Building the Louvre: Architectures of Politics and Art

The Louvre has crystallized discourse on city space and national power for over a thousand years. What emerges transhistorically is a pattern of constant interaction that collects and legitimizes forms of authority. The Louvre connects modes of power and knowledge through an articulation of discrete discourses (spatial, historical, aesthetic, and political). Building the Louvre juxtaposes historical moments and objects of study in order to reveal what repeats across time (such as configurations of national identity, language, and power) and what remains a specific response to a given historical situation.