Born to unite with harmony as a common thread, it often repeats Marco Balich during the chat. He is the Master of Olympic Ceremonies with a capital letter, he has 16 under his belt, between opening and closingin 2002 he started a game, or rather many Games, which earned him an Emmy Award and a Compasso d’Oro, prestigious awards, for world events like no other, and Milan Cortina will be his second home, after Turin 2006, and in Milan he has already signed the tree of life for Expo 2015.
«Twenty years have passed since Turin, that moment changed my life, for me and for many collaborators with whom I work. In Milan it will be a new interpretation with younger creatives capable of speaking to generation x and z: the celebration of the beauty and imagination of Italy in a new language and obviously of Olympic values. I insist a lot on the values of harmony: more than ever we want to inspire young people on the topic of peace.”
He explains better the choice of “Harmony”, in Italian, as the central concept: «Harmony, because it is a beautiful word of Greek origin, which means that there are different sounds that together create a better sound or different actions that together create a better action. Taking a journey through colors, culture, places, art, beauty is about harmony, because all of this together is harmonious. And when I talk about beauty, I think of it in the noblest sense, an essence for us Italians: harmony is also a very necessary message of universal peace in 2026. When we talk about beautiful people, and it is a concept that transcends cultures, we are not talking about sculpted abs but about values, kindness, culture, knowledge. Here I would not like to talk about beauty exhausting it in an aesthetic, but in a more philosophical sense.”
The ceremony promises two and a half hours of entertainment, choreography, music, costumes: «But we want the athletes to be at the center of the action, who are close to the words of the President of the Republic, of the President of the IOC, of President Malagò. And we must not forget Cortina because on a smaller but significant scale it is an integral part of this ceremony with all the fundamental protocol points doubled.”
For the first time the brazier will not be a surprise, because it needed to be worked on outside the stadium in a public place: under the Arco della Pace: «One in Milan with the Castle in the background, one in Cortina with the Tofane in the background, a dynamic, technological design, with many LEDs that will put on a show and entertain thousands of people in Milan and on the main square of Cortina, a contemporary symbol, but inspired by the great Leonardo Da Vinci, we took inspiration from his geometric knots”.
Napoleon wanted the arch as a copy of the one in Paris, but the points of contact with the Paris 2024 Ceremony end here: «There was the potentially divisive message of a single director with a strong idea. Milano Cortina 26 is the result of creative team work in which the creative director does not stick his nose into the individual choreography, in which we compare and perhaps discuss, in which different languages are spoken in which harmony is sought, which is why I met Damiano Micheletto, one of the most esteemed opera directors, called Simone Ferrari, a young man who worked at the Circ du soleil, Lulu Helbaeck, Lida Castelli, the queen of Protocol: our ceremony will be more of a team of football than a singles tennis player.”
Speaking of tennis players, today there are rumors of Jannik Sinner in Milan. And who knows what it will mean. Meanwhile, Ghali and his presence have put a bit of pressure on the underlying objective: «Send a non-divisive message and leave three or four images that will remain in the memory».
There will be Verdi, Rossini and Puccini, but also pop: «Mariah Carey will sing in Italian and I promise you that she will make the whole stadium sing».
The difficult thing will be to coordinate separate ceremonies, one in Milan, one in Cortina, one in Livigno, and make them one, the great challenge of these widespread Games which we will try not to scatter, but yesterday in the press room in Milan a Californian colleague was desperately trying to reconcile times and ways to arrive today at 10am at the Tofane in Cortina and the transport app indicated 7 hours 06, not around the corner: «I imagine the fashion show as in fashion where everyone walks ahead from different points, certainly the technology to unite the fashion shows will be useful, but I don’t want it to be the center. The human factor must be the center. At the end of the ceremonies we saw we remember the tremor of Mohammed Ali lighting the brazier in Atlanta, certainly not how many LEDs there were on the floor”.
Speaking of fashion we know that homage will be paid to Giorgio Armanithe stylist who more than anyone was close to sport and Milanese sport: «I think with emotion about the fact that the last thing he designed before his death were the uniforms of the flag bearers. It is the symbol of all the stylists of Milan, of the people who have changed the perception of Italy in the world in which fashion and design have put aside the pizza/pasta stereotypes.”
