Paris 2024 Olympics: at Casa Italia, art and design play a fundamental role

On June 23, 1894, Baron Pierre de Coubertin organized a dinner to celebrate the project to revive the Olympics in the modern era. More than a century later, Le Pré Catelan, a building nestled in the greenery of the Bois de Boulogne in the 16th arrondissement of the French capital, will reunite with history to host the headquarters of the Italian sports delegation for the thirty-third edition of the Olympic Games. 

As the latest installment of the Casa Italia project, a brand created by the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984, Casa Italia Paris 2024 draws inspiration from the theme of brotherhood for this edition—a value dear to France's motto, the triad of Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité, summarized for the occasion by the Italian organizers under the concept of Ensemble.

In this representation of the nation, art and design play a pivotal role in highlighting and promoting our values of hospitality, identity, and beauty. Nineteen contemporary Italian artists—including the Claire Fontaine collective, Francesco Jodice, Edoardo Tresoldi, Marinella Senatore, Stalker, Patrick Tuttofuoco, and Fabio Viale—will be featured with their works at Casa Italia, while some of the most relevant brands in the furniture industry, such as Edra, Ethimo, Moroso, Glas Italia, Riva 1920, B&B Italia, Flos, Poltronova, Rubelli, Arper, Mutina and Impatia will contribute with furniture and products selected from their catalogs.

The series of interconnected rooms in Le Pré Catelan, a building from 1854 in the Napoleon III style, built following the fashion of folies— villas in the countryside, in the midst of the vegetation, where the nobility and the upper bourgeoisie would enjoy their retreats —lend themselves well to showcasing the symbiotic relationship between art and design. In this continuum, the setup is inspired by the idea of weaving, an Olympic symbol of unity and sharing, through the use of partitions made from fabrics. Sustainability is also a key focus: natural and recycled, the fabrics help reduce the weight of the setup during transportation, contributing to lower greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile, the furnishings from Italian brands epitomize the ideal of design durability, boasting a commitment to longevity.