Instead of the grand narrative that generally accompanies the world\u2019s ultimate sports forum and media magnet, Dufresne and Lagani\u00e8re highlight the minor narratives that they uncovered over the course of their artistic research and fieldwork at several former host cities. In its multimodal and dialogical form of display, the vast body of work provides multiple entry points into what the artists describe as \u201cOlympic lifecycles.\u201d In the most recent iteration, presented at the Maison de la culture de C\u00f4te-des-Neiges in 2017, the works were presented in \u201cchapters\u201d devoted to each of the epicentres, with the concept of an Olympic Afterlife<\/em> serving as a link between the various chapters, which were approached from different perspectives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/103-DO6-IMG8-IIM_Schutze_Dufresne-Laganiere_PostOlympiques_PostOlympiques_Beijing_Pecheursalgues_CMYK-scaled.jpeg\")
Les p\u00eacheurs d\u2019algues (Beijing) \/ Algae Maintenance Workers (Beijing),2014.
Photo: permission des artistes |courtesy of the artists<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
In juxtaposing these various spatially and temporally distant realities, Dufresne and Lagani\u00e8re make the central concept of an Olympic afterlife visible, sensible, and intelligible. Though present by their association with the Games, sports are only obliquely referenced as a backdrop to empty track-and-field stadiums, inactive gymnasiums, rundown bobsleigh or ski-jump facilities, and a repurposed velodrome. However, by virtue of this shadowy existence the issue of sports and the associated imaginary inherently informs the significance of the works, particularly if one considers that one of the original purposes of these sites was to house playing fields for various games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A more sombre intersection of grand narratives and everyday use is brought forth in the capturing of a moment from the lifecycle of the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. The large-scale photograph Igman Olympic Jumps (Sarajevo)<\/em> (2014), mounted on the walls in the corner of the exhibition space, depicts two women sitting in the middle of a dilapidated ski-jump platform originally built for the 1984 Winter Games. The platform on Mount Igman served as the United Nations observation deck during the horrifying siege of the city during the 1990s Yugoslav Wars. As the photograph indicates, this former emblem of a popular and unifying Games has recently been reclaimed by local citizens who can now climb the structure at leisure. In uncovering and juxtaposing these layers of the site\u2019s recent history, Dufresne and Lagani\u00e8re turn our attention to the complex entanglements that lie dormant within these abandoned and repurposed infrastructures. Between the memory of a showcase event and this scene of a leisurely appropriation of the ruins, the echoes of the war-ravaged city persist. The modern Olympic ideal of promoting peace among nations through friendly competition is here set against the harsh light of historical and political realities that have repeatedly shat\u00adtered this utopian aspiration, whether during the Games themselves, as in the case of the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, or in their aftermath, as in the tragic example of Sarajevo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the section devoted to the Tokyo 1964 Summer Olympics, Dufresne and Lagani\u00e8re chose to highlight the event\u2019s stylised atmosphere by way of five pieces (two photographs, a photomontage, a suspended print, and a sculptural element) that reproduce the modernist motifs of the central wing of the Hotel Okura Tokyo, an emblematic building designed for the 1964 Games that was recently demolished in preparation for the now-delayed 2020 global gathering. In other elements of the work the artists turned their attention to the everyday activities unfolding in the various remaining architectural structures: a video segment relays a playful exchange between workers meeting on a winding ramp at the Komazawa Olympic Park in Tokyo; a photograph shows a group of maintenance workers meticulously removing algae from the Olympic Green ponds in Beijing; a printed text with graphic elements refers to a temporary H1N1 vaccination clinic at the Olympic Stadium in Montr\u00e9al in 2009; and so on. These quotidian scenes are complemented by works focusing on several architectural adaptations of these sites: a video takes viewers through the self-contained ecosystems of the Montr\u00e9al Biod\u00f4me, which resulted from the extensive transformation of the velodrome built for the 1976 Summer Olympics; a photograph testifies to the transformation of the former Olympic Village in Athens into a housing complex for low-income residents and recent immigrants; a video documenting Tokyo\u2019s iconic Fish Market, bustling with activity before it makes way for the \u2014 currently delayed \u2014 2020 Olympics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/103-DO6-IMG1-IM_Schutze_Dufresne-Laganiere_PostOlympiques_Sarajevo_Igman_CMYK-C-FLAT-scaled.jpeg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/103-DO6-IMG2-IIM_Schutze_Dufresne-Laganiere_PostOlympiques_Exposition_VU_2014_SarajevoBeijing_CMYK-scaled.jpeg\")
(top) Olympic Bobsleigh and Luge Track, Mount Trebevic\u00b4 (Sarajevo)<\/em>,
(bottom) Post-Olympiques<\/em>, exhibition view, VU, Qu\u00e9bec, 2014.
Photos : courtesy of the artists <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
In presenting several instances of how the venues have become the grounds for other sorts of games and performances, Post-Olympiques \/ Olympic Afterlife<\/em> opens up a space to reflect on how the notion of game-playing extends beyond the strictly codified realm of elite sports and perform a vital role in the arena of everyday life and its entanglement with broader social issues.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
The concept of game-playing is central to the relatively recent discipline of the philosophy of sport. Bernard Suits, a key thinker in the field, defines game-playing as \u201cthe voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary1<\/sup><\/a><\/span> obstacles.\u201d 1 <\/a> - Bernard Suits, The Grasshopper: Games, Life and Utopia<\/em> (Peterborough: Broadview Press, 2014, 44.<\/span>Post-Olympiques \/ Olympic Afterlife<\/em> foregrounds several cases of citizen engagement with the inherited infrastructures that can be read, in a twist on Suits\u2019s definition, as inventive ways of coming to terms, willy-nilly, with architectural structures not of their choosing. One instance of such an engagement with an \u201cobstacle\u201d is brought to view in the photograph Olympic Bobsleigh and Luge Track, Mount Trebevi\u0107 (Sarajevo)<\/em> (2014), which shows the bobsleigh and luge track left behind from the 1984 Winter Olympics. The documentation panel informs us that this site was occupied by snipers during the Yugoslav Wars and that landmines are still to be removed from the area. Despite the evident danger that this represents, the facility has served as a playground for local graffiti artists, and is currently also a popular spot for local stargazers. In another case, parkour activities have emerged around Montr\u00e9al\u2019s iconic Olympic Stadium. This manifestly athletic form of \u201cpractising\u201d urban place is a telling example of how haphazard structures can be transformed into devices for acrobatic play. These cases are illustrative of the \u201cminor narratives and imaginaries\u201d that Dufresne and Lagani\u00e8re speak of in their exhibition statement and that they point to as a way to counter the symbolic, architectural, and socio-political ramifications of the \u201cdominant rhetoric of the Olympic Games.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/103-DO6-IMG-IIM_Schutze_Dufresne-Laganiere_PostOlympiques_Sarajevo_PodiumIgman_CMYK-scaled.jpeg\")
Igman Olympic Jumps (Sarajevo)<\/em>, 2014.
Photo : courtesy of the artists<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
To expand on Suits\u2019s notion of game-playing, and to elucidate the tension that this opposition between minor and dominant narratives generates, the distinction between finite and infinite games developed by James P. Carse in Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility<\/em> (1987) provides a useful conceptual tool. According to Carse, \u201ca finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play.”2<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 2 <\/a> - James P. Carse, Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility<\/em> (New York: Ballantine Books, 1987), 3.<\/span> Finite games are thus composed of end-driven activities that result in win-or-lose outcomes. Such games are characterized by sports, electoral politics, and economic competition, among others, and they proceed according to strict rules and set boundaries. Infinite games are open-ended and process-based; their rules can be constantly reinvented and their boundaries can be played with. Ultimately, infinite games are cooperative, not competitive. The gamut of athletic events presented at the Olympic Games are thoroughly rule-bound and premised on a zero-sum result. The highly codified nature of the Games, with regard to both the competition rules and the rhetoric of victory, clearly fits the parameters of a finite game that ends with the closing ceremony and the final ranking of nations according to the number of medals won.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/103-DO6-IMG4-IIM_Schutze_Dufresne-Laganiere_PostOlympiques_Yoyogi_NationalGymnasium_CMYK-C-FLAT-scaled.jpeg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/103-DO6-IMG5-IIM_Schutze_Dufresne-Laganiere_PostOlympiques_Yoyogi_Rockabilly2_CMYK.jpeg\")
(top) Yoyogi National Gymnasium (Tokyo)<\/em>, video stills from Yoyogi<\/em>, 2017 ;
(bottom) Rockabilly dancers at Yoyogi<\/em>, video stills from Yoyogi<\/em>, 2017.
Photos : courtesy of the artists <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
In contrast, the everyday uses that the former Olympics sites variously invite can be said to play out according to open-ended ways of \u201cmaking-do\u201d with the infrastructural changes brought about by hosting the Games. A telling image of this contrast between finite and infinite modes of game-playing is brought to light in the first part of a three-part video titled Yoyogi, Komazawa and Tsukiji<\/em> (Tokyo) (2017), presented as part of the exhibition chapter dedicated to the afterlife of the 1964 Tokyo Olympiad. The video segment shows a lively scene of young Japanese rockabilly aficionados, clad in vintage fifties leather outfits, gathering in Tokyo\u2019s Yoyogi Park to practise their dance moves. The Yoyogi National Gymnasium, Kenzo Tange\u2019s iconic Metabolist-style building, looms in the background as a reminder of how much the 1964 Summer Olympics meant to the nation. The grandiose event signalled Japan\u2019s re-emergence on the international stage after its defeat in the Second World War and subsequent Allied occupation. The contemporary re-enactment of a 1950s American subculture by Japanese youth puts a different twist on this symbolism of regained national pride. With their freewheel\u00ading but evidently well-practised moves, these dancers relish in the anachronism of making the occupier\u2019s rebellious subculture their own. This depiction of a minor narrative unfolding on the site reveals how a spontaneous leisure activity enters unwittingly into dialogue with a dominant rhetoric embodied in the architecture\u2019s design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/103-DO6-IMG3-IIM_Schutze_Dufresne-Laganiere_PostOlympiques_Montreal_EcosystemesAmerique_CMYK-C-FLAT-scaled.jpeg\")
Ecosystems of the Americas, Gulf of Saint-Lawrence (Montreal)<\/em>, 2017.
Photo : courtesy of the artists <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
This dominant rhetoric of the Olympic Games as a closed-off, self-contained bubble is not only countered by various minor narratives or other situated adaptations, it is also subject to broader social forces impinging upon the event from an unpredictable outside. Here, Suits\u2019s idea of game-play is undone. In the case of the exterior forces of war or a financial crisis \u2014 both rule-driven, win-or-lose games \u2014 unnecessary obstacles become necessary ones and are overcome by obligation. This connection to war is made evident in the various images of the Sarajevo venues showing creative appropriations of the war-torn grounds, whereas the relation to financial upheaval is indicated in a printed text titled Altersommet, Ath\u00e8nes<\/em> (2014) depicting the use of this former sports venue for a summit of European leaders seeking to develop an alternative response to austerity measures imposed on Greece in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Moreover, the inclusion of an image with text showing the 1992 riot that erupted at the Montr\u00e9al stadium \u2014 nicknamed the Big O \u2014 after a Guns N\u2019 Roses concert was interrupted points to the chaos that such large-scale venues can foster. Interestingly, in the exhibition\u2019s chapter focusing on Montr\u00e9al, this rule-bending, chaos-filled event is juxtaposed with the complex order of the self-sustaining ecosystems housed in the Biod\u00f4me. A ten-minute video titled \u00c9cosyst\u00e8mes des Am\u00e9riques<\/em> (Montr\u00e9al) (2017) moves through the various ecosystems but reveals the artificial, controlled set-up only at the very end. The building\u2019s fascinating transformation stands in sharp contrast to the site\u2019s original purpose, which was to showcase whizzing cyclists turning loops in a single-minded chase for victory.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
In addition to these diverse elements of the exhibition series, Dufresne and Lagani\u00e8re also work with image, sound, and text to propose more quiet, self-reflective modes of overcoming of \u201cunnecessary obstacles\u201d in which \u201cinfinite players play with boundaries,\u201d3<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 3 <\/a> - Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology, 4.<\/span>but quietly and on their own terms. This applies to a series of images showing ordinary people going about their daily business. In this regard, a large photograph titled Inside the Bird\u2019s Nest (Beijing)<\/em> (2014), shown as part of the Beijing 2008 work cluster, is particularly revealing. The photograph shows a woman in a purple shirt mopping the floor in front of a massive outdoor staircase landing. She is framed within the recognizable woven-steel lattices of the gargantuan Bird\u2019s Nest Stadium and against a skyline that is indicative of the rapid modernization that the city underwent in preparation for the Games. The image poetically condenses many of the project\u2019s layers into a single moment: a lone figure quietly engaged in her activity against the invisible presence of multitudes. This glimpse into a moment of the Olympic lifecycle dialogues with numerous other photographs and videos of ordinary people going about their lives in these imposing spaces, in which the echoes of athletic performances grow fainter with time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/103-DO6-IMG7-IIM_Schutze_Dufresne-Laganiere_PostOlympiques_Beijing_InterieurNidoiseau_CMYK-scaled.jpeg\")
Inside the Bird\u2019s Nest (Beijing)<\/em>, 2014.
Photo : courtesy of the artists <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Ultimately, it is by weaving together and juxtaposing the distinct research contexts and resulting works in a cohesive exhibition form that Post-Olympiques \/ Olympic Afterlife<\/em> reveals its full scope. By deploying the exhibition as a medium (in various iterations), the project gives substance to underlying \u201cOlympic afterlife\u201d in a multi-layered and stylistically varied manner. Through their sustained multi-year artistic interpretation of these intertwined legacies, Dufresne and Lagani\u00e8re have engaged in an infinite game of their own by mobilizing art\u2019s capacity to expand its field of play and reinvent the rules whereby it proceeds. In broadening the scope of artistic inquiry, they have cleared a path for further reflections on Olympic lifecycles that have yet to run their course.<\/p>\n