Alison Saar comes from a family of artists: her mother is the iconic Betye Saar; her father Richard Saar was a conservator and ceramist. She has referenced Elizabeth Catlett and Kiki Smith as influences, in addition to her parents. Saar knows her way around a public sculpture: Swing Low, her 13-foot-tall Harriet Tubman tribute, lives on a granite pedestal stationed at a traffic island in Harlem. Her latest work likewise champions inclusivity, optimism and community practices: it is the Olympic Sculpture for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, a stark and graceful seated figure installed now in the eighth arrondissement just off the Champs-Elysées. Despite her California roots, the sculpture’s materials were all French-sourced and produced under the artist’s supervision. Seated on a shaded bench in view of Salon, Observer spoke with Saar about studio practices, family ties and the spark of pride when women run things.

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The initial proposal was just a singular drawing and some ideas. I developed that further and finally got a go-ahead in September 2023. It’s a really short turnaround time for casting stuff because it’s a lot of process. Then I came here [to France], made a maquette and met the IOC [International Olympic Committee] and the city of Paris people; they shared concerns about certain things. We looked at the site—at that point [where the statue is] was a planter.

I came back to France from November to December to actually work on the maquette, then we built the models to scale. I brought my daughter with me and we worked together at the foundry for a month. We signed off on everything to be cast; I came back in April to oversee the patina and talk about the shape of the stonework with the stonemason. Then I came back four days ago and it was installed!

No… I mean, I used to do gymnastics, so I would follow gymnastics, but I’m not sportif or anything. What I was really interested in was the ideal of promoting humanity and bringing people in from all over the world. There are some really interesting ideas about how these games can function, beyond just the competitions. I was very interested in that.

That’s why I made this meeting space—so that all these chairs communicate. We’re hoping poets will come and host a poetry slam. I’ve done other pieces where it’s less about the monument than it is about the space it creates. The first one I did was Harriet Tubman in New York City, and it’s now become a space where the Women’s March would meet, and they do an anniversary for Harriet Tubman there. I wanted this to be a space where people came........

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