London Launches Cultural Olympiad

(ATR) Kelly Holmes and Sebastian Coe took a run through the Tate this weekend as London and the rest of the country opens the doors to the Cultural Olympiad of the 2012 Olympics.

In effect, seven Olympic gold medals rattled down the hallways in the gallery at Tate Britain to mark the beginning of a cultural festival which the London 2012 organizers believe will revive the artistic aspect of the Olympics.

The marriage of sport and culture was launched as medal-winners Jonathan Edwards (triple jump, 2000), Tom James (rowing, 2008) and Kelly Holmes (800 and 1,500m, 2004), and Marlon Devonish (4x100m relay, 2004), led by London Games organiser Sebastian Coe (1,500m, 1980 and 1984), ran through the prestigious gallery as part of Turner Award-winning artist Martin Creed’s living artwork.

About 300 events, most free of charge, were staged at the weekend to get the four-year Cultural Olympiad off to a flying start.

As many events again took place across Britain, from pyrotechnics in Weymouth, the venue for the 2012 sailing regatta, to the lighting of the Blackpool Tower in the London Olympic colours.

In London, theatres and museums threw their doors open with a series of workshops, performances and rehearsals designed to excite and inspire.

There was poetry in Docklands, bell-ringing in Bexleyheath and free ballet classes for adults with the English National Ballet, while agit prop singer-songwriter Billy Bragg busked on the South Bank.

Creed’s Work No850, a sculptural installation consisting of a runner sprinting the 86-meter length of the Tate’s Duveen Galleries every 30 seconds, ordinarily is performed by teams of runners drawn from local athletics clubs.

“This is like having really brilliant musicians to play your music,” said Creed. “Today, for a small amount of time, the piece will be made really well.”

For his first public run in 18 years, Coe opted for slightly retro, Chariots of Fire-style kit, befitting the Ionic columns of Tate Britain’s neoclassical sculpture galleries.

“I run every other day, but I do not sprint,” said Coe, the chairman of LOCOG. “I run with my boys at weekends, and we sometimes mix it up a bit but I do not do anything like this.”

Sport and art were inextricably linked, he said. “There is a seamless path between sport, culture, art and education.”

“It’s enshrinedin the host city contract that each city will create a cultural platform. Where we have taken this much further with the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad is it will be on a scale never seen before,” said Coe.

“We see the Games as an extraordinary bridgehead to so many areas of activity. It gives us a unique opportunity to try and break down some of the compartmentalising that takes place - that you're either interested in sport or art.

“I do feel that we can hopefully change attitudes to something that has always frustrated me - the notion that as someone involved in sport you might not have an appreciation of art.”

In common with the rest of London’s Olympic project, the Cultural Olympiad is being greeted with scepticism, and derided by many as politically correct nonsense.

Vikki Heyward, executive director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, which will host an international Shakespeare festival in 2012, was cautious: “We will need to see over the next year how the projects are to be funded. Next year a lot of detail must be thrashed out. We are not anxious, yet.”

Written by Steven Downes

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