I'm down with house-fucking. To clarify, that endorsement should not be misconstrued as an endorsement of humans engaging in (presumably difficult) sexual intercourse with buildings. Instead, I am throwing my weight behind houses fucking other houses. What's the big deal?
The Louvre, in an act of cowardice, has decided to pull an installation by Dutch art collective Atelier Van Lieshout. The installation—which, by my interpretation, shows two houses mid-copulation—was pulled for being sexually explicit, according to the New York Times.
Rightfully, the artists aren't pleased with the Louvre's decision. "This is something that should not happen," collective founder Joep van Lieshout told the Times Monday. "A museum should be an open place for communication. The task of the museum and the press is to explain the work."
Exactly. The installation itself, van Lieshout added, contains zero depictions of house genitals and is "pretty innocent."
A letter from Louvre director Jean-Luc Martinez appears to have sparked the last-minute pull. In the letter, Martinez cited "online commentaries" that had supposedly noted a "brutal aspect" to the piece. The 40-foot installation, entitled Domestikator, was scheduled to go up at the Louvre's Tuileries Gardens Oct. 19 as part of the public art program Hors les Murs.
The collective's official website touts Domestikator as a "large scale artwork" intended to serve as "a totem, a temple, and a beacon." The piece, the collective states, symbolizes humanity's power over the planet and points to the dilemma surrounding factory farming. The piece has been on display in Bochum, Germany for the past three years. According to the Times, Paris City Hall stepped in this week offer assistance in finding an alternative public display spot for Domestikator, but it was already too late for new accommodations.
