Mathieu Lehanneur, La Torche des Jeux olympiques et paralympiques

“Designing the Olympic Torch is a designer’s dream: a dream that only comes true once in a lifetime, like a miraculous encounter with History. As ritualistic as it is magical, the torch is a mythical object. As a symbol of cohesion and sharing, it is the veritable key to opening the Games. It will cross thousands of kilometers, passed from hand to hand, over land and sea. For Paris 2024, and for the first time in its history, it will play with perfect symmetry to better express a message of equality.
I wanted it to be extremely pure, iconic, and almost essential. Simple like a hyphen and fluid like a flame.”
Mathieu Lehanneur

Even before the opening of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Torch is passed from hand to hand, bringing athletes and anonymous people together around the gesture and the emotion. The object symbolises a form of universal communion.
The exhibition, designed by Mathieu Lehanneur and Pernelle Poyet, takes place in the Tour des Templiers, a commandery built in the 12th century, also known as the Chapelle Saint-Blaise. A robust and sober shell, the architecture of the Tower invites a contemplative approach.
The designers played on this cultic atmosphere, positioning the Torch at the heart of a central alcove. The former side arrow slits are used as chapels in which the prototype phases and internal components of the Torch are displayed.

Chosen by Paris 2024 to imagine the Torches and Cauldron of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, French creator Mathieu Lehanneur designed the Torch around three main inspirations: equality, water and peacefulness; they are values but also contextual elements.
Equality – which is expressed as much in the absolute parity of the athletes as in the equivalent space given to the Olympic and Paralympic Games – is reflected in the perfect symmetry of the Torch. For the first time in its history, it plays upon this duality and equilibrium.
Beyond its monuments, Paris represents the art of living along the water’s edge. The Seine is the link and the beating heart of the city; it will also serve as the theatre for the opening ceremony. The Torch takes inspiration from it by playing with the undulations and reflections in the polished metal that becomes liquid.
Finally, the idea of peacefulness is conveyed through a design entirely based on curves and continuous lines. Because even though the Games is a space for competition and performance, the flame remains an object of transmission and the incarnation of peace. In this sense, the Games are a suspended moment in time, a fraternal ambition that sport can and must bring, no matter what torments the world.
It was in the Factory, a new headquarter for Mathieu Lehanneur’s brand, that the torch prototypes were tested and optimised, along with the Paris 2024 teams and Arcelor Mittal. Together, they worked hand in hand, fuelled by trust and insatiable expectations. The Factory is a century-old industrial building on the outskirts of Paris. Mathieu Lehanneur describes it as an island of independence, a fortress of ideas and energy. All his pieces and works are designed and developed there, from the initial sketches to the packaging, before being shipped around the world.