Luc ABALO (FRA)
Olympian Artist – Painting: Paris 2024
Handball legend Luc Abalo took his first drawing lessons at the age of 12. Two years later, he started playing handball. While he joined the French national team at the age of 20 and took part in his first Olympic Games at 24, he continued to practise art whenever he had the chance.
An athlete who spent most of his professional career as part of a team, the native of Ivry-sur-Seine, a town in the suburbs of Paris, decided to join the Olympian Artists programme for Paris by first taking part in a community-based project. In the autumn of 2023, he worked with the residents of CHRS Poternes des Peupliers, an accommodation and social rehabilitation centre in the 13th district of Paris, to produce three murals inspired by sport and the Olympic and Paralympic values. These are also the central themes in the paintings that Abalo created for this exhibition.
ARTISTIC PROJECT
Portrait of Nikola Karabatic, 2024
Boxer, 2024
Paralympian, 2024
Gymnast, 2024
Questions and answers
How would you describe the role of sport in your life?
Sport has allowed me to develop as an individual, to learn a lot, to learn about other cultures and to travel. In fact, sport has given me fulfilment and cultivated me. Through sport, I've been able to live because it's been my job. I've been able to meet extraordinary people. I've been able to improve my language skills, for example, because you have to speak. The role of sport over these 20 years has clearly been to make me a better person.
You were selected to take part in the Olympian Artists programme at Paris 2024. Tell us about this opportunity.
It's something I've always loved, even before I started playing handball I loved drawing. It's always been a dream of mine. During my career as a handball player, I told myself that after playing handball, I would become a painter. A painter.
So that's exactly what I've always wanted to do. So I wanted to try and express something of what I've been experiencing all these years through handball on canvas, with my own way of painting and drawing. With my level, as I was saying earlier, you can't be afraid of being ridiculous, you have to let yourself go, you have to express yourself. I think that's what artists think. Generally speaking, it's about expressing what's in your heart. After that, if you like it, all the better.
In autumn 2023, you worked with the residents of the Poternes des Peupliers accommodation and social reintegration centre (CHRS) in the 13th arrondissement of Paris. What do you take away from this experience?
In fact, it's a place where people who are having a hard time are housed, because housing in Paris is complicated. It's a place where there are people who are suffering, who are sometimes a bit lonely.
We arrived here with our canvases, paintings and pictures and they were... Frankly, I was surprised to see them so happy to be painting.
They had a great time, they produced some beautiful works. A lot of them offered me their paintings at the end. They were so happy, it really touched me. They were great days.
You shouldn't be afraid to do things and at the end of the day, you're happy, you're pleased with yourself when you've done it. So I was delighted to see people who were afraid to paint express themselves. We gave smiles to people in situations that weren't always pleasant and then, for a little while, for a day, we spent time with them, we painted, we enjoyed ourselves, there were smiles. We drank coffee, they told me about their lives and I told them about mine.
It was great.
meet the artists
Olympian Artists at Paris 2024
