London 2012 Olympic Truce Wall

Watching the Olympic Games, it may often feel like they are as much about pomp and ceremony as they are about sports. The International Olymic Committee (IOC) has a long list of protocols that need to take place during opening and closing ceremonies, the playing of the Olympic and National Anthems and lighting of the flame, for example; and medal ceremonies have similar requirements. Looking at the Games of the 21st century, it becomes clear that many of these traditions have their origins in the birth of the modern Games in 1896 Europe, a context of chivalrous ideals marred by racist notions of superiority; while other traditions can be traced further back to the original games in Ancient Greece, where religion and ritual were key components of the celebrations.

In 1992, a previously-abandoned tradition of the Games was revived, at least in theory: the Olympic Truce. Originally known as ekecheiria, it was established by rulers of Greek city-states in the ninth century BCE to try and guarantee safety from conflict for participants and spectators to the Olympiads. The following year, the United Nations supported this revival, asking that it would take place from one week before the start of the Olympic and Paralympic Games to one week after their conclusion. The 1994 Lillehammer Winter Games were the first for which the President of the UN General Assembly requested the observance of an Olympic Truce. Since Nagano 1998, the UN's Secretary-General has also joined the call for this Truce.

With the "homecoming" Athens 2004 Summer Games, the Truce started being represented by a wall or mural, a physical installation in the Olympic Village, on which athletes, volunteers and occasionally the general public could leave messages and dedications aspiring to the Truce's ideal of peace. These Truce Walls have featured various materials, from tiles in Rio 2016 to wood for Tokyo 2020. After the respective Games and Truce, the wall/mural is left to the host city, some of which have repurposed the materials, kept the objects in storage or displayed them in local museums.

A partial exception can be found in the Olympic Museum in Lausanne. Some of the panels for the London 2012 edition, in which the Truce Wall consisted of translucent acrylic "totems", are on display in the Swiss city known as the Olympic Capital due to its hosting of the IOC. Heavily-signed, these panels center a section of the Museum dedicated to the Olympic Truce, which is also represented in the Museum's gardens with a sculpture by artist Rosa Serra from Spain. The revived Olympic Truce is non-binding, and has therefore been broken a few times, specially by Russia in the context of the Crimea conflict. The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 coincided with the Beijing Winter Olympics, representing the clearest violation of the Truce as of the time of writing.