By Valérie Galli, painter and former high-level athlete.
On the occasion of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the City Hall hall is hosting, from June 28 to July 11, the traveling exhibition “Is the high-level athlete an artist who ignores himself?“, created by Valérie Galli.
Paris has the immense honor of organizing the XXXIII Summer Olympic Games. The Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (COJO) aims to bring together Sport and Culture in order to celebrate the diversity and cultural richness of all of France.
Valérie Galli created the exhibition “Is the high-level athlete an artist who ignores himself?” in this dynamic to share with the public her experience as a high-level athlete, the values of sport, its demands and what she still applies today while working in her artist’s studio.
“The repetition of a technical gesture to the point of extreme mastery, the call for creativity, discipline, pushing one’s limits, are all elements for mastering what is controllable in order to leave less room for uncertainty Fear, doubts, failures, push the springs of the athlete and the artist to the point of acceptance to start again stronger by calling on their mental resources and their resilience, to return to the path of success in quest. of recognition, internal engines of a devouring passion.” | Valérie Galli
The “Paris 2024 Cultural Olympiad” label for this exhibition highlights its art and sport dimension. It is itinerant and fits perfectly into the framework of the Olympic events organized in French cities.
The exhibition is offered turnkey with scenography, explanatory labels, lighting and black background. The artist offers to meet athletes, young people and the public during his visit.
A “pioneer” fencer in women’s epee, Valérie Galli joined the first French team in 1987, a discipline until then forbidden to women. After 13 years at a high level and two world team vice-champion titles, Valérie Galli turned to her other passion in 2000 by becoming a painter. Her daily work in front of the canvas reveals many similarities between her artistic practice and her experience as a high-level athlete.
Her sporting journey and her daily commitment to the values of sport have enabled her to be named torch bearer for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
