Artistic director of Paris Olympics opening ceremony on ridiculing the Last Supper: 'My aim was not to mock anyone'

In every edition of the Olympics, the opening ceremony is one of the most-awaited moments by all fans, due to the excitement of seeing the participants waving their flags along with the fireworks, lights and other shows that take place. However, the opening ceremony in Paris was the subject of strong criticism for ridiculing the Last Supper with a woke theme, thus disrespecting Christianity.

Days later, the artistic director of the ceremony, Thomas Jolly, assured that at no time did he mean to mock one of the most important events of Christianity.

"You will never find in me, or in my work, a desire to mock or denigrate anyone. ... My aim was to create a ceremony that heals and a ceremony that reconciles, but also a ceremony that reaffirms the values which are those of our Republic of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, and absolutely not to mock anyone," he told a French program, in remarks reported by Deadline.

Jolly said of the performance: "It’s not my inspiration and that should be pretty obvious. There’s Dionysus arriving on a table. Why is he there? First and foremost because he is the god of celebration in Greek mythology and the tableau is called 'Festivity.' He is also the god of wine, which is also one of the jewels of France, and the father of Séquana, the goddess of the river Seine. The idea was to depict a big pagan celebration, linked to the gods of Olympus, and thus the Olympics."

This is one of the controversies and setbacks already happening at the 2024 Paris Olympics. So far, there has been the government's desire to control absolutely everything that happens in the streets of the French capital, robberies in the Olympic Village, the railway sabotage that occurred hours before the opening gala, the ridiculing of the Last Supper and vandalism of much of the country's fiber optics.