MAX VON TREU and his editorial for ICON already whet the appetite for the 2024 Olympics in Paris, the city of fashion and light. He photographed and filmed for it together with model Tetyana Ruban in Barcelona. The city that hosted the Olympic Games in 1992 – and the poster child when it comes to successfully combining a mega-event with smart and sustainable urban development.
We have the ICON editorial with the title ‘Haltung’, or ‘Countenance’, by author Silke Wichert for you here on GoSee.News : “Nobody ever went to the beach in Barcelona for fun. It was dirty there, desolate or industrial. That is, until the 1992 Summer Olympics came, and the city on the oceanside turned toward the sea. The Olympics actually changed Barcelona back then for the better – making it a complete success in terms of urban planning.
The baton has now been passed to Paris. Which is why we searched for traces once more in the Catalonian capital. With a fashion scene that is likewise a force to reckon with. It’s impossible to visit this city without coming across remnants of the Olympics at least a few times. Even if you’re not trying to (or really don’t have any clue at all).
Simply take a stroll along the beach of La Barceloneta or sunbathe in the sand there, and you are smack dab in the middle of this post-Olympic success story. For this city used to live with its back turned to the sea. Generations of locals may have technically lived right next to the ocean, but they had only ever associated the area with docks and terminals – if anything at all. Where people today go for a swim every day as if it were the most natural thing in the world, or workout and pose for passers-by on Muscle Beach, was where once only run-down industrial plants and the ruins of slums torn down by the Spanish dictator Franco had stood.
It wasn’t until the city had won the bid for the 1992 Summer Olympics that the metropolis opened itself to the sea. The Vila Olímpica, or Olympic village, was created in the immediate vicinity. In front of that, the emblematic twin towers with the Hotel Arts was constructed, and Frank Gehry topped it all off with a gigantic golden fish. Also, it’s not entirely a coincidence that escalators lead up Montjuïc at the Plaza de España. It is, after all, the very spot Montserrat Caballé nailed her performance of the ‘Barcelona’ anthem at the opening ceremony – for the first time without Freddy Mercury though, who had recently passed.
Higher up on the city’s local mountain, an area used just as rarely before the games, are several of the sports complexes – still in use today, by the way, and not only as initially intended. The communications tower designed by Santiago Calatrava, that looks like something the crew of the Enterprise could have put there, is a place of pilgrimage par excellence for avid Instagrammers. Or the diving platform that gave the world the most magnificent images in memory from any Olympic Games to date: as if the divers weren’t merely diving into a pool, but into the Barca skyline with Gaudí’s Sagrada Família basilica in the background.
Open to the public and used as an outdoor pool in the summertime, the meanwhile somewhat dilapidated stadium is a popular destination all year round for visitors trying to take a selfie. Even if their only real reason for doing so is because Kylie Minogue filmed the video to her song ‘Slow’ there in 2003, and not because the stadium had once stood for the Olympic spirit.
The Barcelona model is not only considered the big exception to this day in the never-ending love-hate relationship with the five rings because of its impressive new buildings and sustainable urban development. Often seen as a billion dollar black hole, creating more debt than value, marked by blind pomp and corruption instead of urban planning – the negative stereotypes usually outweigh the positive effects that are by all means there, too – then and now.
Like promoting good will and understanding among the nations of the world, or showcasing sports that are in the limelight far too seldom. Atlanta is remembered as the botched ‘Coca-Cola Games’; in Rio de Janeiro, it was again above all the well-to-do areas that saw an influx of beaucoup bucks; and Beijing only had such a breathtaking opening ceremony because dictatorships just happen to have an over-abundance of readily available ‘volunteers’.
But at Barcelona 92, on the other hand, everything seemed to fit so perfectly because the games had come at quite a convenient time in history. With the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of Apartheid, a wave of confidence splashed its way into all corners of the globe. In 1992, political scientist Francis Fukuyama would even go so far as to proclaim the irrevocable triumph of freedom and democracy in his book ‘The End of History and the Last Man’.
That year in Barcelona, Germany sent a single delegation team again for the first time, what was left of the former Soviet Union competed under one banner as ‘Unified Team’ from the Commonwealth of Independent States, and the Olympic Games were boycott-free for the first time since 1972. A touch of hitherto unseen glamour was brought to the event by the Dream Team led by basketball legend Michael Jordan – whose escapades in the Barcelona nightlife allegedly drove security staffers up the wall.
Paris 2024 will, of course, easily be a prime contender for the top Olympic ranks nonetheless, at least when it comes to looks – not to mention chic. There is absolutely no need for this city to reinvent itself to out-dazzle the rest. The Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Montmartre, the ‘Emily in Paris’ backdrop – attracting more than fifteen million people each year, it is today already among the most-visited cities on the planet.
That some several million more during the Olympics will most likely push the already difficult traffic conditions to the brink of collapse is the least of the city’s worries thus far. The haute couture shows have already been moved up to the end of June just to be on the safe side. But glamour and fashion, so much is certain, will experience a heyday like never before during these few weeks.
French luxury couture conglomerate LVMH is the official partner of the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games. The Maison’s artisan jewelry atelier Chaumet is tasked with designing the medals, while, during the games, wines and spirits produced by Moët Hennessy will be served to hospitality guests. The beauty brand Sephora is a partner supporting the Olympic torch relay and will certainly have a bit more glam in store throughout the event as well as in the various LVMH hotspots.
Above all, Brigitte Macron will presumably not be the only one sporting a Louis Vuitton look to the opening ceremony held along the banks of the river Seine. A number of French athletes and ambassadors are to be outfitted with on and off-duty looks by brands such as Dior, Berluti and obviously Louis Vuitton. But the competition from Chanel, Hermès or Saint Laurent are definitely not going to leave the field completely open for them with millions upon millions in advertising budgets up for grabs. Well, one thing is sure: Paris 2024 has meanwhile more than earned itself a new nickname: the ‘Fashion Games’.
Digital support and post production came from BLINK IMAGING.
CREDITS
Photos: MAX VON TREU
Director: MAX VON TREU
Model: Tetyana Ruban
Styling Natalie Manchot @Kathrin Hohnberg
H&M: Ana Sanchez-Pena
Production: yours,
Digital support and post production of photos: Blink Imaging
GoSee : maxvontreu.com