(Paris) An “abundant” and “surreal” diptych: the poster for the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games was unveiled on Monday at the Musée d’Orsay before being plastered this week “all over Paris”.
Drawn by the illustrator Ugo Gattoni, familiar with frescoes and drawn “performances” as he himself says, these posters took him 2000 hours of work. They were unveiled in large format in the nave of the Musée d’Orsay, one of the main museums in Paris.
Each edition of the Olympic Games, since 1912, has had its poster. For this XXXIIIe edition, it is a diptych with an Olympic and a Paralympic section, in the colors of the graphic charter of the Olympic Games.
On the poster for Paris-2024, the Eiffel Tower, the Stade de France which surrounds it like a buoy, a wheelchair tennis court at the top of the Arc de Triomphe, and in the foreground a diver feature prominently. which juts out above the light green Seine: fantasy is on the agenda.
“I wanted something epic, grandiose, but also a feeling of joyous celebration, teeming, super abundant,” explained the designer during a meeting with the press ahead of the official presentation of his work.
“A surrealist bet where we try to keep a lot of poetry and humor,” he sums up.
In the background, the harbor of Marseille where the sailing events will take place and the wave of Teahupo’o, in Tahiti, which will host surfing, and everywhere thousands of small characters, “made by hand” and “artisanally”, specifies Joachim Roncin, director in charge of design within the Olympic organizing committee, at a time when artificial intelligence generates images and drawings.
PHOTO DIMITAR DILKOFF, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Ugo Gattoni, Tony Estanguet and Joachim Roncin
The gardens of Versailles are located in front of the Eiffel Tower. Eight mascots, the “Phryges” of red stuffed animals in the shape of a Phrygian cap, are hidden in this very rich design. No French flag – unlike the poster for the 1924 Games where it appeared behind shirtless men – but a Marianne and the “Paris 2024” logo.
“For four months, I locked myself in my studio, and it was like that day and night,” said Ugo Gattoni. “It’s a poster that should work in 100 years,” he also said.
Gattoni, whose Hermès scarves are also among his collaborations, sprinkled his Olympic poster with a “flying” pink material which “multiplies”: his trademark which he calls “blump” and inserts in all his drawings .
The artist, who studied swimming as a sport and wanted to be a “professional swimmer”, signed his first fresco, 10 meters long drawn in rotring pen, after leaving his art school.
Its official poster for the Olympic Games (July 26 – August 11) and Paralympic Games (August 28 – September 8) will be offered for sale, but also in derivative products (coloring poster, puzzle, etc.).