“How can you think that I could have mocked a religion ?”: Thomas Jolly looks back on the opening ceremony and discusses a post-Olympic project

Thomas Jolly appeared before the National Assembly's Cultural Affairs Committee. MAXPPP – Vincent Isore

The artistic director of the Olympic ceremonies, Thomas Jolly, launched the idea on Wednesday, September 25, of organizing “a great show offered to the population” as a regular “legacy” of the Paris Games this summer, before the National Assembly's Cultural Affairs Committee.

“A great show offered to the population, wouldn't that be the moment ?”, he wondered, answering questions from MPs on “the legacy” that will remain of the Olympic Games, in particular the ceremonies that he orchestrated on this occasion, with some MPs mentioning the date of “July 14”.

He also argued in favour of a new "great cultural policy", deploring that there is "no more discourse on culture in election campaigns", while "the great powers have nevertheless leaned on culture".

Read also:Thomas Jolly accused of denigrating the Last Supper: “I wanted to do a ceremony that repairs, that reconciles”, replies the master of the opening ceremony

Taste for culture and theater

Asked about the concentration of ceremonies in Paris, he also pleaded in favor of”“a real big job” to give the French back a taste for culture and theater, especially in rural areas. “Being able to go to the theater is a field to invest in”, because “desire is not extinguished. When it exists, the French know how to seize it”, he added.

The director again defended himself from having wanted to “mock” one religion in particular, the Catholic religion, during the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games on July 26, which was welcomed but also strongly criticized throughout the world by mainly conservative and far-right voices.

“These little phrases that generate hatred”

“You are the only one to talk about it”, Mr. Jolly said to a member of parliament from the National Rally, Tiffany Joncour, who was questioning him about “the beheading of Marie-Antoinette”, in front of a young audience or the “shocking” representation of “the Last Supper”, Christ's last meal with the apostles.

“If journalists and commentators have had erroneous interpretations, the problem is that they arouse hatred, how can we think that I could have mocked a religion when an entire painting is dedicated to Notre-Dame de Paris ?”, symbol of Christianity and the Catholic religion, he wondered, recalling that a large majority of French people appreciated the opening ceremony.

He also rebelled against “these little phrases that generate hatred and frenzy of commentary”, believing that one “cannot be political if one does not have the will to unify the city”.