Filmtank

From 1912 to 1948, always in the course of the Summer Games, also artists could win Olympic gold medals for a painting, a sculpture, a poem, a piece of music, or an architectural design inspired by sport. The Olympic Art Competitions were held in Stockholm, Antwerp, Paris, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, Berlin and London. Athletes and artists – hand in hand – stood in the limelight.
The founder of the latter-day Olympic Games, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, was a passionate and influential Frenchman who believed strongly in the antique greek ideals and wanted to promote them by inspiring artists to reflect about sport, and athletes to express themselves artistically.
The Olympic Art Competitions were held for the last time in London in 1948. However, since 2000 the olympic games feature events, similar to the original art competitions again. “Back to the roots”, back to the unification of body and mind and to Coubertin’s ideals?
Taking this as a point of departure, the film recounts the history of the Olympic Art Competitions against a sport backdrop.

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D
2012
52 mins.