Cultural Olympiad of Paris 2024: LVMH celebrates the alliance of arts and sport with exceptional cultural visits to emblematic sites at its Maisons and the Fondation Louis Vuitton

LVMH

·

As a premium Partner of Paris 2024, LVMH is making an active contribution to the cultural resonance of these Olympic and Paralympic Games, organizing a unique agenda of artistic events as part of the Cultural Olympiad. Throughout the summer, LVMH will present a compelling program that bridges the arts, sports and the Olympic values, spotlighting the engagement of Berluti, Dior, Guerlain, Louis Vuitton, La Samaritaine and the Fondation Louis Vuitton. 

LVMH supports art in all its myriad forms, first and foremost through its artisans and the savoir-faire of its Maisons. Combining “muscles and mind”, as Pierre de Coubertin put it, LVMH Maisons are hosting an exciting array of exhibitions and artistic events at their historic and landmark Paris buildings, welcoming visitors to French capital this summer both before and during the Paris 2024 Games: 

Berluti is teaming with artist Mathieu Forget, renowned for his stunning movement and levitation art, for an exhibition combining movement, sports and fashion. The artist will engage with Olympic and Paralympic sports and their talented athletes, capturing movement dressed in iconic Berluti silhouettes or sports outfits at iconic French sporting and cultural sites. Entitled “L’Élégance française en mouvement“, the exhibition will feature an immersive journey through a series of photographs by Mathieu Forget.   

From June 1 to September 9, 2024, 9 Rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré, Paris. 

To mark the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024, Maison Dior is showcasing exceptional dialogues forged with athletes around the world in an exhibition at Le Café Dior in La Galerie Dior at 30 Montaigne, its historic address. A tribute to the values of excellence and audacity shared by couture and sports, this exceptional and inspiring rendezvous presents a series of photographs featuring Dior ambassadors and their respective disciplines. The exhibition is a celebration of surpassing performance and an invitation to continually push the boundaries of creativity in the name of passion and freedom.

From June to September 2024 at La Galerie Dior, 11, rue François-Ier, Paris 8th.

Guerlain is celebrating gold at the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024, this precious metal that inspires athletes and makes the whole world dream, through a photographic exhibition OR NORME (“Extraordinary Gold”).  

Gold has exerted an irrepressible fascination throughout the ages, transcending its physical nature to take on symbolic attributes that impart universal value to the metal. Gold has been intimately linked to the history of Guerlain and its products, from the first Bee bottle created in 1853, to contemporary interpretations. This timeless symbol of excellence has become a veritable signature for the Maison. 

The OR NORME exhibition features works by 16 artists: Carolle Benitah, Paul Cupido, Harald Gottschalk, Graphset and Amandine Besacier, Morvarid K, Yves Klein, Enzo Lefort, Cédric Matet, Pedro Motta, Isabel Muñoz, Martin Parr, Pierre et Gilles, Georges Rousse, Rodolphe von Gombergh, Wiktoria Wojciechowska and Sophie Zénon.  

From June 6 to September 12, 2024, Maison Guerlain, 68 Avenue des Champs-Élysées, Paris. 

Louis Vuitton is organizing two sports-inspired exhibitions at two iconic locations: 

Celebrating 160 years of creative exchanges that have nourished Louis Vuitton’s innovative spirit, LV DREAM invites visitors to immerse themselves in the Maison’s past and contemporary artistic collaborations. An entire room in the heart of the exhibition will be dedicated to the close ties the Maison has enjoyed with the world of sports throughout its history thanks to archive documents, photos, plus both iconic and surprising objects with connections to various Olympic sports. A selection of symbolic pieces in the exhibition rooms offers context for the important role sports has played in the history of Louis Vuitton and its creations, especially the emergence of new modes of travel and dressing habits. 

From June 18 to December 31, 2024, at LV DREAM, 26 quai de la Mégisserie, Paris. 

In the heart of the Vuitton Family Home in Asnières, Louis Vuitton pays tribute to the savoir-faire of its ateliers in the exhibition La Malle Courrier. This trunk embodies the very essence of the Maison’s exquisite craftsmanship, featuring its emblematic codes. During Paris 2024, the exhibition will show specially designed trunks imagined by Kim Jones, a trunk by Virgil Abloh to carry a Pickleball game, plus a series of trunks made in the 19th century. A cabinet of curiosities presents symbolic objects that express Louis Vuitton’s attachment to sports. They include Georges Vuitton’s membership in the Asnières fencing society in 1891, the celebrated trunk for a famous football competition, plus special creations for auto racing, tennis, golf or basketball. The exhibition is a memorable voyage in time to discover some of Louis Vuitton’s most distinctive creations. 

From April 2 to December 31, 2024 at the Vuitton Family Home, 18 Rue Louis Vuitton, Asnières. 

Samaritaine is celebrating the fun and sheer pleasure of physical activities, morphing into a giant winners’ podium. “Samaritaine: Paris se prend au jeu” (“Paris joins the game”) is a deep dive into the history of the iconic department store, which created the first Union Sportive sporting club for its employees back in 1895. Samaritaine gets the mind loose and limber with three free exhibitions. 

Les Légendes Mondiales du sport (“Global sporting legends”) looks back on the biggest sporting events of the past 100 years, displaying a hundred iconic objects that belonged to the greatest athletes of the past century, on loan from the private collection of Terence Darrigade. 

Domestic Games, les femmes à l’épreuve (“Domestic Games, women take the lead”) presents installations by Camille Menard / Agnst Design that challenge the role of sports in our daily lives and look at the feminine condition in international sports. 

Samaritaine has also invited Fisheye to curate a display of photos by Louis Vuitton and LVMH ambassador Enzo Lefort, a member of the French foil fencing team, who shares an insider’s look at sports and high-level competitions. 

From April 30 to September 8, 2024, Samaritaine, 9 rue de la Monnaie, Paris. 

The Fondation Louis Vuitton is spotlighting sports too with « La Collection, Rendez-vous avec le sport »” (The Collection, Rendez-vous with sport”), a hang of selected works by artists from the Foundation Collection. 

In conjunction with the Olympic Flame of Paris 2024 passing through the building, curated works from the Foundation Collection will be exhibited on the second level. The polyphonic selection offers a poetic and offbeat take on the theme of sports, bringing together works by five French and international artists: Abraham Poincheval, Andreas Gursky, Roman Signer, Omar Victor Diop and Jean-Michel Basquiat. In addition, the loan of the painting “Olympic Rings” by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol – shown during the “Basquiat x Warhol, Painting Four Hands” exhibition at the Foundation in 2023 – has been specially extended to celebrate the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris. 

From May 7 to September 9, 2024, Fondation Louis Vuitton, 8 avenue du Mahatma Gandhi, Paris.  

© ARR