On Friday, January 17, 2025, a unique performance took place at the Musée du Louvre as part of The Night of Fools, the closing late-night event for the exhibition Figures du fou. Du Moyen Âge aux Romantiques.

The dancers of the Ballet National de Marseille took over the Marly and Puget Courtyards of the Louvre in Paris, moving among the sculptures and the audience. Holding iPhones in their hands, the performers live-streamed choreographic motifs from Age of Content, the latest creation by (LA)HORDE, on the Instagram accounts of the BNM, the collective, and the Louvre, questioning representations of the body in the age of all-pervasive digital technology.

Between Apollo Pursuing Daphne (1713–1715) by Nicolas Coustou and The Wrestlers (1684–1688) by Philippe Magnier, wandering visitors were able to appreciate the technical precision of the dancers’ movements, inspired by the gestures and physical vocabulary of video games such as Grand Theft Auto (GTA).

This performance, conceived by (LA)HORDE in collaboration with the dancers of the Ballet National de Marseille, was complemented by large LED screens installed between the museum’s two courtyards. These screens broadcast live footage captured by the dancers and simultaneously streamed on the Instagram accounts of the Musée du Louvre, the BNM, and (LA)HORDE.

The result was a true mise en abyme of our relationship to others and to the body in the age of ubiquitous digital technology, an experience that has since spread widely across social media.