The campy opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics displaying drag performers in a conceptual fashion show resembling the Last Supper, has lead to waves of backlash from conservatives, especially from religious and populist sectors of the right.
Many people however, have come to the show’s defense, including its artistic director, Thomas Jolly, who asserted the production was created to facilitate an inclusive space rather than anti-Christian sentiment.
A scene depicted during the ceremony resembled a contemporary re-envisioning of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous 15th century painting, with French actor and singer Phillippe Katerina appearing as the Greek god Dionysus, and numerous people, including several drag artists, all standing along the runway representing a dinner table as models walked across it.
Jenna Ellis, a former 2020 campaign attorney to Donald Trump, described the ceremony as containing “overt and satanic symbolism” in a post on X.
Bishop Emmanuel Gobillard, a spokesperson representing the Holy See for the 2024 Paris Olympics, told NBC News that the depiction of the Last Supper left him “deeply hurt.”
“The fact that our religion should be mocked is usual and we are used to blasphemy in France, but the context isn’t the same,” he said. “In an event that brings together all or part of the population, I found this staging hurtful and out of place.”
Jolly defended the production when asked at a news conference Saturday about some of the backlash it received, saying he was unaware of the criticism and that the show had no agenda other than to promote inclusivity.
“When we want to include everyone and not exclude anyone, questions are raised,” he said at an International Olympic Committee media briefing. “Our subject was not to be subversive. We never wanted to be subversive. We wanted to talk about diversity. Diversity means being together.”
“We wanted to include everyone, as simple as that. In France, we have freedom of creation, artistic freedom. We are lucky in France to live in a free country. I didn’t have any specific messages that I wanted to deliver. In France, we are republic, we have the right to love whom we want, we have the right not to be worshippers, we have a lot of rights in France, and this is what I wanted to convey,” he continued.
