Nishimura (2015) analyse the contrasting approaches taken by Angola and Kenya to their 2013 National Pavilions at the Venice Biennale. Angola – as ‘one of the few countries in sub-Saharan Africa with an independent pavilion’ (Zaugg & Nishimura, 2015:140) – attracted a huge amount of positive attention and went on to win the coveted Golden Lion for best national pavilion. On the other hand, Kenya’s Italian curated display offered exhibition space to a preponderance of Chinese artists, creating a spectacle which met with criticism and confusion both at home and abroad (Zaugg & Nishimura, 2015: 139-142).
3.0 Sporting Events & Cultural Programming (Olympic Games): Opportunities and Challenges Major sporting events are inseparable from their predecessors – World Fairs and Expositions – as they represent invented traditions (Hobsbawn, 1983a) that enabled 'developed' nations to demonstrate their cultural (political and economic) strengths. In some respects, the first ‘mega sport event’, the Olympic Games, replaced the World Fair as the platform upon which nations could present themselves to the world. The Modern Olympics were, for their founder, Pierre de Courbetin, as much a cultural as a sporting festival. Numerous authors discuss the variety of approaches taken to the cultural programme which accompanies the Olympic sporting festival (i.e. Inglis, 2008; Garcia, 2003, 2004, 2008; Lander & Crowe, 2010; Low & Hall, 2012; Moragas, 2008; Panagiotopulou, 2016 Pappalepore, 2016). The cultural and arts focussed elements of Olympic events have received variable levels of attention and investment but have remained as a consistent presence on the Olympic schedule since the turn of the 20th century. After initial failure to include arts alongside sports in the Olympic cycle prompted de Coubertin to intervene, enthusiasm for the artistic competition which paralleled the sporting rivalry in the form of the ‘Pentathlon of Muses’ was, to begin with, muted (Garcia, 2008:368). While progress has been made, the integration of the two compulsory Olympiads – one sporting the other arts-focussed – has remained challenging for those charged with delivering contemporary Olympic events. One reason for this may lie in the differing perceptions of art and sport prevalent in ancient Greek and modern society, whereby drastically different social and philosophical approaches to art and sport meant that the two were far more closely aligned in Antiquity than is currently the case (Inglis, 2008). Moreover, the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) current interpretation ‘of de Coubertin’s original endeavours to unite ‘arts’ and ‘sports,’ […] now […] [comprises forging a linkage] between a more generally conceived ‘culture’ and sports’ (Inglis, 2008:468).
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