The Louvre Is Thrilled to Announce It Is Rebranding to “UVR”

August 4, 2023 10:49 PM

Yes, we’re a world-class destination for art, but now we’re so much more. We strive to be something for everyone or nothing for anyone, we forget. [McSweeney's]
posted by blue shadows (15 comments total)

(stony expression interrupted only by twitching of facial tic.)
posted by Nerd of the North at 11:24 PM on August 4, 2023 [3 favorites]

Name and ticker symbol in one!
posted by StarkRoads at 1:34 AM on August 5, 2023

UVR kidding me.
posted by fairmettle at 2:14 AM on August 5, 2023

So is this like Musk re-branding Twitter to X?
posted by Metacircular at 3:56 AM on August 5, 2023 [3 favorites]

For those people who haven't read the article and have come here to freak out or give a hot take - pay close attention to the source cited above.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:13 AM on August 5, 2023 [16 favorites]

Irony is not dead; it's just impossible to tell anymore ;)
posted by SoberHighland at 6:30 AM on August 5, 2023 [8 favorites]

Top marks for “activizationizing.”
posted by GenjiandProust at 7:00 AM on August 5, 2023 [14 favorites]

This is brilliant. An overactualized hyperbolic travesty of current technonarcissim. In a reality where the loudest mouth speaks its own truth, it’s great to see that someone can push the boundaries of real facticity into the playground of overarching merde du jour. Hats off everyone! The village idiot is now leading the parade. We can now be content to know the content under contention is in good hands.
posted by njohnson23 at 8:07 AM on August 5, 2023 [1 favorite]

My teatowel with The Giaconda on it says L'UVR. I was stunned there's other art you can look at while queuing for the selfie-with-Mona-Lisa experience.
posted by k3ninho at 8:25 AM on August 5, 2023

I was stunned there's other art you can look at while queuing for the selfie-with-Mona-Lisa experience.

I didn't even bother trying to see it when I was there. The most famous thing I tried to see was the Venus de Milo, which also drew a crowd (but had more places to stand, including BEHIND the statue - which gave me an idea for a photo of my own).

And the essay's mention of The Sleeping Hermaphroditus reminded me of a delightful memory. The statue is of a person lying sort of half on their stomach; if you look at it from the right, the statue's back is to you and their face is turned towards you, and it looks female, but if you look at it from the left side, you can see that this person has very definite male genitalia.

The statue is positioned so that you come upon it from the right side, and you have to go around behind it to look at the statue's junk. And when I figured that out, I sat down nearby and spent a delightful several minutes of people-watching as people walked up to the statue, read the card describing what it was, looked it over....and then furtively glanced around and snuck behind it to check it out from that side.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:47 AM on August 5, 2023 [3 favorites]

oh, content, my love, how I long for thee, how my aching loins quiver for thy sweet embrace.

The Mona Lisa is content. The Venus de Milo is content. Twelve-Thousand-Pound Kissing Cousins in Bitchin’ Monster Trucks is content. Pimple Lickers is content. Big Azz Alligators is content. Big Azz Alligators vs. Son of Mecha-Tetrahedron is content. Big Azz Alligators vs. Existential Ennui is content. The Raft of the Medusa is content. The Sleeping Hermaphroditus is banned in Florida.
posted by doctornemo at 9:40 AM on August 5, 2023 [1 favorite]

I (sort of) know an actual real museum director who thinks like this. For them, this isn't satire, it is forethought and creativity. I kid you not. They have just left their position, because obviously, they have managed to run the museum they were leading into bankruptcy. And that comes after the radio station and the culture-political interest organisation and the other museum. I have no idea why they get hired...
posted by mumimor at 10:03 AM on August 5, 2023 [4 favorites]

Last year the Portland Art Museum rebranded the Northwest Film Center, a formerly independent organization devoted to cinema education and screenings, as PAMCUT, which apparently stands for “Center for Untold Tomorrows.” They have abandoned cinema more or less entirely in favor of VR spectacles and very expensive parties. This feels a little too close to home.
posted by Just the one swan, actually at 10:50 AM on August 5, 2023 [7 favorites]

Is this like tronc?
posted by jferg at 8:50 PM on August 5, 2023 [1 favorite]

Top marks for “activizationizing.”

There’s a bit in the unfortunately far too accurately observed Nathan Barley, in the advertisement for media/pop/rock guru Doug Rocket’s design company Place that says welcome to Creativilization, which I’m surprised hasn’t ended up being used non-satirically, it’s so brilliant/stupid
posted by Jon Mitchell at 7:10 AM on August 6, 2023