A number of art museums have encouraged artists to use their spaces as the background or content for their films (and others didn't). Probably the best known are the final of Matthew Barney's Cremaster cycle shot in the Guggenheim and Alexander Sokurov’s Russian Ark filmed in the Winter Palace of the Russian State Hermitage Museum.
Then the Louvre of all places got in on the game and commissioned Malaysian born Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-Liang to make a film for them. Visage turned out to be the story of a Chinese filmmaker who goes to the Louvre to shoot a version of J-t-B’s head-hunter Salome. Tsai Ming-Liang uses the bowels of the Louvre to create a pretty believable abattoir with his lead crawling through the vents and sewer tunnels (usually restricted to the fire department) that are hidden behind the walls of the main galleries.
That’s why one of Tsai Ming-Liang ‘s characters can appear through the skirting panels just nearby Leonardo’s Virgin of the Rocks. Gowns are by Christian Lacroix.
Images: Through the skirting boards in Visage
