local dependencies for global festivals

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Local Dependencies for Global FestivalsCultural Policy Tensions in the Olympic Games

Dr Beatriz GarciaUniversity of Liverpool

Editor | Culture @ the Olympics : Issues, Trends and PerspectivesMember | IOC Postgraduate Selection Grant Committee

Learning from Barcelona: Art, real state and the pre-Olympic cityBirkbeck, University of London | London, 26-27 January 2011

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The multiple dimensions of the Olympic Games…

centenary movement(symbolic experience)

global event (mediated experience)

localised festival(lived experience)

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• Global media(ted) event (Dayan & Katz, Moragas, Roche)– Owned by an global network (Olympic Family) led by the IOC in 205+ nation states

• Embedded within a 100 yr structure that defines itself as a ‘Movement’– ‘Olympism’, Olympic Charter, Olympic values, Olympic protocol, symbols (McAloon)

• Hosted within a city by a locally appointed ‘organising committee’– Must achieve local ownership to retain ‘meaning’ and claim ‘legacy’– But local (live) festival experience has not been treated as a ‘global media asset’

Constructed ritual - 1884, Coubertin

Global brand – 1980s, Samaranch

Local hosting – city ‘reinvention’1992, Maragall

The multiple dimensions of the Olympic Games…

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Olympic Games | global + local tensions

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Olympic Games | global + local tensions

• Owning the street [what is public space during Games time?]

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Olympic Games | global + local tensions

• Owning the symbols [the brand]

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• Owning the narrative [media rights]

Olympic Games | global + local tensions

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Inventing the Olympic festival city…

From Barcelona to 1992 to London 2012

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Producing a locally owned Olympic Festival

• Barcelona 1992

– Venues spread throughout the city: accessing them requires ‘living’ the city

– Venues connected to city’s fabric

– Room for non-regulated street activity

– The city dresses in its own terms | locally rooted design

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Producing a locally owned Olympic Festival

• Beijing 2008

– Olympic park concentration

– New venues, global iconic architecture

– Crowd management, progressive disappearance of ‘public’ space in Olympic city

– Standard branding – Look of the Games / Look of the City

– Official vs Fringe arts festival

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• Towards London 2012

Producing a locally owned Olympic Festival

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Discussion | Global event vs local festival

• Who owns the Olympic City?– Taken over by the Olympic Family – accredited guests with access to all areas– What are the opportunities for local ownership – beyond official accreditation

• Where does the actual ‘festival’ take place– Official vs fringe environments– Are there any ‘unregulated’ Olympic spaces left?– What constitutes public space in the Olympic city

• Can the festival be ‘globalised’? (a global public sphere?)– Live sites | opportunity to bring the Olympic festival atmosphere beyond the host city– Online platforms | opportunity to expand interest communities and sustain friendships

• Can the ‘Olympic’ festival atmosphere be packaged and replicated?– Can you have at the heart of a ‘festival’ the celebration of ‘universal values’

that are defined and controlled by a global network?

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Thank you

Dr Beatriz Garciabgarcia@liverpool.ac.uk

@beatriz_garcia www.culturalolympics.co.uk

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Ring-fenced / accredited space

Community-created space

Commercial / branded space

Youth owned/ fringe arts space

What place for Olympic festival celebration?

Individual space