
the objective range of information in terms of quantity as well as quality, theinformation channels used and potential recipients’ degree of interest
concerning the respective information: if the interest for sports is preeminent
repressing other informative elements, cultural information can beconsciously ignored or overlooked. Therefore, information offers do notnecessarily generate following attendance on the cultural program andparticipation and attendance are also not to be ruled out due to initial lack of
information, provided an active search for information.
The degree of relevance of such information also depends on the individual
perception and the related classification of the cultural program: extremely
positive as an essential part of the Olympic Games or extremely negative as
dispensable adjunct of an athletic mega event. The following table provides
more information:
Table 3: “What relationship do you see between the London 2012 Olympic
Cultural Festival and the Olympic Games in London 2012?” (Percentages do notinclude “uncertain” or “no answer” replies.)
statement

agree

Cultural events and exhibits traditionally belong to the
Olympic Games.
The cultural program combines art and sport.
It brightens up the host city. (all)It brightens up the host city (locals)
It brightens up the host city. (tourists)
It provides a beautiful setting for the sporting competitions.
It allows the athletes and spectators to experience beauty.
It allows artists to present their work to a large number ofpeople.
It is an alternative for these who did not get (enough) sport
tickets.
It offers those tourists/family members who are lessinterested in sport an alternative occupation during the
Olympic Games.
No relationship at all%
54.8

disagree(N)=753
%
28.1

66.2
79.4
81.3
77.0
72.3
64.4
72.9

18.5
7.1
6.9
7.4
13.2
19.7
12.0

63.9

21.1

72.0

14.1

31.3

55.1

About 55% and 66% of the spectators questioned recognize a traditional
connection between cultural events and the Olympic Games or define therelation as a combination of arts and sports.

199

According to the following three statements, the Cultural Festival functions
as a rather decorative adjunct whereby the ascription of an aesthetic function
receives strong approval.
Certain benefits for artists being able to present their work to a large audience
are recognized. Also, the cultural program offers an alternative to those who
were not able to purchase enough sports tickets or for tourists and family
members who are simply not interested in sports. While the former
experiences a combination of sport and culture in which culture is more like a“second choice”, the latter involves a devaluation of sport for at least a
subgroup.
Ultimately, over 30% deny the existence of a connection between Olympic
Sports and the London 2012 Festival. It is apparent that an Olympic fan’s
openness toward information concerning the cultural program can beassumed to be rather small as long he believes that it constitutes no essential
part of the Olympic Games or only a decorative adjunct of such.
Remarkably, the percentage value of all questioned London spectators, who
visited exhibitions or events of the Cultural festival (questioned during thelast two days of competition), is with roughly 33% nearly identical with theaverage generated during questionings since Barcelona.
Compared to the locals generating about 34% of festival spectators, thetourists’ score of 31% can be regarded as only slightly “worse”.
An analysis by Jens Flatau (University Kiel) shows the following
distribution:no cultural offer was attended:69%
one or two attendances:
10% eachthree attendances:
5%four attendances:
3%
five attendances:2%
six, seven or eight attendances:
1% each (all rounded values).
The following table gives an overview of exhibitions and events attended:200

Table 4: Attended exhibitions or events

Olympic topics or sport in general as Cultural Festival topic:
7.4% Olympic Journey (Royal Opera House)
6.1% Others, namely of those:
13.0% BT river of music festival
8.6% torch procession
6.5% British Museum
4.3% Hyde Park LiveArt Contributions of London/England/Great Britain. Name of attended
exhibitions or events:
5.3% World Shakespeare Festival 201210%
Exhibitions and events in the British Museum
3.2% Others:
8.3% City Tours
8.3% National Portrait Gallery
International topics:
7%
Southbank Center: Festival of the World
6.7% Tate Modern Gallery: e.g. Edvard Munch Exhibition
5.3% National Gallery: e.g. Titian 2012 Metamorphosis
7.1% Outdoor & Carnival in the streets (e.g. Rio Occupation London)
1.8% Others, namely:
7.1% Courtauld Gallery
7.1% Africa area

Attended exhibitions or events were supposed to be assigned to artistic
genres resulting in the following ranking: Visual Arts (12%), Music,
Ballet/Modern Dance, Opera, Musical (8%), Theater (8%), Festival Film
Program (3%), other (2%).
Morris refers to evaluations concerning the quality of the festival:
Table 5: Evaluations of the London 2012 Festival quality (Morris 2012, n.p.)

•
•
•
•

70% of attendees say the event exceeded their expectations.
60% of attendees stated that this was the most exciting Festival the
UK has ever seen.
82% of coverage in 2012 of the London 2012 Festival and/or its
events and performances was positive or neutral.
Media commentary on the festival focused on both quality andreach.

201

Precisely because Olympic cultural programs showcase outstanding works ofart and national as well as international presentations, the average proportionof spectators (33% in the period of 1992-2012) is not satisfying.
Opportunities concerning medial – and possibly time-displaced – coverageand documentation could be broadened.
Morris refers to six learning points for future Host Cities:
Table 6: Learning points for future Host Cities (Morris 2012, n.p.)

•
•
•
•
•
•

Better integration with OCOG systems
An agreed vision and delivery model and staffing structure from the
beginning
A single budget within the OCOG
nationwide and over 4 years but delivered in phases
Early clarification and communication of the brand and its potential
Creation of Cultural Olympiad Board necessary to bring cultural
sector on side

References
Coubertin, Pierre de: „Speech at the Opening of the Advisory Conference on the Arts, Literature,and Sports”. In: Norbert Müller (ed.). Pierre de Coubertin 1863-1937. Olympism. Selected
Writings. Lausanne 2000 [1906], 611-612.
Coubertin, Pierre de: “Forty Years of Olympism, 1894-1934”. In: Norbert Müller (ed.). Pierre de
Coubertin 1863-1937. Olympism. Selected Writings. Lausanne 2000 [1934], 742-746.
Lenk, Hans: Werte, Ziele, Wirklichkeit der modernen Olympischen Spiele. Schorndorf 1972/2.
Morris, Bill: Emerging Findings – Cultural Olympiad and London 2012 Festival. UnpublishedPowerPoint-Presentation. 2012, 19 pages.

Translation from German by Janine Lacombe.

202Pierre de Coubertin, iron bust for
the Olympic Museum Lausanne1997 by Karlheinz Oswald, Zürich

Thoughts for Future Olympic
Cultural Programs

Catalogue of the greatest exhibtion of the Munich '72 Cultural Olympiad "World cultures andmodern art". The Encounters of the European Fine Arts and Music of the 19st and 20st Century
with Asia, Africa, Ozeania, Afro- and Indo America, (639 pp, Bruckmann Munich 1972).
Cover table: Claude Monet: Madame Monet in the Kimono.

The Contribution of Arts in Coubertin’s
Conceptions towards a Sport Global Culture
Lamartine DaCosta“The much-prophesied abandonment of Olympism andhence of the ‘Olympic Education’ has not come about, nor
are there any signs that it will do so. Anyone who thinks interms of perfectionism and makes the total achievement of
his aims a basic condition, had failed to understand
Coubertin and his Olympism”(Norbert Müller in “Olympic Education”, lecture at theInternational Chair in Olympism, Universidad Autònoma deBarcelona – Centre d’Estudis Olimpics, 2004)

The nature of the work-in-progress on Pierre de Coubertin’s intellectual
writings, as emphasized by Norbert Müller in the epigraph of this essay, istoday a challenge to his interpreters and critics. However, the multiple
visions and the non-argumentative style of Coubertin’s writings were not so
often regarded in the Baron’s texts on art and aesthetics in addition to what
he eventually called “general culture”, which included sport. In my view, theinterconnected conception of art-aesthetics-culture explicitly assumed by
Coubertin was concerned to fixed external theories apart from his typicaleclectic and continuous re-elaborations in terms of explanations andproposals.
In taking this stance, my contribution to Norbert Müller’s thesis on theaccount of strategic incompleteness found in Coubertin’s works then aims toreview literary constructions and theoretical approaches to art-aestheticsculture selected from Coubertinean texts. For this proposed analysis, myargument will rely on the historical reconstructions within which aesthetic
and art themes arose, shading their influence on Coubertin’s writings andcreating reactions from past and present day’s interpreters. Methodologicallyspeaking, I shall give voice to Coubertin’s and other actors’ interpretations of
their own actions; in addition, I will discuss the premise that the term
‘culture’ envisaged by the Baron during his lifetime was actually the
traditional worldview conception with roots in Ancient Greek art andprevailing nowadays under the denomination of global culture which
encompasses the Olympic Games.

207Indeed, to review Coubertin’s writings is to focus his multiple elaborations
either on Olympism or on the Olympic Games as his main concerns. For thesake of my argument, I will explore the art and aesthetic approaches to
Olympism and furthermore their links to culture in relation to the Olympic
Games.
In retrospect, Olympism is an expression coined by Pierre de Coubertin
beginning in 1894 when the Olympic Games were proposed to be reestablished. At this time, the term denoted either a movement of actions
towards the development of the Games or an idea to give meaning to thismovement inspired by ancient Greek athletics. In 1914, Olympism made aformal appearance in the first Olympic Charter, which encompassed thefundamental principles and rules of the Olympic Movement. In this historical
document written by Coubertin, Olympism became “a philosophy of life
exalting and combining in a balanced whole the qualities of body, will andmind” (1), without further considerations.
The denotation of Olympism as a social movement became common in
Coubertin’s texts, from in 1894 up to 1937, when he died. For instance, in the
IOC 1923 Session (Rome), he declared boldly in his opening speech:“Olympism as we have conceived it and seek to organize it, is nothing otherthan a garden for the cultivation of willpower […] our progress has been too
rapid, I might add, if the twofold guarantee of democracy and universality
had not been there to support it. That is what ensures the strength of an
institution in this day and age” (2). More specifically, Coubertin in his
lifetime often used the term “Olympism” with both the prescriptive(“philosophy of life”) and descriptive (institutional and group achievement)
connotations. This wide use -- and abuse -- of the term has certainly resulted
in a variety of interpretations, some radically different and often
contradictory.
In short, Olympism – or “neo-Olympism,” as the philhellene Coubertin
frequently labeled it - was created as a reminiscence of ancient Greece, but itlacked internal consistency. This would mean that Olympism as aprotophilosophy (a simple, atheoretical description lacking any connection toa central underlying conception) was initially proposed to enforce the valuesof a wider society, although it was not the source of those values itself (3).
This account, addressed to Loland’s recent description of externalist andinternalist points of view of sport (4), would also allow Olympism to be botha values-led (externalist) and self-reflexive (internalist). The externalist
concept might be applied to the ancient Greek athleticism restored by
Coubertin, with its religious and cultural traditions, while the internalist pointof view could be expressed by Coubertin’s neo-Olympism as a literary andrhetorical discourse based on philosophical elements and metaphors. Thusfar, it could be concluded that Coubertin’s writings dealt with the similarvalues celebrated in the poems of the ancient Greek poet Pindar (522 – 443

208BC), whose lyric verses praised mostly Olympic champions. Significantly, -as noted by Massard (5) -- Coubertin also summarized Olympism as an idea:"The idea of Olympism is to us the conception of a strong muscular culture
supported not only by a chivalrous spirit, which you so elegantly call here the‘fair-play’ but also by some notion of aesthetics, about the cult of somethingwhich is beautiful and graceful.”
Whether one accepts aesthetic values-led or historical self-reflexive proposals
for Olympism and even for the Olympic Games restoration, Coubertin’s
strategy of dealing mostly in generalities may be considered successful. Afterall, he had to adapt very sensitive proposals to different cultures, religions,and political powers in developing modern Olympic Games. Of course, inthis context it would not be very appropriate to propose strict
philosophically-based conceptions. Nevertheless, as the pre-socratic thinkers
of ancient Greece sought to explain the natural world, he sought to explain
the cultural roots of Olympism, creating an ipso facto philosophy. What I am
suggesting about Coubertin’s Olympism is that he re-contextualized notions
from history, pedagogy, sociology, anthropology and even philosophy into a
new framework. Then, by adopting a particular discourse characterized by
eclectic thinking and eurhythmy, he added doctrinaire conceptions from art
and aesthetics to his “philosophy,” transgressing the classical reasoning at its
root.
Now, to define eclecticism and eurhythmy it is necessary to return to the 19th
century French intellectual ambience which influenced Coubertin’s
accomplishments. Actually, eclecticism emerged as a line of thought during
the Italian Renaissance, but it has its culmination with Victor Cousin (1792 –1867) during the French Enlightenment. In all spheres, French eclecticism
experienced the tension between the sciences and the humanities and, as aresult, it was progressively dissolved after Cousin’s death in the midnineteenth century. However, it did survive in the arts and especially inarchitecture. Ultimately, for Cousin, eclecticism was a philosophical position
which he expressed in the following words: “Eclecticism conciliates all
systems, integrating all facts which consolidate them.” According to such aview, “systematic thinking proceeds from doctrine to facts, while the eclectic
approach follows the opposite procedure, legitimized by experience (6).
Not surprisingly, when we compare Coubertin’s writings to Cousin’s
proposals, we find more than analogies. And the juxtaposition of diverse
elements in Olympism becomes inherent to the logic of eclectic proposals
and aesthetic compositions. Much the same could be said about eurhythmy,which Coubertin connected to the beautiful and the perfect: “Eurythmics iseverything that is well-proportioned” (7). In short, eurhythmy was a means ofeliminating excesses in Coubertin’s elaborations by playing the mediationrole between extremes of eclectic combinations (8). Not surprisingly,

209eurhythmy is the key conception – or “spiritual attitude” – most cultivated in
Coubertin’s texts.
The noteworthy role of eclecticism in Coubertin’s thought was first detectedby Wirkus and Nissiotis, during the 1980s (9). Both were philosophers byprofession and dedicated to Continental Philosophy. In the 1990s, I took up
this thread of thought and concluded that eclecticism should be considered
the axis of the logic of Olympism (10). Today, because eclecticism explains
Olympism generality and because eclecticism also accounts for the
Olympism’s lack of systematic propositions, the thesis of Olympism as a
discursive protophilosophy may gain momentum. Unfortunately, Anglophonescholars – today’s major group of sport philosophers - are less familiar witheclecticism, preventing them from discussing this interpretation. Such alimitation would explain why the insistent attention to the so-called“epistemological disorder” in Coubertin’s texts and proposals became
dominant (11). Moreover, their epistemological criticism had put aside not
only attributes of Olympism derived from 19th century French intellectual
milieu but also the understanding of protophilosophy. Summing up,
Olympism essentially represented during Coubertin’s life time a wideranging discourse with underlying philosophical and aesthetical positions andself-reflexive propositions derived from ancient Greek cultural legacies andathleticism.
Contemporary interpretations otherwise have been more point-specific,
favoring values-led and stable interpretations of Olympism and of
Coubertin’s work in general. For instance, Henri Pouret, lecturer in the 1978
IOA Session ? (12), stressed that since Coubertin usually transferred some art
conceptual approaches to his intellectual propositions and elaborations, theuniversality of eurhythmy taken from literary works was adapted to provide a
desirable harmony to Olympism. Coincidently, the celebration offragmentation and plurality is currently being made by postmodern literature,
which also demands some form of harmony for the self-realization of its
authors, as emphazised by Bryson (13). In this concern, to keep my argument
flowing, it could be argued whether Coubertin’s works may be thenconsidered as postmodern literature avant-la-letre. At least in the form of his
writings was Coubertin a traditionalist or a transgressor of classicalepistemological understanding?
Symptomatically, the International Seminar “Post-Olympism? Questioning
Sport in the Twenty-First Century” hold in Aarhus, Denmark, in September,
2002, brought forward evidences of both tradicionalist and transgressor rolesof Coubertin’s literally works. At this event there were 17 contributors
whose papers were later published in a book with the same title, edited byBale & Christensen (14). The book, in addition to the aim announced by its
title, included chapters supporting the Olympic ideal in principle, but all were210

broadly critical-- their critiques coming from various disciplinary,philosophical and ideological sources. Post-Olympism, in this case, basically“might be read as a time when the ideals of Olympism…appeared to havebeen changed in some way – corrupted, exploited or ignored, for example” or“as privileging aesthetics over results” (15).
Bale and Christensen also emphasized “the similarity between postOlympism and postmodernism,” giving grounds to the typical tone of
emancipation usually taken by postmodernists, by observing that the Olympic
Games in their manifestations “at the same time, be seen as divisive, racist,
elitist, homophobic and sexist” (16). Put in this theoretical framework, I
might be able to propose a thesis of Post-Olympism as an attempt to have ateleological collective reference to organize emancipatory narratives. Thus, I
quote Douglas Booth - one of the lecturers of the Aarhus Seminar – who,
“proceeding from the premise that nothing written can be read as meaning,”
then suggests that postmodernists value more the intentions of the author thanhis/her sources and texts, placing their analyses in deconstructed texts anddiscourses within different perspectives (17). In this case and according to
my views, a postmodernist reading of Coubertin’s texts should be welcome inrespect of its typical eclectic structure.
Either connecting to cultural discursive exchange or aesthetic ritualistic
manifestation, other lecturers of the Aarhus Seminar (18), such as Booth(p.32), Krüger (p.37), Carrington (p.81), Brown (p. 99), Sydnor (p. 175) andMoller (p.209) were in line with the multiple perspectives assertion, which is
not surprising for a postmodernist debate. Therefore, the objections to ahistorically-constructed Post-Olympism were open to discussion, whichmight ironically include Pierre de Coubertin with his eclectic elaborations
with self-reflexive understanding often supported by externalist-based
theories.
Again, having Norbert Müller as main source, it is possible to admit that
Coubertin’s strictly followed the theories developed by John Ruskin (1819 –
1900) when approaching to art in his sport conceptions. In short, according to
Müller (19), Ruskin’s theory on the manifestation of beauty as representativeof the sprit of universe provoked a deep impression on Coubertin. Moreover,this representation presupposed an aesthetic revival of the past by means ofpublic celebrations and ceremonies, which were afterwards adopted by
Coubertin
as permanent values for the modern Olympic Gamesdevelopment.
Apart from civic aesthetic developments, in the late 19th century Ruskinadhered to ideas that led to the Arts and Crafts movement which ultimately
represented the socialism by the art and for the art. Still according to Müller

211

Official Report ot the Seoul 1988 "Olympiad of Art" (Collection N. Müller)(p. 13), later this conception was shared by Coubertin when he comparedmodern Olympic Games with Wagner’s music festivals at Bayreuth whichcorresponded to the “total art” concept.
The fixed attachment of Coubertin with Ruskin’s ideas may also be assessedat least in two texts. In 1911, the Baron had written a “Traité sur leRuskianism sportive” (20) and in 1922 he published the book “PedagogieSportive”, in which he addressed John Ruskin’s theories in the chapter“L’Art et le Sport” (21). As such, Coubertin consolidated and promoted
Ruskin’s distinction between production and occasion for art performances,
as seen in his original text in French (p. 537):« Le sport doit être envisagé comme producteur d’art et comme occasion
d’art. Il produit la beauté puisqu’il engendre l’athlète qui est de la sculpture
vivante. Il est occasion de beauté par les édifices qu’on lui consacre, les
spectacles, les fêtes qu’il provoque. »This declaration is a post hoc synthesis of Coubertin’s attempts to make theOlympic Games an occasion for beautification of sport competitions. In turn,the beauty inherent to athleticism ought to be enjoyed by spectators and by
the athletes themselves as art producers. Yet, specifically with regard to this
synthesis, it is necessary to point out the coherent and long-time option that
Coubertin had made for aspects related to art and sport. To be sure, hepromoted in 1906 a «Consultative Conference for the Art, Literature andSport» (22) as an initiative to provide occasions d’art for Olympic sports andthe Olympic Games as well ; also he claimed, starting in 1908, that
« Olympism is in part an aesthetic idea » (23), confirming the inspirationalrole of Olympism as producteur d’art.
More important here, however, is the articulation of art – sport - culture, acombination envisaged as a « cultural mission » by the participants of the1906 Conference (24). Coubertin reported this claim in his famous text « Un
Grand Marriage » declaring« Il s’agit d’unir à nouveau, par les liens d’un légitime mariage, d’anciens
divorcé : le muscle et l’esprit » (25).
Following Coubertin memories, the expected result of this marriage was a
new form of sport and art related to « popular culture », as proposed by the
Conference’s speakers Pottecher and Bourgaut-Ducoudray (26).
In fact, Coubertin was also coherent and stable in the cultural understandingof sport in modern society as revealed by Douglas Brown when scrutinizing
the preliminaries of the 1906 Consultative Conference for the Art, Literatureand Sport (27). This sport historian in another research demonstrated that213

sport and art are products of the same body of knowledge, i.e. the modern
culture, having as source of his investigation the Coubertin’s texts included in
the Revue Olympic, the official magazine of the International Olympic
Committee – IOC created in 1901 (28).
While the conception of culture in Coubertin’s writings is cleary in place by
the beginning of the 20th century, there are nonetheless some later shifts ofemphasis. Most noteworthy is the various denomination attached to theexpression ‘culture’, such as ‘culture corporelle’ (1909), ‘culture sportive’(1916) and ‘culture physique’ (1906) (29). But, in 1906 already theconception of a culture as a ‘result of the practical life instead of theoreticallearning’ was assumed by Coubertin.
This culture of practical life was explicitly quoted in August Comte’s text
« La Politique Positivist », in a rare declaration of source made by the Baron
himself (30). And this is one of the most revealing statement from
Coubertin’s approaches to culture due to its similarity with the stoic
recommendation on the practical wisdom and guidance as a base foreveryday life. Hence, recognizable stoic influences can be inferred from
Coubertin’s writings, according to a review written by Georges Rioux (31),
who also demonstrated that the Baron followed Epictetus’ lessons about
asceticism as an educational model and worldview (“cosmopolitism” in
Coubertin) as a general vision of the universe and man's place in it, which
affects one's relationship with other men and the natural environment.
In other words, the culture interconnected with art and sport from Coubertin’s
early elaborations seems to coincide with the traditions of worldview, again acultural expression of present times being understood as global culture.
Indeed, the current conception of globalization refers to the compression of
the worldview and its consciousness as a whole (32). Thus, the Olympic
Movement's historic contrasting directions may have a cultural understanding
when sharpening the global focus of interpretation. In Coubertin’s writings,
this consciousness was often represented interchangeably by the expressions“cosmopolitism”, “universalism” and “eurhythmy” (balance whole).
Much more than other forms of culture, the Olympic idea may be regarded
today also as part of the so-called global culture (consciousness of the wholeworld) in addition to a cultural meaning in themselves on account of theirancient Greek roots. This interpretation grew out of evidences that there is an
Olympic culture now admitted as global but which has been passing throughdifferent epochs and places due to a typically universal appeal. Thus far, one
appealing element of this contemporary globally accepted culture is the
Olympic Games (33).

214

Yet, these assertions bring into light again Müller’s thesis on Pierre de
Coubertin as a misunderstood restorer of the Olympic Games and as asupposed utopian creator of Olympism. Certainly, the Baron was anambivalent intellectual nevertheless he succeeded in adapting many pastexperiences to the challenges of modern times.
But the relevance of the sport global culture was one of his most sensitive
perceptions and outstanding accomplishments. In this context, he always paid
tribute to his aesthetic firsthand approaches to sport’s interpretations as henoted in 1914 (34):“La justice dénonce l’excès, à ses yeux cause initiale de tous les maux. La
beauté compte sur un esthétisme fondamental qui existerait en puissance aufond de chacun de nous et qu’il suffirait de réveiller”.
Should this ‘fundamental aestheticism’ finally be considered anotheruncompleted and never-ending theory from the Baron’s intellectual legacy?
Notes
1. See Almanach Olympic pour 1918, Lausanne, 1917, p. 4 (Olympic Museum Archives, Lausanne).
2. Quoted in “L’emblème et le drapeau de 1914” (editorial of Pierre de Coubertin). La Revue Olympic, august,1913 in Durry, J. «Pierre de Coubertin. The Visionary » (English version). Paris: Comité Français Pierre de
Coubertin, 1996, p. 46.
(3) For Olympism as a protophilosophy compare with DaCosta, L.P. A Never-Ending Story : The
Philosophical Controversy Over Olympism. Journal of the Philosophy of Sport, 2006, Vol. 33, pp. 157 – 173.
(4) Loland, S. Normative Theories of Sport : A Critical Review. Journal of the Philosophy of Sport, 2004, 21,
111 - 121.
(5) Massard, A. “Le Sport, Complément Essentiel de la Culture”. Revue Olympique, 1987, janvier, n. 231, 20– 21.
(6) See Victor Cousin’s opera magnum « Du Vrai, du Beau et du Bien », 1853, pp. 360 – 392 (UGF Library,Rio de Janeiro).
(7) Coubertin, P. Les Sources et les Limites du Progrès Sportive. Olympisch Rundschau, no. 5, avril 1939 in
Müller, N. (Ed) Pierre de Coubertin – Texts Choisis, Weidmann, Zurich, 1986, p. 76, Tome II.
(8) DaCosta, L.P. Olympic Studies. University Gama Filho Press, Rio de Janeiro, 2002, p. 63.
(9) See in Müller N., (Ed) The Relevance of Pierre de Coubertin Today. Schors, Niedernhausen, 1987, thechapters of Nissiotis, N. «L’Actualité de Pierre de Coubertin du Point de Vue de la Philosophie », pp. 125 –
170, and Wirkus, B. « Pierre de Coubertin’s philosophical Eclecticism as the Essence of Olympism », pp. 179– 190.
(10) DaCosta, L.P. Op. Cit., 2002, p. 39 – 58.
(11) See for the «epistemological disorder » (arguments and ideas in contradition), Landry, F. «L’Actualité dePierre de Coubertin: De la Pedagogie et de l’ Education Physique Apliquée a l’ Amerique du Nord » (notes 5
and 6) in Müller, N. Op. Cit., 1987, p. 90.
(12) Pouret, H. The Intellectual Influences on Pierre de Coubertin. International Olympic Academy Report,
Ancient Olympia, 1978, p. 118 - 122.
(13) Bryson, M. Reclaiming the Self: Transcending the Fragmentation of the Individual Subject. MA Thesis,
Truman State University, 1996 (unpublished).
(14) Bale, J. & Christensen M.K. (Eds) Post-Olympism? Questioning Sport in the 21st Century. Berg, Oxford,
2004.
(15) Ibidem, pp. 1-12.
(16) Ibidem, p. 4.
(17) Ibidem, p. 18(18) Ibidem, Booth, D. “Post-Olympism? Questioning Olympic Historiography”, pp. 13 – 32: Damkjaer, S.
“Post-Olympism and the Aestheticisation of Sport”, pp. 211 – 230; Krüger, A. “Was the 1936 Olympics theFirst Postmodern Spectacle?”, pp. 33 – 50; Carrington, B. “Cosmopolitan Olympism, Humanism and215

Spectacle of ‘Race’”, pp. 81 – 98; Brown, D. “Post-Olympism: Olympic Legacies, Sport Spaces and thePractices of Everyday Life”, pp. 99 – 118; Sydnor, S. “Essence of Post-Olympism: A Prolegomena of Study”,
pp. 165 – 176; Möller, V. “Doping and the Olympic Games from as Aesthetic Perspective”, pp. 201 – 210.
(19) Müller, N. Preface. Pierre de Coubertin – Textes Choisis. Tome II: Olympism. Weidmann, Zurich, 1986,
p. 13.
(20) Coubertin, P. Décoration, Pyrotechnie, Harmonies, Cortèges (1911) in Müller, N. Op. Cit. (1986), pp. 517– 535.
(21) Coubertin, P. L’Art et le Sport (1922) in Müller, N. Op. Cit. (1986), pp. 537 – 542.
(22) See inter alia Guillain, J.Y. Art & Olympism. Atlantica, Paris, 2004, pp. 31 – 54.
(23) Coubertin, P. The Olympic Idea: Discourses and Essays. Carl Diem Institute, Stuttgart, 1967, p. 21.
(24) See Brown, D. A. Revisiting the Discourse of Art, Beauty and Sport from the 1906 Consultative
Conference for Arts, Literature and Sport. Olympika, vol. V, 1996, p. 12.
(25) Coubertin, P. Un Grand Marriage (1906) in Müller, N. Op. Cit. (1986), p. 543.
(26 ) Coubertin, P. Art, Lettres et Sports (1906) in Müller, N. Op. Cit. (1986), p. 487.
(27) Brown, D. A. Op. Cit. (1996), pp. 1 - 3.
(28) Brown, D. A. Modern Sport, Modernism and the Cultural Manifesto: De Coubertin’s Revue Olympique.
The International Journal of the History of Sport, vol. 18, no. 2, June 2001, pp. 78 – 109.
(29) Müller, N. Op. Cit. (1986): ‘culture corporelle’ (Tome I, p. 392, 1909), ‘culture sportive’ (Tome I, p.
399-402, 1916) and ‘culture physique’ (Tome I, p. 454, 1906).
(30) Müller, N. Op. Cit. (1986), Tome I, p. 454.
(31) Rioux, G. Pierre de Coubertin Éducateur in Müller, N. Op. Cit. (1986), pp. 1 – 34 ; notes 34 (p. 29) and55 (p. 31).
(32) Compare with Robertson , R. Globalization. Sage, London, 1992, p.8.
(33) For further considerations on the Olympic culture see DaCosta, Op. Cit., 2002, p. 153 – 176.
(34) Coubertin, P. Les Pourvoyeurs du Royaume d’Utopie. Revue Olympic, mai 1914, pp. 75 - 77 (Olympic
Museum Archives, Lausanne).

Originally published in Wacker, Chr./ Marxen, R. (eds.): Olympia - Ideal und
Wirklichkeit. Festschrift für Norbert Müller zum 60.Geburtstag. Berlin, LIT,
2008, pp.315-324.

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Setting a New Bar for Cultural Olympiads of
Olympic Winter GamesAn Interview with Burke Taylor, Vice President for Culture
and Ceremonies of Vancouver 2010*
Burke Taylor / Research Team Olympia University of Mainz
We would like to start our interview with a quotation from you. You said
“The Cultural Olympiad experiences could capture new imagination, engage
or delight you or provoke you to think about Canada and the whole world alittle bit differently. We invite you to take part and perhaps to push yourlimits when you do”. So, do you think your wishes have become true in thelast days?
Yes, I do and that is partly because of just what we are hearing fromindividuals but you can also see it in the attendance that people are trying
things that they have never experienced before. We are selling out almost
everything – all the local, national and international things. So, we know forsure that people are trying things that they have not before and the kinds ofcommentary and the kinds of reviews have all been remarkably positive. So, I
believe that people are doing what I hoped they would do.
How does the Cultural Olympiad in Vancouver compare to the 1988 Cultural
Olympiad in Calgary where you directed the performing arts program?
Well, todays’ is much bigger, more diverse in a number of ways. In Calgary,
there was only the Olympic Arts Festival because there were no Paralympic
Games. We did do some national and international work in that Arts Festival
as well – not as extensive, not as challenging. The other thing that we reallyhave broken ground is the digital side with the online programs, both in thearts and cultural side and in education. Calgary was a simpler time. So, it was
just a live festival.
Since Barcelona, we have this notion to stage the Cultural Olympiad overfour years. So that is another big difference to this time. And you were thefirst to start a multi-year Cultural Olympiad during Winter Games.
Yes, in terms of public we started with the ’08 Festival in 2008 but weactually started the year before that with a major commissioning program.
We put together a partnership of many – like the Government of Canada andthe Canada Council for the Arts and we put together a fund of about 6.5*
Interview led by Norbert Müller and Katie Scholl from the Olympic Research Team of the University ofMainz at the end of the 2010 Cultural Olympiad in Vancouver, Canada. Questions were formulated by
Katharina Galuba.

217

million dollars to invest in new work and to invest also not just in thecreation but also in the development of that work. And I managed to secure
the partnership of every Province and Territory across Canada and their
Ministry of Culture and their Arts Councils. So, we actually have over one
hundred partners.
Did you also learn a little bit from Torino since with Italy Art it was the firsttime that many different partners were working together? Because I thinkthat was a clever way to also collect more financial means.
Yes. We have been doing this in Canada for a very long time – that model ofworking with partners, strategic partners as well as co-producing or copresenting partners as well as funding partners. So, Torino was not new to us.
It was actually a very modest program. They had a very limited budget. So,
they ended up really just working with local companies that had their own
venues. I think necessity was the mother of invention. They did what they
had to do with the given resources and you have to take your hat off for that.
But the idea of strategic partnerships has been something we have worked on
for many years here.
Can you tell us something about the budget?
The budget we work with overall is about 20 million Canadian Dollars.
Initially, it was higher than that but we took a bit of a cut along witheverybody else over the years as budgets happen around Games. But then lastyear in particular because of the global economic meltdown we took anothervery serious hit in the very last days. We were finishing our programing andfinalizing the production requirements. So, in the end we spent 16 million
Canadian Dollars from our own budget. So, we started off with 27 million
and we ended up with 16 million – and that is for a 4-year program. So, it
was extremely important money though because that was the money that got
us to the table to say this is the program that we can do. If you get involved,
the infrastructures are already in place, the ability to produce is already inplace, the marketing, the venues are all taken care of - but then we only havea small amount remaining for programing. If you come in then the
programing becomes this and the reach becomes that. And this is one of mypoints with the IOC. The IOC needs to ensure that the Organizing
Committees believe that this is important and they must protect a significant
amount of money. It won’t be the whole budget that you need but my vision
for that festival was always somewhere between 40 and 50 million and withleverage that is pretty much where we are.
And Barcelona was 82 million Dollars, you know that!
Yes, absolutely. Everything is bigger in the Summer Games. It comes fromthe host community. If you take a look at which host communities actually218

believe that their culture is important then it shows. Calgary was like that. It
was a 5-week festival and was the biggest and broadest of its time but then it
deteriorated.
So, your first important proposal is that we as the IOC Commission have to
introduce a clear budget position to the President and the Contact
Commission and the Organizing Committee more strongly.
Absolutely. What I would say first, I think, is that money always follows. So,
what the IOC needs to do is to fully appreciate how important this is to the
future of the movement, to the future of the Games and to say that all should
understand that the IOC has some objectives that are served by the Cultural
Olympiad and therefore, these are the objectives we would like to see you
interpret - because each nation is going to do their own. It is not for the IOC
to tell Organizing Committees what to do, but to say these are the objectives
we want you to achieve on behalf of the movement. If everybody understands
what the objectives are then everybody understands that money is necessary.
Could you please describe the consumer of the Cultural Olympiad? Who do
you want to reach with this program – the sportsman, somebody who isalready culturally interested?
Everybody, everybody. And I think we have integrated a very youthfuldemographic. We have got something for everybody and we have got the
intra-traditional cultures of the Aboriginal people, we have got the classics inballet and classical music. But we also got a very dynamic program of
popular music and world music, the digital arts and the visual and plenty ofroom for entertainment and engagement as well as interactive involvement.
So, this is your politics – to be open to everybody and to offer something toeverybody, especially to young people.
Exactly, and that is achieved in a number of different ways including where
we have pegged the ticket price which is to say that there is no Olympic
premium on these tickets. They are - relatively speaking – very inexpensive
and at the most expensive they are no more than what the normal price of an
opera ticket would be at any other time. The other thing is that one of our setsof partnerships is with the celebration sites. In doing that, another innovation
created was to make the programmers of Cultural Olympiad also theprogrammers for all of the celebration sites as well as many of the pavilions.
This way you manage the competition for the artists. The agents do not likethis very much but it keeps the costs down. It gives the artists opportunities to
do multiple presentations instead of just coming out and doing one and goinghome. So, they get more exposure and they enjoy that. And the audiences for
those artists are then larger as well and that sort of develops the audience for
their work.

220

The opening and closing ceremonies, especially the opening ceremony, arevery expensive. The budget is much higher than yours in total. I see thedanger that in the future people will think that especially the opening
ceremony covers the cultural aspects. What do you think about this?
Well, we have demonstrated is that this would be a false conclusion to draw.
The combination of the kind of engagement that takes place here live and thenumber of people we are engaging – and it could be as many as 1.5 or 2
million people – speak for themselves. But the other thing that is happeningis that the media who are here – ten or twelve thousand media – are telling
our stories through either television or radio or blogging online or print
media. So, while the magic number for the opening ceremony is always the 3
or 4 billion, we are getting a lot of global coverage through the arts andcultural side of things as well. So, I think we have demonstrated that thesethings cannot be virtually exclusive.
How did you choose the artists? Did they have to apply and who selected theartists?
One of the big challenges you have when you start a project like this is thatyou don’t know what you don’t know, especially Organizing Committees
who have never done it before. We had a few veterans of big events. So,
especially when you are trying to reflect on both the nation and theinternational presence – knowing the locals is not difficult but it is in acountry as big as Canada. We had to do pretty much everything we could.
We have professionals who do programming all the time. They have
networks. There are events every year in a number of different places that arekind of showcases for talents. And we have networks of our own, trusted
advisors out there across the country and elsewhere around the world who fed
us ideas. But still, just because it is Canada and we are prone to a democratic
approach, we also opened up an online registry, so artists could actually put
themselves in our path. So, if we could not find them through the networking
and through the visiting of these different showcases then any artists in
Canada could go online to the artist registry, put up their name, theconnection to their website, give DVDs or videos. And we reviewed all ofthat material.
How far did you include aspects of the Aboriginal culture and maybe theFrench people from the east and other minorities?
There were actually three different parts. There is a program of commissions
for works of art for the venues. We worked closely with that. The host “First
Nations” put together the Aboriginal Pavilion. We did that with them inpartnership as well. So, we did the contemporary professional Aboriginal
programming - just like we did for the celebration sites – and they did the
traditional programming in the afternoon.

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In the opening ceremony Aboriginal aspects were plentiful. You consider it
politically important for this region?
Politically but also socially. This is one of those things that is little known
outside of British Columbia. There are only two specific treaties in British
Columbia. So, if you think about it, it is not like the rest of the country like in
the United States. This is a place where the Aboriginal cultures are alive andwell and flourishing in most cases. Some of them are poorer than others but
the culture is strong and a sense of responsibility for the land is still there.
And we have come to respect that and we have come to a place where we are
more mutually respectful.
To what extent are the Paralympics included in this program or is there asmaller program during the Paralympics?
As you can see in the program, all of the visual arts continue all the way
through and the live festival it stops at the end of February 28th, so, there isabout ten days hiatus and then it comes back and we do the same level ofprogram. In Canada generally but in Vancouver in particular the Paralympic
Games have taken on the place of equality. And this is partly because of how
advanced Vancouver is in terms of the issues of accessibility. When the
Mayor picked up the Flag in Torino – he is a quadriplegic – there wasanother City Councilor who was also a quadriplegic. So, two out of elevenpeople there were quadriplegic. So the issues of accessibility have been on
the forefront here for a very long time.
In terms of participant numbers, Paralympics, especially Winter Paralympics
are very small. So, your program then offers a second chance for the entire
population.
That is it. We are not using this to entertain the athletes particularly. It is
about engaging the public in the Paralympics the same way we are engaging
the public in the Olympics – giving them something to focus on and bothbring their attention to the Paralympics and get them attached to it.
Are you going to evaluate the Cultural Olympiad, number of tickets sold etc.?
Yes, we will. So, in the end, we will probably have details by the end of
April. We have a lot of partners to report to before we disappear and mywhole team disappears by the end of April.
How was the coverage of the Cultural Olympiad in the media? Are yousatisfied?
I think it is beyond our expectations. There has been more of it and evenmore positive than we expected, I think. That is what I was hearing from the
IOC staff. They said they could not believe it - very time they turned around,picked up a newspaper or turned on the television.

222

Let us return to the Aboriginal culture. In the opening ceremony it took in a
big part but in the program here it seems not so high percentagewise.
I think you would be surprised. It is not identified as Aboriginal. Very often
you will find that – and this is because of such a contemporary program – wehave done that pretty well with every discipline, the very formal, traditional
Aboriginal program we dealt with in ceremonies mostly and you will findcontemporary Aboriginal artists on exhibitions. We do have quite a broadcross section of Aboriginal work.
Could you state your personal opinion why the cooperation of sports and arts
in general is so important for the Olympic Games?
I think, in some ways the IOC has said it right. When you think of it in termsof just sport then you lose all of the objectives of the movement. I mean,then, it just becomes another sport competition. But having sport and culture
standing side by side makes it a completely different kind of event. It actually
gives it the opportunity to do what it is set out to do, which is to bring people
together in peace. I would argue it happens even more comprehensively
through intercultural exchange than it does through sport. However, sport isfundamental to this as well. I mean you are not going to do that without sport
but I think that they are complementary. I think that you could hardly ask fora better combination. The parallels between athletes and artists - their
passion, their conviction and their discipline, their working toward a goal orsomething of the imagination – there is a perfect match. And the opportunity
for intercultural exchange through the Cultural Olympiad itself is just anatural second pillar. I just wish it was as strong in the eyes of the IOC.
What do you estimate concerning the future of the cultural part of the
Olympics?
People have said to us – and I would like to believe that it is true – that wehave set a new bar and perhaps have shown the way for the Winter Games.
Other previous Summer Games have done extremely well. I think Sydney did
a great job, for example, in terms of the comprehensiveness of the activity
and the multi-year nature of the activity. I think we have now done that for
winter sport and it is a vision that seems to be moving some people within theIOC. I would like to hope that it will continue to do that. I think it will bevery hard for the next Winter Games organizers. Well, I should say Sochi isgoing to be extremely strong on culture anyway.
Could you explain the digital program that you mentioned before a little
more?
There are a number of different programs. There is one called “The Canada
Code”, there is one called “Code Motion Pictures”, there is one called“Screens 2010” and there is another called “Code Live”. “Canada Code” was223

an invitation to all Canadians in particular but because it is online. It could beanybody saying ´I have been to Canada and I have something to contribute,too` and we would welcome that. But it was primarily to get people involved
wherever they were in the Cultural Olympiad and thereby get involved in the
Games.
The invitation was to upload photos and text to express how you feel about
this country, whether it is the country as a whole or your neighborhood or
your family. We were just looking for something personal and we challenged
people to say ´Ok, it is time for us to define ourselves` - not as being all about
moose and Mounty – but how are we now in the 21st century. The quality ofthe stuff that we got back was amazing. The images were very moving andthe expressions of love or respect or what people thought about the games orthe value of the Games, about our multicultural society. It was fantastic. And
some of those we invited to come back and they did. They would remix
taking their own images and somebody else’s’ text or their own text andsomebody else’s image and their own text and mix it with some music beds
we had given – I think we had about 15 different music beds – and create
these little 15- or 30-second vignettes that express something that was very
moving. Those are now being repackaged together with a series ofcommissions of short films into a thing called “Code Motion Pictures”. Thoseare now running on the big screens on the celebration sites and on the busses
that are running people up and down the mountains. They are just showing up
all over the place. Bill Morris in London is actually showing them on a bigscreen network around the United Kingdom as part of their programming.
“Screens 2010” was kind of an innovation on a problem that we were trying
to solve because we did not have any access to exhibition space for the visualarts and so we decided to do our exhibitions online. So, we created about 14
different exhibitions of about 10 to 15 works each and curated each one ofthem. You could subscribe to these and they would be sent out every two
weeks and just come to your home. So, people who would never have been
inside a gallery started to get exposed to Canadian contemporary art.
“Code Live” is a kind of festival in a festival. So, the three venues we werereferring to earlier. What we were trying to do is put together two things. The
daytime programming for the most part was exhibitions or installations where
you could interact with the creations. The engagement between the audience
member and the digital installation or activity had to be easy, simple andsomething that would not intimidate people. And in the evenings we did what
we called “Code Live. Night Life” and that really targeted young people. It
was performance art, digital DJs, very contemporary, very cutting-edge.

224

You had a certain number of events which were under your responsibility andothers under somebody else’s responsibility. How many of the theaters were
under your responsibility?
All of the things that are under the Cultural Olympiad are our responsibility
but many of them are in a co-presentation relationship. This is how weleveraged our resources. So, the program is much bigger than it would havebeen. I would say that it is probably about half and half or maybe more like
40% where we are producing and presenting and probably 60% where we areco-producing with visual arts organizations, galleries, museums.
I propose that in the Winter Games we have the chance to reserve one day fortraditional physical exercises because we always have this discussion about
typical African or Asian physical exercises not being included the Olympics
because the European lobby is too strong. So, why not have one day fordemonstrating such traditional body culture in the Cultural Olympiad of theWinter Games? What do you think about that?
That is an interesting point. We have traditional sport among the Aboriginal
people. All the different cultures have immigrants that brought their own
culture from wherever they come. The Aboriginal traditions are reallyremarkable, particularly the Inuit. So, we just have made it part of the cultural
program. It is not just a day or not. They are actually playing in a number ofdifferent communities on celebration sites. So, it gets a lot of exposure andwe find that this is very satisfying for those populations. They are very proud
to be here and be a part of it and being showcased. They did not feel like they
had to compete as in sports. It is kind of demonstration sport and the reward
is cultural.

Interview summarized and transcribed by Janine Lacombe.

225

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227





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229

Suggestions to Promote
Olympic Cultural Programsby the Editors
The editors of this Anthology present as final part 24 questions
and suggestions to promote Olympic cultural programs for
future Olympic Games. The respective character of a cultural
program results from value oriented decisions made on various
dimensions:
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A complete visual identity of the Host City and the sports venues
Should a Cultural Olympiad arranged over a 4-year period or acultural festival which is more limited in time be put into place?
Should the cultural program already begin two months prior to the
Olympic Games and possibly also offering attractions for tourists
passed the end of the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games?
How can the competition between sports and cultural programs
concerning the audience’s time be equalized?
Does a Cultural Olympiad need special sponsors (e.g. Barcelona
1992)?
Are journalists supposed to be specifically accredited for the
Cultural Olympiad (e.g. Sydney 2000)?
To what extend are what kind of art forms (music, paintings etc.) to
be presented?
What share are classical and avant-garde forms supposed to take up?
To what extend does the cultural presentation of the respective
Olympic City relate to wider-region, country-specific andinternational arts?
To what extend are events supposed to address the total audience orjust specific audience groups (youths, seniors, foreign tourists etc.)?
Even though Coubertin aimed at only permitting “the highest formsof literary and artistic creation”1 to take part in the Olympic
festivities, such strict qualification measures can be inspiring forother lower-level activities (e.g. painting contests on schools
involving Olympic education programs).

1
Coubertin, Pierre de: “The Philosophic Foundation of Modern Olympics. Les assises philosophiques del’Olympisme moderne”. [1935], 2000, p.583. In: Moller, N. (ed.): Olympism.. Coubertin’s Writings. Lausanne
2000.

230

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How are entrance fees for the cultural program to be calculated?
Ranging from free-of-charge to elitist access authorization (forexclusively invited people).
Which events of the cultural program are to be presented in
exposable places and which in separate cultural architecture?
What possibilities are offered to visitors of the cultural program interms of individual participation or simple reception?
How are social minorities or previously discriminated ethnic
communities (e.g. First nations, Aborigines) represented in thecultural program by known artists from the respective groups?
How are topics like “Olympic values”, Olympic history” and“sports” supposed to be presented in the cultural program?
What historical connections can be established to the current
Olympic Games?
Some Olympic traditions could be examined in the light of the
Olympic heritage of ancient Greece (e.g. Atlanta 1996 and Athens
2004) .
Should there be Olympic Culture Prices to be awarded in the context
of the Cultural Olympiad (e.g. Barcelona 1992, Agenda 2020)?
Should the cultural program be organized centrally or is there apossibility of several cooperating organizers working with a certain
degree of independence? (e.g. Athens 2004. Torino 2006, London
2012)
Should the period of the Paralympic Games be included in the
Cultural Olympiad?
How is a defined program strategy compatible with artistic freedom?
Are cultural events to be centralized on one specific place or doseveral sub-centers offer a better option?”
Are there elements of the passed cultural festival worthy to beadapted into the new program, and what possibilities does thefollowing Olympic Host City have in terms of representing itself
culturally in the current culture festival?

According to the respective answers of this certainly incomplete
list, a kaleidoscope emerges including numerous possible waysof implementing an Olympic cultural program.
Norbert Müller

Manfred Messing

231

Klaus Schormann

Olympic Studies
Olympische Studien
Agon Sportverlag, Kassel

Tome 1 (1988)
N. Müller • M. Messing (Hrsg.)
Olympische Studien, Berichtsband des II
Akademischen Olympia-Seminars 1986 in der IOA(Schors-Verlag), 230 pp.

Editorial Board: Eike Emrich, Karen Joisten,
Manfred Messing, Norbert Müller,
Otto Schantz, Stephan Wassong, Ingomar Weiler

Tome 9 (2008)
E. Emrich y St. KleinÜbungsleiter und Trainer als Werte(ver)mittler.
Eine Handreichung für die olympische Erziehungin Sportorganisationen und Schulen
ISBN 978-3-89784-990-7, (168 pp.)

Tome 2 (1996)
N. Müller • M. Messing (Hrsg.)
Auf der Suche nach der Olympischen Idee.
Facetten der Forschung von Athen bis Atlanta
ISBN 3-89609-050-X, (285 pp.)

Tome 10 (2008)
M. Messing y N. Müller (Hrsg.)
Olympismus – Erbe und Verantwortung.
Olympism - Heritage and Responsibility
ISBN 978-3-89784-988-4,( 482 pp.)

Tome 3 (1997)
H. PreußÖkonomische Implikationen der Ausrichtung
Olympischer Spiele von München 1972 bis Atlanta
1996

M. Netto-Wacker y Chr. Wacker
Brazil goes Olympic. Historical Fragments from Brazil
and the Olympic Movement until 1936.

ISBN 3-89784-072-3, (310 pp.)

ISBN: 978-3-89784-985-2, (235 pp.)

Tome 4 (1998)
K. Georgiadis
Die ideengeschichtliche Grundlage derErneuerung der Olympischen Spiele im 19.
Jahrhundert in Griechenland und ihre Umsetzung
1896 in Athen
ISBN 3-89784-081-2, (737 pp.)

Tome 11 (2010)

Tome 12 (2011)

M. Messing y N. Müller (eds.)
S.O.S. Save Olympic Spirit. Toward a Social
Philosophy of the Olympics.
Selected Writings by Hans Lenk
ISBN 978-3-89784-396-7, (311 pp.)

Tome 5 (2000)
M. Messing • N. Müller (Hrsg.)
Blickpunkt Olympia: Entdeckungen, Erkenntnisse,
ImpulseISBN 3-89784-082-0, (320 pp.)Tome6 (2004)
M. Messing • N. Müller • H. Preuß (Hrsg.)
Olympischer Dreiklang: Werte – Geschichte – Zeitgeist
ISBN 3-89784-095-2, (406 pp.)
Tome 7
K. Senkel (2005)
Play True. Die Dopingproblematik zwischen
sportethischen Anforderungen und allgemeinem
Rechtsanspruch
ISBN13 978-3-89784-997-6,(188 pp.)
Tome 8 (2006)
N. Müller y M. Messing y H. Preuß (Hrsg.)
Von Chamonix bis Turin. Die Winterspiele im Blickfeld derOlympiaforschung.
From Chamonix to Turin. The Winter Games in the Scopeof Olympic Research.
ISBN13 978-3-89784-994-5, (417 pp.)

Tome 13 (2012)
Peter Onnertz
Olympia München 1972 und die Stasi
ISBN 978-3-89784-961-7, (417 pp.)

Tome 14 (2013)
Petermandl, Werner
Olympischer Pferdesport im Altertum.
Die schriftlichen Quellen (170 Seiten)
ISBN 978-3-89784-984-6, (179 pp.)
Tome 15 (2013)

Nikolaus, Ines
Die Olympische Idee Pierre de Coubertins alserzieherische Herausforderung (580 Seiten)
ISBN 978-3-89784-962-4, (554 pp.)
Tome 16 (2016)
N. Müller y M. Messing y K. Schormann (Hrsg.)
Cultural Views of the Olympics.
“citius, altius, fortius, pulchrius, humanius”
ISBN 9 783897-849860, (242 pp.)