The setting ablaze of Paris 2024's Olympic and Paralympic cauldron transfixed spectators at the opening ceremony on July 26. It comes as no surprise, then, that people are now suggesting that the ring of fire topped by a monumental helium-filled balloon designed by Mathieu Lehanneur should be made a permanent attraction.
The cauldron is both exceptional and ephemeral, reflecting the Games themselves − and so should France keep it in Paris's Jardins des Tuileries? It's an interesting question, since the concept of cultural heritage covers all traces of human activity that a society considers essential to its identity and collective memory, and which it wishes to preserve in order to pass on to future generations.
However, it is whether the French state has the capacity to maintain the cauldron for a long period of time that is key to answering this question, so that it does not inevitably end up in a state of degradation, like the artist Daniel Buren's columns at the Palais Royal. The state's responsibility is paramount, as heritage is defined by its loss being a sacrifice and its conservation constituting an effort, as historians André Chastel and Jean-Pierre Babelon have demonstrated.
It's also a question of knowing where to keep the cauldron, since the Jardin des Tuileries is itself a special heritage site: classified as a historic monument (1888, 1889 and 1914), officially listed as a heritage site (1975), listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site (1991), as a national domain (2017) and as a remarkable garden (2019). As a result, the French heritage and urban planning codes contain more or less strict rules about carrying out ground works in the protected area.
However, despite the attempt to make it tie in with its architectural background, it could be argued that the cauldron risks detracting from the character of the site, or from the monumental view of the "voie royale" ("royal road") that runs from the Louvre to La Défense, via the Place de la Concorde and the Arc de Triomphe.
However, the opinions of heritage commissions are not always followed, as evidenced by the debate around Notre-Dame Cathedral's contemporary stained glass windows. Nothing is ever a foregone conclusion, as demonstrated by the Conseil d'Etat's 1992 approval of the construction of Daniel Buren's columns in the Palais Royal's (heritage-listed) main courtyard. Couldn't this project be considered an "artistic creation" or an "enhancement project" exempted from the rules against construction work on the national site?
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