The sporty show is being held in a museum housed in a former 17th century Carmelite monastery

Saint-Denis,France —The world of arts and culture rallied around the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris with both major and confidential venues showcasing sports in myriad exhibitions drawing on the extensive collections from the country’s cultural institutions. One of the more off the beaten path venues is found in the shadow of the Stade de France stadium and the Olympic Aquatic Center — where many of the events of the Games took place — in Saint-Denis just outside of Paris in a Carmelite convent turned museum where the daughter of Louis XV of France lived. The Musée d’art et d’histoire Paul Eluard (the Paul Eluard Museum of Art and History) is hosting an intriguing show devoted to how the body withstands the test of sport, entitled in French as La Mécanique de l’exploit. Le corps à l’épreuve du sport which may be translated as the mechanics of achievement, how the body is able to stand the test of sport.

Drawing parallels between art and sport through sculptures, objects, paintings and works of art, the exhibition aims to show the links between the body and artistic mediums. Athletes’ bodies tend to be sculptural and sculptured through intensive training and discipline. This process is helped along by constant progress in training equipment and various accessories. But not only. In certain traditional African sports charms and talismans can be invoked to intercede in a performance. One of the more intriguing displays involves clothing depicting talismans on loan from the Musée de l’Homme, France’s national ethnographic museum. Time lapse photographs of a pole jumper and man running while pulling a wheel demonstrate the body’s ability to resist and endure and the intensity of the practiced sport. Sculptures underscore the beauty of an athlete’s body which has been represented since at least Antiquity although pre-historic cave paintings also display the body in achievement movements. But from Antiquity to the present, the athlete’s body makes it look easy and natural. Which of course is not always the case. The exhibition benefits from the Olympiade Culturelle label created for the Paris Games.

The exhibition is on until November 25th and was organized by the city of Saint-Denis and the administrative region of Seine-Saint-Denis and benefited from exceptional loans from museums throughout France. But the Musée d’art et d’histoire Paul Eluard is worth a visit in and of itself. The order of the Carmelite nuns founded their monastery in Saint-Denis in 1625. The foundation stone of the first church was placed by Queen Marie de’ Medici in 1628. But she would not be the only royal to be involved in the history of the monastery. In 1770, the arrival of a major member of the reigning family would save the convent from its financial difficulties. Louise de France, the seventh daughter of King Louis XV would come to live there and he would often come there to visit her and enabled her to undertake work on the site. She would commission the construction of the chapel that is located on the grounds to Richard Mique, the architect of the court who was the mastermind behind the Trianon Palace at Versailles. The chapel’s interior is richly decorated. Today the monastery houses the museum’s permanent collections from Antiquity to the modern era and includes a wing devoted to the history of the Carmelites. It is surrounded by superb gardens where one can spy 18th century heirloom roses and trees and shrubs indigenous to Saint-Denis. The museum is named for the great French poet and surrealist Paul Eluard who was born in Saint-Denis in 1895 as Eugène Grindel. Collections related to the poet are housed in an 18th century pavilion on the grounds where Louis XV stayed when he came to see his daughter. A journey to the museum can easily be combined with a visit of the Basilica of Saint Denis which houses the tombs of the kings and queens of France, including Louis XV. Le Musée d’art et d’histoire Paul Eluard: 22 bis, rue Gabriel Péri 93200 Saint-Denis. Tel + 33 (0)1 83 72 24 55. https://musee-saint-denis.com/
©Trish Valicenti for The Gourmet Gazette