New Olympic disciplines on show at Paris exhibition

  • 3 months ago

Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com

Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English

Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Transcript
00:00BMX bikes, surfboards, even a climbing wall, essential tools in their respective disciplines
00:06signed by the champions who used them. This exhibition, Spot 24, tells the story of the
00:13sports that debuted at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics alongside this year's newcomer, Breakdance.
00:22The thing that these different disciplines have in common is freedom of expression,
00:26their freestyle. There's an incredible history behind it. 50 years of hip-hop,
00:31you have to understand the context, learn about those historic spots.
00:35So it's all about the links between art, sport and culture in some of the site-specific pieces
00:41made for this exhibition. Even sports venues have become works of art, like this basketball court.
00:48It's got a new look thanks to designer Stéphane Ashpoul. There are also pieces from the Olympic
00:53Museum in Lausanne. The idea is to spotlight the urban cultures that have contributed to
00:59the game's history. Kanti is a painter and breakdancer whose work straddles both practices.
01:06I'm trying to transcribe the footprints and the energy of the moves in breakdancing.
01:11I dip my shoes in ink and then I do the move on the material on the ground, so that's paper or
01:16canvas. I really want to record the movement in real time and the ink lets me do that.
01:21You can see these are skid marks, so here you can feel the impact and here you can feel the
01:25speed of the move. Each piece is named after the move he made to create it. Kanti counted
01:32around 50 separate manoeuvres, making up something of a breakdance vocabulary.
01:39All the work I've done here comes from the thought, actually it would be cool to somehow
01:43record the marks I make on the ground. I wouldn't claim that I'm creating a language or anything,
01:48but I know that there are dancers and other people who think it is a language.
01:52I leave it up to people, they can define it however they like.
01:55And the display here includes another totemic object for fans of all sports,
02:00the Olympic torch in its Parisian incarnation.

Recommended