Calling all fans of stunning, historically significant art and the greatest performer of our time: you can now re-enact your own “APESHIT” music video. Travel and Leisure reports that the Louvre Museum in Paris, France is now offering a self-guided audio tour of the works featured in Bey and Jay’s music video, the first single from their first joint album Everything is Love. The “APESHIT” video was filmed in the famed art museum, which uses its cherished paintings to explore themes of colonialism, discrimination, and reclamation. Excuse us while we put on a pink suit and take selfies in front of some of the most prized art in the world.
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The Carters gave us a study in Art History 101, and the Musee du Louvre is helping us hit the books with its new 90-minute tour — if you speak French. The tour takes us through 17 paintings featured prominently in the video, including, of course, the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci (1519). The Mona Lisa is generally considered the most famous painting in art history; as the “APESHIT” video begins, the Carters stand in front of her soft smile. This is a visual reminder that art has historically excluded people of colour — while rightfully elevating their craft to fine art status.
Other works featured in the tour include the ancient Egyptian Great Sphinx of Tanis, which dates back to around 2600 BC. Marie Guillemine Benoist’s Portrait of a Black Woman (Negress) (1880) also stars in the video; it is a poignant reminder that Black bodies have been excluded from Western fine art, both as painters and subjects.
We also see Greek sculptures, like Winged Victory of Samothrace (190 BC) and the Venus de Milo by Alexandros of Antioch (between 130 and 100 BC). Dancers in leotards worked their moves in front of The Consecration of the Emperor Napoleon and the Coronation of Empress Josephine by Jacques-Louis David (1804), a massive mural depicting the dictator’s rise to power. Plan your Bey-inspired Parisian holiday accordingly: Lonely Planet notes that the Louvre may make the tour accessible in other languages.