I thought the controversy over the painting The Lord’s Supper during the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics was going to fall after 48 hours. Oh no! Everyone continues to come up with their theory, their plea or their accusations.
I am taking advantage of the launch of Fierté Montréal this Thursday to delve into this thorny debate which brings together explosive elements.
Let us recall, for those who missed this painting, that it featured drag queens, but also the lesbian DJ Barbara Butch, the openly gay star dancer Germain Louvet and a child of about ten years old in a pose that had the appearance of the famous painting by Vinci.
MEP Marion Maréchal quickly denounced the “propaganda” woke and crude” of the ceremony. The Conference of Bishops of France deplored “the scenes of derision and mockery of Christianity”. For his part, Jean-Luc Mélenchon wrote on his blog: “What is the point of risking offending believers?”
Some countries censored these images during the broadcast of the ceremony. In others, it is no longer possible to watch this televised moment in replay.
First, the question everyone is asking is: was this really a representation of The Lord’s Supper by Leonardo da Vinci or rather by Feast of the gods, painting by Jan Harmensz van Bijlert? Participants in media and on social networks stated that it was clear to them that they had indeed participated in a painting representing The Lord’s Supper.
Faced with this outcry, the artistic director of the opening ceremony, Thomas Jolly, defended himself on Sunday by stating that The Lord’s Supper was not part of his inspirations and that he had wanted to create “a great pagan festival linked to the gods of Olympus”.
It’s crazy how a live image can have another weight once frozen and filtered by commentators.
I rewatched this entire sequence that marks the beginning of the fashion show. We see DJ Barbara Butch in front of her turntables with participants at her sides who vaguely evoke The Lord’s Supper (they are in front of a footbridge that serves as a table). We swing Andy Rita Mitsouko and the models arrive. It lasts about twenty seconds.
About forty minutes later, we find the same participants with the singer Philippe Katerine in the foreground who personifies Dionysus. There, we are totally in the picture Feast of the gods.
Representations of The Lord’s Supperthere have been tons of them in theater, cinema and advertising. In 1998, Volkswagen even created an advertising campaign inspired by the famous painting. It showed a group of men seated around a table with the words: “My friends, let us rejoice, because a new Golf has been born.” Still…
This iconic image has entered popular culture. It belongs to no one. And its transformation (in this case) does no harm to anyone, especially not to the all-powerful Catholic religion.
Basically, it’s not that we’ve done yet another performance of The Lord’s Supper that bothers. It is the presence of queer people that scratches some minds. The strong popularity of drag queens revives a background of homophobia that was dormant.
How many emails have I received from readers over the past few years saying: I have nothing against gays, but they should do their business discreetly! However, drag queens are the complete opposite of that. They are flamboyant and refuse invisibility. It is their choice.
The colorful characters we saw at the ceremony were the most harmless ones. DJ Barbara Butch made a heart shape with her fingers. What more could you want than that? A return of Fanfreluche?
What the critics of the right and the far right are trying to do at the moment is a political recovery of a ceremony that they accuse of being… too political.
Do you want me to tell you what I find really scandalous? It is not seeing a lesbian with a crown on her head who thinks she is Jesus. It is seeing the hundreds of millions of dollars that the Church pays to the victims of its priests, it is seeing that men and women live with wounds so deep that they are unspeakable, with a childhood stolen and a dignity ripped away.
That revolts me much more than drag queens who repeat the famous pose of Vinci for 20 seconds to make us dance and entertain us.
Thomas Jolly is far too intelligent a man not to know what he was doing. He was aware that he was walking a tightrope. He was balancing with the painting of Marie Antoinette, just as he was with the scene where three young people flirt in a library before forming a trio and having sex.
The director, who was bullied as a child, may have shocked some people and forced them to do a backflip on their values, but he has splendidly reminded us what art is for.
On that, I award him the gold medal for audacity.