A University of Plymouth academic has been selected to represent Great Britain in a prestigious cultural exhibition running in conjunction with the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Polluted Pool, a work by Dr Mathew Emmett, was chosen to feature in the Apollo’s Decathlon exhibition at the Château de Montsoreau Museum of Contemporary Art in the Loire Valley.Part of the wider Cultural Olympiad, the exhibition – which runs until 11 August – features artists from countries participating in the Paris Games.

Dr Emmett was chosen as the GB representative in the video art category, and chose to focus his work around the contrast between the pinnacle of human achievement and the devastating scale of environmental degradation.

It shows a derelict Olympic swimming pool that has been filled with items such as plastic waste, chemical residues, sewage, and oil spills.

A swimmer adorned with symbols of pollution is then depicted hovering above the polluted pool to illustrate the paralysis in addressing climate change.

The work aims to highlight increasing levels of water pollution, and to inspire a collective call to action for greater environmental stewardship.