A DJ and LGBTQ+ activist who performed during a controversial scene in the Paris Olympics’ opening ceremony has said she is taking legal action after becoming the target of “an extremely violent campaign of cyber-harassment and defamation”.
Barbara Butch, who calls herself a “love activist”, had been “threatened with death, torture and rape, and has also been the target of numerous antisemitic, homophobic, sexist and body-shaming insults”, her lawyer said in a post on her Instagram page.
Butch appeared in the scene, titled “Festivity” and described by its director as representing a feast of the Greek gods on Mount Olympus, wearing a silver headdress resembling a halo that art historians have said was typically associated with the sun god Apollo.
Also in the scene – painted blue, almost naked, and sitting in a bowl of fruit – was the singer-songwriter Philippe Katerine, playing Dionysus, as well as a cast of drag queens representing Olympian gods and goddesses including Poseidon, Artemis and Venus.
Critics, including some Christians and US conservatives, interpreted the tableau as a mockery of The Last Supper, the final meal Jesus is said to have shared with his apostles. But Thomas Jolly, the show’s director, has said the Leonardo da Vinci painting, while often parodied, was not its inspiration.
“I think it was pretty clear. There’s Dionysus arriving at the table … Why is he there? Because he’s the god of feasting, of wine, and the father of Sequana, the goddess of the River Seine,” Jolly told BFM TV, adding that the tableau was “a big pagan party linked to the gods of Olympus … Olympian … Olympianism.”
Katerine said in an interview posted on X that Jolly’s idea was “around the idea of Dionysus, and of the decadence you could imagine at pagan feasts … Some people have seen a reference to the Last Supper, but it was never that. There was no question of religion at all. That is simply not what was represented.”
He told Le Monde he had been “staggered by the reactions … I grew up in the Christian religion, and what is most beautiful in this religion is the idea of forgiveness. So I’m sorry, if there has been a misunderstanding, if I shocked some people. I am very sorry. I think forgiveness can be reciprocal.”
After French Catholic bishops complained about the scene, a cardinal, François-Xavier Bustillo, said he “totally understood some Christians could have felt offended”, but he accepted the author “was not thinking of The Last Supper, but of a mythological scene, of Dionysus. It was a pagan festival, the festival of wine, of Olympus, the gods.”
Paris Olympics organisers apologised for any offence caused, saying there was “never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group” but did not link the scene to The Last Supper. Art experts have said it appeared to have been inspired by The Feast of the Gods, a 17th-century Dutch painting by Jan van Bijlert.
The statement from Butch’s lawyer, Audrey Msellati, said she was filing several complaints, which would be examined by French judicial authorities to determine whether a formal police investigation should be launched.
Msellati said the complaints would be filed “whether committed by French nationals or foreigners” and “intend to prosecute anyone who tries to intimidate her in the future”. Butch also posted a statement of her own on Instagram.
“Whatever some may say, I exist. I’ve never been ashamed of who I am, and I take responsibility for everything – including my artistic choices. All my life, I’ve refused to be a victim: I won’t shut up,” she said, adding that she was “extremely honoured” to have performed in the ceremony.
“My heart is still full of joy,” she said. “I’m committed, and I’m proud. Proud of who I am, of what I am, and of what I embody, both for my loved ones and for millions of French people. My France is France!”
Associated Press contributed to this report
