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Local Dependencies for Global FestivalsCultural Policy Tensions in the Olympic Games
Dr Beatriz GarciaUniversity of Liverpool
Editor | Culture @ the Olympics : Issues, Trends and PerspectivesMember | IOC Postgraduate Selection Grant Committee
Learning from Barcelona: Art, real state and the pre-Olympic cityBirkbeck, University of London | London, 26-27 January 2011
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The multiple dimensions of the Olympic Games…
centenary movement(symbolic experience)
global event (mediated experience)
localised festival(lived experience)
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• Global media(ted) event (Dayan & Katz, Moragas, Roche)– Owned by an global network (Olympic Family) led by the IOC in 205+ nation states
• Embedded within a 100 yr structure that defines itself as a ‘Movement’– ‘Olympism’, Olympic Charter, Olympic values, Olympic protocol, symbols (McAloon)
• Hosted within a city by a locally appointed ‘organising committee’– Must achieve local ownership to retain ‘meaning’ and claim ‘legacy’– But local (live) festival experience has not been treated as a ‘global media asset’
Constructed ritual - 1884, Coubertin
Global brand – 1980s, Samaranch
Local hosting – city ‘reinvention’1992, Maragall
The multiple dimensions of the Olympic Games…
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Olympic Games | global + local tensions
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Olympic Games | global + local tensions
• Owning the street [what is public space during Games time?]
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Olympic Games | global + local tensions
• Owning the symbols [the brand]
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• Owning the narrative [media rights]
Olympic Games | global + local tensions
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Inventing the Olympic festival city…
From Barcelona to 1992 to London 2012
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Producing a locally owned Olympic Festival
• Barcelona 1992
– Venues spread throughout the city: accessing them requires ‘living’ the city
– Venues connected to city’s fabric
– Room for non-regulated street activity
– The city dresses in its own terms | locally rooted design
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Producing a locally owned Olympic Festival
• Beijing 2008
– Olympic park concentration
– New venues, global iconic architecture
– Crowd management, progressive disappearance of ‘public’ space in Olympic city
– Standard branding – Look of the Games / Look of the City
– Official vs Fringe arts festival
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• Towards London 2012
Producing a locally owned Olympic Festival
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Discussion | Global event vs local festival
• Who owns the Olympic City?– Taken over by the Olympic Family – accredited guests with access to all areas– What are the opportunities for local ownership – beyond official accreditation
• Where does the actual ‘festival’ take place– Official vs fringe environments– Are there any ‘unregulated’ Olympic spaces left?– What constitutes public space in the Olympic city
• Can the festival be ‘globalised’? (a global public sphere?)– Live sites | opportunity to bring the Olympic festival atmosphere beyond the host city– Online platforms | opportunity to expand interest communities and sustain friendships
• Can the ‘Olympic’ festival atmosphere be packaged and replicated?– Can you have at the heart of a ‘festival’ the celebration of ‘universal values’
that are defined and controlled by a global network?
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Thank you
Dr Beatriz [email protected]
@beatriz_garcia www.culturalolympics.co.uk
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Ring-fenced / accredited space
Community-created space
Commercial / branded space
Youth owned/ fringe arts space
What place for Olympic festival celebration?
Individual space
