The Olympic Games

A journey through the centuries that recounts the deep connection between sport, art and civilisation: “The Olympic Games™. A 3000-Year History” is a major exhibition organised by the Fondazione Luigi Rovati in collaboration with the Olympic Museum and the Musée cantonal d’archéologie et d’histoire in Lausanne. The exhibition is an opportunity to retrace the long history of sport, which began with Greek civilisation, passed through the Etruscan and Roman worlds, and continued to the present day, showing how Olympic values have accompanied the evolution of society.
Much more than just a sporting competition, the Games were, from their very origins, a public initiative with marked religious, political and social connotations, which brought with it the proclamation of a sacred truce and the celebration of values such as physical strength, the beauty of movement, the dignity of challenge and intercultural dialogue. Through artefacts and materials of exceptional value, the exhibition illustrates a series of themes divided into sections: athletes and their physical activities, with particular reference to sports equipment; objects that have contributed to Olympic history, primarily the torch; the variety of disciplines and competitions through an iconographic language that adopts standardised and easily recognisable patterns; the moment of victory and the awarding of prizes; the link between sport and memory. The focus is, moreover, the Tomb of the Olympiads from Tarquinia, displayed for the first time outside the Museo Archeologico Nazionale of Tarquinia and reconstructed on the main floor of the Fondazione Luigi Rovati. Discovered in 1958, shortly before the Rome Olympics in 1960, the Tomb features paintings depicting a lively chariot race and various athletics competitions, such as sprinting, long jump, discus throwing and boxing. In each section of the exhibition, alongside the predominant collection of materials relating to the ancient world, there are also some memorabilia relating to the modern Olympics, arranged for visual impact avoiding mechanical or inappropriate analogies.

With texts by: Vincenzo Bellelli, Luca Cerchiai, Anne-Cécile Jaccard, Christian Mazet, Lionel Pernet, Patricia Reymond, Maria Cristina Tomassetti, Giuseppe Sassatelli.