Marie-Antoinette's Black Dress - Liberty Painting - Opening Ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games

Physical description

It is a black dress mounted on a metal structure. Indeed, under the dress there is a structure (complete this time since it is visible from all sides by the spectators) so that each participant can slip more easily into the windows of the Conciergerie. Once put on like a backpack, the structure creates the illusion that the participant's head is in her own hands, yet it is a foam mannequin that sits above them. The place where the participant's head is visible is signified only by a hole so that the rest of her body remains concealed. There is also a zipper in this area to make it easier to put on. This dress is composed of an upper part on which is a bust with a black corset, without a head, from which red lace ribbons spring out to symbolize blood. The lower part allows the participant to be hidden under a black skirt of two different fabrics, a first one quite transparent and a second with dotted patterns. Black lace details also feature on the lower part.

Notes

During the performance of the metal band Gojira, the image is striking: Marie-Antoinette, decapitated, posted at one of the windows of the Conciergerie, holds her own head in her hands while singing "Ah! It'll be fine! ", French Revolutionary Song. This character is obviously referring to the famous last queen of the Ancien Régime, who died by guillotine on October 16, 1793 on the Place de la Révolution in Paris, after having been imprisoned in the Conciergerie in Paris. The image seen by viewers around the world is a reference to cephalophoric saints: saints who were beheaded and whom painters and sculptors depicted holding their heads in their hands. A way of not forgetting the martyrdom of the guillotined while counterbalancing the ferociously festive treatment of the violence of the Revolution, whose blood spurts from the Conciergerie in the form of bouquets of red ribbons. Multiple Marie-Antoinette were finally posted at the bottom of the Conciergerie and at its windows. All heads in their hands. This is made possible by a stratagem, a structure is located under the dress allowing the participants to slide their head into a hole while the rest of the dress fits above them. Here, it is probably the costume of one of the Marie-Antoinette posted in front of the Conciergerie since the dress is black.

Photo credits