Controversy, Context, and Creativity in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony

There has been Controversy over the last day or so about elements in the long Opening Ceremony for the 2024 Olympic Games, being held in Paris. One focus of Controversy has been a scene which critics have said was disrespectful to “the Last Supper”. But was it?

Context is important. That could not have been made clearer from the controversy around this scene. First, the Context was one of Creativity. The whole long sequence of singers, dancers, and musicians was one that creatively represented things which were important in French life. There were some fascinatingly creative takes on many aspects of French life; the whole sequence proceeded through a consideration of Liberté (liberty), Égalité (equality), Fraternité (fraternity), Sororité (sorority, and obvious contemporary addition) and, for the context, Sportif/Sportive (sportsmanship).

Amongst the scenes was one which was seen by some to be poking fun at the famous portrayal of The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci. But Context is important. The string of characters allegedly sitting along a table were actually spectators at a fashion parade—they are standing (at a lower level) on one side of the catwalk. Later in the sequence, models dressed in various clothes do actually walk along the catwalk. There are more than a dozen characters there. And, in fact, there are people on both sides of the catwalk, watching the models as they walk up and down. There’s no way it was a table setting,

And the person at the centre who allegedly had a halo, in the mode of Jesus, was actually the disc jockey, all dolled up for the occasion with a spectacular costume, spinning the discs as the models walked by. A careful examination of a still focussed on this character reinforces this view. It’s an expression of Creativity!

And besides all that, Context is important—for the alleged scene painted by da Vinci, with the apostles surrounding Jesus, seated at a table, along one side of the table, dressed in medieval garb, is a Creative take, paying attention to the Context in which it was painted, of that central scene. In fact, historically the scene would have been of Jesus (sans halo), surrounded by male and female followers (not only the twelve men), reclining (not sitting) around a table (not just on one side of the table), dressed in first century Jewish garb (not medieval dress), with children also present (since the Passover meal, assuming that was what was happening, was a big family gathering).

Context is important. Historically, da Vinci’s scene is rubbish. Creatively, it gripped the imagination of people around the world, through the centuries. That’s what a good Creative work does!

And later, when the characters gathered around the catwalk group together around a figure clearly intended to be Dionysus, the recollection of an Ancient Greek Bacchanalia could not be clearer. 

And Context is the key here: for the ceremony opens the Olympic Games, a modern restitution of an ancient practice. And those Olympic Games, in antiquity, did include bacchanalian feats. People had travelled (by foot) from numerous cities, coming together to engage in athletic contests. Of course, they had to eat, and of course, those occasions were celebratory, freeflowing, and even libertine, in the grand tradition of ancient feasts. Once again, Context is important—although, obviously, Creativity was at work in this recreation.

So Controversy: take a back seat.
The moment belongs to Context …
and, especially, to Creativity!

Here in Australia, some years ago, a number of artists were commissioned to paint a picture of the Last Supper which showed the historical reality that women were present. The winning artwork was by Margaret Ackland:

For years in my office, I had an artwork with a most creative “take” on the Last Supper on the wall. The work, by Australian artist Sam Waterhouse, is now on the wall above our dining room table in Dungog.

Rev. Dr John Squires is the Editor of With Love to the World. This piece first appeared on his website, An Informed Faith.