The opportunity for the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, to congratulate himself on the “preparations”, which “are going very, very well” according to him.
“Enthusiasm builds when we walk around Paris,” assured the head of the Olympic movement during a press conference. “The Olympic sites are looming, you see the flags, you see people at the Trocadéro rejoicing at the Olympic rings on the Eiffel Tower,” he added.
Entitled “Salon”, the work of Alison Saar, 68 years old, is intended as a “space open to all, which promotes dialogue and allows meetings”, according to the artist.
The statue includes several elements, all made by the artist in workshops in Puy-de-Dôme, in central France.
” Diversity “
Made of bronze and a volcanic rock resistant to weathering and environmental pollutants, the work includes a large seated female figure who holds olive branches in one hand and a golden flame in the other and six seats, arranged on a circle of 5 m 40 in diameter, coming from West Africa, Central America, France, China and Europe. One of them is also an ancient seat symbolizing the origin of the Olympic Games. In the center of the circle are the Olympic years embedded in the ground.
“+Salon+ is an invitation to dialogue, to exchange, to encounter, to sharing”, greeted Thomas Bach in his speech, calling for celebrating “the unity of all humanity in our diversity”.
“This is the purpose of the Olympic Games: to bring together the different cultures of the world in peaceful competition and for dialogue,” he added to the press.
Is there a political message addressed to France in the context of the early legislative elections of June 30 and July 7? “I am not a French citizen, I do not have the right to vote,” said Thomas Bach, interviewed by AFP.
Little known in France, Alison Saar was chosen by the International Olympic Committee and the City of Paris “for her commitment to the humanist and peace values of the Olympics” and “her wish to have a local production in order to support the “French craftsmanship and reduce the carbon footprint,” according to the press kit.
“African ancestry”
For 40 years, her work has focused on black female identity.
“I myself am mixed race so the majority of my work focuses on my African ancestry,” explained Sunday the one who wanted to “break with the image of the standard white man that we find in most monuments and sculptures “.
Her sculptures and installations, made from reclaimed and natural materials, incorporate elements from diverse African, African-American and Caribbean cultural traditions.
Among his most famous works is a sculpture of Harriet Tubman, former slave and anti-slavery activist, the first monument (2008) to a black woman in New York.
In the United States, his works have been exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum in New York and at Lacma in Los Angeles.
Born on February 5, 1956 in Los Angeles, the artist comes from a family of artists, her mother Betye Saar known for her assemblages dealing with racial and gender issues, and her father Richard Saar, of German origin, as ceramist and restorer of works of art.
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