Paris is the host city for the next Olympic Games, in 2024.

Most of the infrastructures will indeed be located in the outskirts of Paris — that are often homes to the underprivileged populations. One of the biggest parks of the region, Parc Georges-Valbon, green lung for the East of the capital, was expected to be particularly affected, as several of its areas were intended to be left open to different infrastructures — L’Aire des Vents, the most vulnerable area of the park, that was designed to be coverd in concrete in order to build the media village.

The silhouettes of 44 protected animal species of the park (including the Natterjack toad who would not have made it after the Olympic Games according to a study by ANCA) were cut out from the 266 pages of the application form of Paris 2024.

If we can now write this text in past tense, it is thanks to the fight of several organizations and associations of residents, who eventually achieved justice in 2022, after years of mobilization. Parc Georges-Valbon and its biodiversity will be spared by the Olympic Games.

This work now stands as an ode to civil upheavals and mobilizations.