Olympian-artist Luc Abalo creates frescoes with residents at a care center

"Luc, can you help me paint some doves?" asks Ahmad, a resident at the CHRS (housing and social reintegration center), who suffers from a slight disability in his right hand. "I'm sure you can do it on your own, even using your finger. It's okay if it's not perfect", answers Luc Abalo, encouragingly.

Luc is neither a resident nor a social worker, but a three-time Olympic handball champion (gold in 2008, 2012 and 2021, and silver in 2016). A French athlete like no other: in addition to his exceptional sporting achievements, he is an accomplished artist. A graduate of the Institut supérieur des arts appliqués, he regularly paints, draws and practices photography. Even at the height of his handball career, he continued to paint and create. Now, at 39, having retired a few months earlier, he is a full-time artist. Perfect for the the "Olympian-Artists" program!

The program, launched as part of the Olympic Museum in 2018, is aimed at active or retired Olympians and Paralympians, who are either professional or amateur artists. The aim is threefold:

To celebrate the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Olympic Museum, in collaboration with the City of Paris, invited Luc Abalo to spend three days at with CHRS Poterne des Peupliers residents in November. The Poterne des Peupliers is one of the four facilities that make up the Rosa Luxembourg cluster. This Parisian facility provides comprehensive, unconditional care for 150 adult residents. The athlete's objective was to create frescoes inspired by Olympic values on the walls of the multi-activity room. "Our residents come together in this room to eat, play ping-pong, take part in drama or sports classes, or have a coffee. It's really the heart of the establishment, whose walls lacked warmth until now", points out Laurence Vincent, social service assistant.

She knows the residents she has accompanied for many years. She knows that a number of them like to paint or draw in their spare time. Some are even house painters, and aspire to express their skills more creatively. It wasn't difficult to get them to take part in this collective project. A workshop designed to "please them, make them feel good… Because art helps to build self-esteem, insists Laurence Vincent. They come to realize what they are 'capable of' while having fun and that they have more skills than they think - which I can then build on as an assistant. What's more, it's a fun, friendly way of breaking down isolation".

Luc Abalo's intervention took place in several stages. Joined by his friend Jallal, a graffiti artist, the handball champion came from Ivry-sur-Seine, where his studio is located, bringing the materials he needed to create the murals. He began by talking to the residents, who were interested to hear about his past as a professional sportsman, but also about his career as an artist. "He's a very accessible person, who's really into sharing. There were some really funny moments," observes a social worker. What's more, he worked on the sketches for the frescoes for several weeks: it's a pleasure to see how involved he is."

Luc Abalo's first aim was to represent the Olympic rings, then an athletics track on another and a boxing match on a final section of the room. Over the course of discussions with residents, the project was refined and a para-athlete was added to the athletics track.

The workshops were split in two: on one side, the residents assisted Luc with the coloring of the frescoes, painting the background while he tackled the characters; on the other, a dozen or so residents sat down to create their own drawings. They followed the artist's advice, whether on the choice of colors or brushes, using oil paint first, then favoring water-based paint the next day, allowing them to understand the subtleties of each technique. Residents moved freely bewtween the available techniques set up during the workshop. While sport did inspire the residents, they also wanted to illustrate more personal values such as friendship and respect.

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"Some people were reluctant to get round the table to draw, but in the end they took the plunge. They're not always very confident in themselves and are afraid of making mistakes. I tell them that what's on the paper isn't always what I have in mind either," smiles Luc Abalo. The former handball player continues: "unlike sport, art is anything but a competition! The most important thing is to participate, there's no judging, that's the magic of painting."

The only advice he could give them "is to enjoy themselves, to express what they feel like expressing, and to simply transcribe what they have within them onto the canvas".

For his part, the sportsman, who mainly paints portraits, had never made sports based art. "I thought it would be a new challenge! I thought of boxing. I don't play the sport, but I've always found it fascinating to photograph or illustrate. And I was keen to include a female boxer, because women need to be highlighted, all the more so in the CHRS where many of the staff are women."

The artist's residency came to a close on November 24th with a fun little send off. At the CHRS, Luc Abalo's frescoes will be leave an unforgettable trace of this coming together.

For the Paris Games, three Olympians and one Paralympian have participated in artist residencies in six social centers belonging to the City of Paris between October and December 2023 thanks to a collaboration between the Olympic Museum and City services. These workshops are designed to celebrate creativity, collaboration and sharing.

American Kelly Salchow MacArthur, professor of graphic design at the University of Michigan and a member of the rowing team at the Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 Games, offered a collage workshop to young people in two children's homes, Les Récollets (10th) and Tandou (19th). Grace Latz, also an American rowing athlete who took part in the 2016 Rio Games, created a fresco using fabric scraps with senior citizens at the Caulaincourt center (18th).

Argentinean para-canoe athlete Brenda Sardón led creative arts workshops with disabled adults from the Kellermann (13th) and Relais (8th) care homes. Luc Abalo worked at the CHRS Poterne des Peupliers. A fifth Olympian musician, Estonian sprinter Egle Uljas, will take up residence at a conservatory in the Paris region in spring 2024 and present a piano concert inspired by Olympic values.

In spring 2024, Olympian-artists will produce original works inspired by sport and Olympic values for a group exhibition that will be shown during the Olympic and Paralympic Games at a venue in the heart of Paris.