‘De toutes beautés!’ Rituals, objects, and representations of beauty: A journey of discovery in the galleries of the Louvre Museum
A cultural mediation partnership between the Louvre and L'Oréal on beauty, its practices, its representations, and its role through ages and cultures
Paris, November 12, 2024 – The Louvre Museum offers an unprecedented mediation program across its galleries, thanks to the exceptional support of the L’Oréal Groupe. Entitled “Of All Beauties”, this guided journey allows visitors to explore over 100,000 years of art and history through a signposted collection of 108 selected works.
Starting November 13th, 2024, all visitors to the Louvre will be invited to explore over 100,000 years of art and history by discovering beauty gestures, rituals and practices; the canons or idealized visions of beauty; and what questions about appearance and beauty reveal about societies and their transformations.
These three key themes punctuate an original one-of-a-kind visit, created by the Louvre with the collaboration of the L’Oréal Groupe Art, Culture & Heritage Department. The aim is to share the story of beauty throughout history, with the widest possible audience: From prehistory to the future.
For a more immersive experience, visitors will be accompanied by a specially designed web application, accessible via a QR code. Through this application, which contains written and audio materials to complement the museum’s existing signage, the works and objects will tell their own unique stories in the first person. For example, visitors will be able hear from Nefatiabet, whose beauty products were so precious that they accompanied her to the afterlife; examine the beauty ideals of Ancient Greece with the statue of Mercure Richelieu, or even discover the 'Sleeping Hermaphrodite’ and explore the concept of gender.
Available remotely, the application will offer visitors the opportunity to continue their journey of discovery outside the museum galleries.
“The Louvre is a sanctuary for the discerning eye, providing a unique insight into world history and the diversity of beauty. Partnering with L’Oréal’s expertise in beauty has allowed us to provide visitors with new insights on and a broader perspective of the museum’s collections with new audiences,” said Laurence des Cars, President and Director of the Louvre Museum.
“At the heart of our purpose, ‘to create the beauty that moves the world’, lies the desire to make beauty accessible to all, and tell the story of beauty’s diverse and enduring role since the dawn of time. This is what has driven us to explore new partnership opportunities and approaches. The Louvre was the obvious choice for this partnership, given the richness and diversity of its collections and its ability to shed light on even the most contemporary of questions,” said Nicolas Hieronimus, CEO of L'Oréal Groupe.
Piece by piece, this unprecedented partnership, both for L'Oréal and the Louvre, helps to shine new perspectives on the diversity of beauty, by encouraging inclusion and tolerance across cultures, civilisations and eras.
This new program has been specifically designed to reach a new and younger generation. In addition to the in-museum experience, a web series co-produced by the Louvre and L’Oréal, will be broadcast at the beginning of 2025, and will allow people to discover some of the most iconic works from this curated collection through the eyes of a group of young visitors.
Since being founded 115 years ago, the L’Oréal Groupe has continuously explored beauty in all its forms and has contributed to democratising access to beauty in an inclusive, personalised and sustainable way. The Louvre, the first museum to open its doors to the public in 1793, is a place of inspiration and knowledge-sharing that invites artists, historians and scientists to connect with the widest possible audience. It’s a place where the exploration of the past clearly resonates with the most contemporary questions.
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About L’Oréal
For 115 years, L’Oréal, the world’s leading beauty player, has devoted itself to one thing only: fulfilling the beauty aspirations of consumers around the world. Our purpose, to create the beauty that moves the world, defines our approach to beauty as essential, inclusive, ethical, generous and committed to social and environmental sustainability. With our broad portfolio of 37 international brands and ambitious sustainability commitments in our L’Oréal for the Future programme, we offer each and every person around the world the best in terms of quality, efficacy, safety, sincerity and responsibility, while celebrating beauty in its infinite plurality.
With more than 90,000 committed employees, a balanced geographical footprint and sales across all distribution networks (e-commerce, mass market, department stores, pharmacies, perfumeries, hair salons, branded and travel retail), in 2023 the Group generated sales amounting to 41.18 billion euros. With 20 research centers across 11 countries around the world and a dedicated Research and Innovation team of over 4,000 scientists and 6,400 Digital talents, L’Oréal is focused on inventing the future of beauty and becoming a Beauty Tech powerhouse.
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