Everything in Athens is probably a good example. Any time when there really isn't a need for these facilities in these cities, but they get built anyway for the games, everybody has kind of wishful thinking about what the afterlife of these spaces is going to be. If there is not demand for it before the Olympics, there's probably not going to be demand for it afterwards.
Gary HustwitWe were talking to shop owners or ordinary people who were living in these buildings now. A lot of the Olympic Villages were turned into housing.
Gary HustwitEvery city and country just has a different reason for wanting to host the [Olympic] games.
Gary HustwitEverything in Athens is probably a good example. Any time when there really isn't a need for these facilities in these cities, but they get built anyway for the games, everybody has kind of wishful thinking about what the afterlife of these spaces is going to be. If there is not demand for it before the Olympics, there's probably not going to be demand for it afterwards.
Gary HustwitIn some bigger cities, I don't think people really realize these structures were built for the Olympics.
Gary HustwitIf the Russian government continues to pump money into it and makes their national teams train in Sochi and just sort of prop it up as a point of pride, then perhaps. But I don't think anybody living there was begging for multiple 40,000-seat venues to be plopped down in the city.
Gary HustwitSo many people that we met had some sort of connection to the [Olympics] games. Some story about how they volunteered there, or some sort of memory of it. It still is in the cultural memory and identity of these cities as much as it is in the physical and architectural memory. It's where these two things overlap, I think, that we're trying to explore with the photos.
Gary Hustwit