Protesters throw soup at Mona Lisa in Paris

Visitors at Louvre look on in shock as Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece attacked by environmental protesters

Two environmental protesters have hurled soup on to the Mona Lisa at the Louvre in Paris, calling for “healthy and sustainable food”. The painting, which was behind bulletproof glass, appeared to be undamaged.

Gallery visitors looked on in shock as two women threw the yellow-coloured soup before climbing under the barrier in front of the work and flanking the splattered painting, their right hands held up in a salute-like gesture.

One of the two activists removed her jacket to reveal a white T-shirt bearing the slogan of the environmental activist group Riposte Alimentaire (Food Response) in black letters.

Haagel,

I’m not usually inclined to conspiracy but I honestly think this group is planted by somebody to make environmental activists look bad.

FaceDeer,
FaceDeer avatar

No true Scotsman would throw soup on the Mona Lisa.

Cethin,

They aren’t even protesting about (necessarily) environmentalism! It’s crazy the number of people outraged that soup was thrown on glass that was in front of a painting and didn’t even get to the part where it says this is about food security.

mean_bean279,

That just shows why this isn’t an effective form of protest. I’ve seen a lot of comments about how “this gets attention” but fail to see how no one is actually talking about the “point” these protestors were trying to make. Which basically ruins anything the protestors are trying to do as no one focuses on the issues expressed.

PoliticalAgitator,

What form of protest gets your rubber stamp of approval?

mean_bean279,

Well the guillotine seems super effective. Start there.

I love you types that add nothing to a conversation except “WhAt dO yOU ApPRoVe???” Like that’s a useful response to the conversation of “is this effective in getting a message across.”

PoliticalAgitator,

If only you held yourself to the same standard before yet another generic “This isn’t an effective form of protest even though it made the news, and I’m talking about it, and I know what it was about” comment.

Or fuck, even in this reply, where your “useful response” was “you should protest with murder”.

Looks to me like you just didn’t like your opinions challenged, you just wanted to make sure everybody knew what they were.

mean_bean279,

Of course WE know what this is about. We’re both reading the article (and most likely have a similar view of how important food insecurity is across the globe and in our own countries/states/provinces/cities). I’m not concerned about you or I getting the messaging. I’m question if the general public will get the messaging. The people who don’t know about food insecurity, or food waste, if they get the messaging. Even next door in Germany DW interviewed the communications head of the organization that protested and they couldn’t really point out how this was beneficial for their argument. They talked about wanting access to high quality food, so they mysteriously threw high quality food on the Mona Lisa? Wouldn’t a better protest of the same variety to have been throwing shit food at it? Or maybe blocking deliveries of crappy food to markets?

So here we are, on the internet, having a conversation about the Mona Lisa being hit with pumpkin soup. The messaging isn’t clear from the protestors and the demonstration just goes to show why we need better organization amongst people who realize this is an issue. We need clear messaging to relay to the every man. The person who maybe doesn’t experience it themselves, or who maybe doesn’t see how good insecurity has a wider impact on people and keeping social-economic classes in the same groups.

Challenge my viewpoint, prove to me how this protest has brought attention to their cause that’s meaningful rather than just notoriety to the Mona Lisa (that it didn’t already have), and that the every man is viewing this as a reason to help stop food insecurity.

DW video interview.

PoliticalAgitator,

For-profit, neoliberal media will never fairly cover any protest that may impact the profits of other neoliberals. It doesn’t matter what form the protest takes, nor what the protest is for.

It’s been that way ever since “Occupy Wall St”, when news anchors feigned carefully practised bewilderment and asked "But what are they protesting. Of course if you asked any of the actual protesters, they were happy to make it clear.

So they just didn’t ask.

Measuring any act of protest by metric of “the media covered it in a way that will bring the great unwashed on side” ensures that no protest will ever meet your standard. You may as well advocate that people don’t bother and just politely wait for the end of the world. You won’t even be alone in doing it.

Fortunately, those media companies don’t control every method of communication just yet, so we can discuss it on social media or look it up independently.

What we can’t escape is the endless protest policing, where people complain “that’s not how I would have done it” on social media.

So maybe it’s time for those people to unveil their perfect protest strategy that gets international attention, doesn’t inconvenience anybody, gets fairly covered despite the millions spent to prevent it and doesn’t require 3 wet wipes to fix.

My money is on their big reveal being “do fuck all and try and die of old age before it matters”.

T156,

Although part of it might also just be the classic issue of people not reading that much past the headline. People see “protestors throw soup at Mona Lisa”, and not get much farther than that.

maynarkh,

Or more likely that news doesn’t get paid to put it in the headline.

HipHoboHarold,

I would argue it’s a slightly effective form… but only if they advertise the point. There’s been plenty of times I’ve seen this for environmentalism, and people start talking about it in the comments. Not completely directly, but it gets them talking. Like when they would super glue their hands to the ground, in one video one of the protestors threw the bottle into a drain. So people started talking about how hypocritical it was because that’s bad for the environment. Which was a small thing, but the conversation was happening.

People used to make fun activists who would throw red paint onto fashion models wearing fur. But over the years, that slowed down because designers stopped using real fur. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of it was because they were afraid of getting their stuff ruined, but now most designers won’t use fur for ethical reasons. Because they realize animals don’t need to be bred and killed for their suits.

The only real downside is that it does make them come off as assholes, but also no real way to turn that around. Like black people would do sit ins at restaurants, and a lot of white people hated them for it… but then other white people also got to see them get abused for it. Things like that can help change people’s perspective. With this, they throw it, and then it mostly stops there. They’re just assholes. It gets the conversation going, but not enough, because it just stops at them being assholes.

Cethin,

I agree with everything in your post except them being assholes. What part of this makes them assholes? Nothing was damaged and no one was hurt or inconvenienced, except for maybe a few museum employees who had to clean up a mess. The whole setup for viewing the Mona Lisa causes far more inconvenience than these people did. It’s a tiny painting in a packed room. You can’t really see it anyway.

starman2112,
@starman2112@sh.itjust.works avatar

Been there. Guarantee the time it takes to clean it is less than the time it takes to get through the crowd to look at it. I know it’s a popular edgy opinion, but the painting across from the Mona Lisa is much cooler imo

afraid_of_zombies,

Shows how effective it was. People don’t even know what it is about

Haagel,

The first line of the Guardian article says, “Two environmental protesters…”

Granted, I did assume that this was the same group that’s been throwing paint onto artwork and corporate headquarters and yachts.

Drivebyhaiku,

I know it’s a minor point and food security is an actual very practical concern and valid reason to protest, but I feel like one of the tenants of a successful protest is very much like advertising : make the target directly relevant to the message. “Art and historical conservation efforts aren’t worth your concern as much as (blank)” feels like it’s a muddy message when the whole point of art culture is that it is kind of frivolous. Quite frankly you could throw anything at a beloved historical conservation peice and make the news even if your reason was “I felt like it”. People are probably gunna treat it as a bare faced stunt for attention because it’s already been done and the response is predictable. Our society wide fascination with historical preservation is immediately hostile to anything that seems to be spontaneous. It’s the opposite of exploiting a weak spot in people’s thinking.

I understand and am sympathetic to their cause but I am pretty sure there’s some property damage or mischief stunt that could have been immediately more effective by being somehow tied more directly to food, convenience culture or contemporary targets.

afraid_of_zombies,

If you got evidence present it. I tend to take people at their word. If someone tells me they are religion x or fighting for cause y I run on that assumption. There are of course shills but internet shilling or talking on media is not going to land you in jail. It would take a very very large sum of money to convince me that I should do something like this.

SuddenDownpour,

You underestimate how dumb the average person is. Couple that with a good cause and a lot of drive, and you get the statistical certainty that from time to time someone is going to do something unproductively dumb, supposedly for the sake of a good cause that doesn’t get promoted in any way.

Meowoem,

It’s just the obvious trajectory of social media attention seeking within the disaffected aesthetic. Someone that loves to feel special and the center of attention picks a cause almost at random then throws themselves into the fray as loudly as possible.

It’s always happened, you can see them in every community and aesthetic - conspiracy theories, political types, sports fans… Protest communities are especially attractive to attention seekers, it’s great for social media clout to pretend that you’re doing these crazy things for a bigger cause

TriPolarBearz,

Anyone else think of the Mona Lisa case from Glass Onion?

Patches, (edited )

Possibly why it was chosen?

The Mona Lisa is So Hot right now

Zellith,

They are covered in glass. They do this to make a scene to bring light to their cause. The painting wasnt harmed. Meh. Either way I've kinda accepted that humanity is doomed. I've gone through the 5 stages. Too many are suck on denial.

reverendsteveii,

some of us have been chilling at anger for a while. it’s kinda nice.

Damdy,

How do you separate your anger at the world from your regular everyday anger at morons? It’s a real struggle.

reverendsteveii,

Why would i separate them. You take all the anger, you squish it down real hard until it’s tiny and it’s white hot, you put it in the center of you and set it to spinning, and it’ll drive you to incredible feats.

ulterno,
@ulterno@lemmy.kde.social avatar

“Our farming system is sick. Our farmers are dying at work.”

“… And WE are wasting the food that the farmers died for.”, while at the same time, turning the world towards destruction of all testaments of technology of the previous era.

lightdust9745,

It worked. Good for them, no damage was done and the news is talking about the issue

SwagGaribaldi,

It’s doing more harm than good for the climate cause.

Klear,

Usually when this happens, the articles forget to mention the glass and the comments are all centered on how stupid the protestors are. Good to see an exception here.

Edit: Never mind. I scrolled down and it’s bad as it always was on reddit.

CeruleanRuin,
@CeruleanRuin@lemmy.world avatar

sigh

oatscoop,

It’s a dumb action, and this is from someone that supports direct action. How people are talking about an action is critical: the context matters.

The first thing people are going to ask is “why did you do this?” and the answer needs to make sense. Throwing soup on an oil exec, painting their office, etc – something sparks a conversation in a way you can exploit to further the cause.

“Vandalizing” a famous piece of art not even tangentially related to your cause is just going to make people think you’re an asshole and shuts down that potential for a productive discussion.

banneryear1868,

Yeah and I’m pretty sure the issue with climate change isn’t a lack of awareness…

oatscoop, (edited )

Right? Raw shock value is only useful when something isn’t well known. Everyone knows about climate change and has a position.

Great, use “shock value”: but make a worthwhile statement with it too. The goal is to force people to confront an issue, not effortlessly write it off as a childish tantrum and ignore it.

barsoap,

Some of the most successful stunts of extinction rebellion over here were painting private jets orange, and my personal favourite declaring a golf course a nature reserve and planting all kinds of indigenous plants there.

Not even the pearl-clutching “but that’s property damage!” types tend to be really mad about that kind of stuff.

cosmicrookie,
@cosmicrookie@lemmy.world avatar

The painting, which was behind bulletproof glass, appeared to be undamaged.

This is why education is important.

cactusupyourbutt,

eh idk. they probably knew about it. they wanted headlines, not damage, and they got them

gerryflap,
@gerryflap@feddit.nl avatar

What a brain-dead form of protesting. It only upsets people and makes no sense.

spujb,

lowhanging psyop spotted

my personal conspiracy theory is that these people are funded, if indirectly, by big oil. in the same way PETA smears the name of vegans, these mfs are designed to make you, the viewer, hate environmentalists.

the worst part? it works

frunch,

Makes sense, tbh. If you can’t control the opposition, you can instead try to defame them

foggianism,

In the Balkans, whenever people rise in peaceful protest against a corrupt goverment, that particular government sends 50 or so crack heads to join the protests and start demolishing stuff, so that an overwhelming police force can then disperse the legitimate protests. I’ve seen it play out times and times again.

thbb,

That’s why trade unions in France maintain their own security forces, trained to spot troublemakers or hysterical militants and reign them in. Perhaps is this what makes for successful démonstrations.

Patches,

Centuries of experience helps.

Malfeasant,

We do that here in the US too, we might hide it better though.

trash,

I can’t wait to go to my old high school’s student art show and throw soup on alllllll the art! You know, because food.

Harbinger01173430,

…why the need of throwing food at a piece of art…?

braxy29,

or paint, that’s been a thing.

really pisses me off, environmentalists attacking art, of all things. random art didn’t cause environmental issues, and they’re undermining their own message with the sheer absurdity of it.

Harbinger01173430,

Whatever object was thrown, aside, i wonder if this is some kind of act attributed to their primitive parts of their brains that command the following: Monke throw poop.

deranger,

They attacked a pane of bulletproof glass; if destroying art was their objective they wouldn’t have had to walk far.

Are there any examples of these protests that have caused lasting damage? What I’ve seen was very visible but didn’t actually threaten anything.

It’s a weird message for sure but they don’t seem to malicious to me.

Potatos_are_not_friends,

The goal is always to get on the news.

But it’s super weird. For example: any of the PETA BS ever worked for most of society? All it does is trigger the extremists while pissing off nearly everyone else.

the_inebriati,

Are you joking?

Veganism and vegetarianism is massively on the rise and firmly in the mainstream. McDonald’s does a plant based burger ffs.

PETA have even managed to position themselves as a certification agency for “cruelty free”. If getting companies to self-regulate and accept you as the rule maker for that regulation isn’t above your standard of “working” then I don’t know what is.

ember,

This one weird trick makes everyone in the immediate vicinity instantly despise you! Click for more info!

Boiglenoight,

God damned soup nazis

xc2215x,

Climate change is an issue but this is not the best way.

TokenBoomer,

What way would be better?

spujb,

blockading freeways 👍

Cicraft,

Actual propaganda, not this shock headline provoker

TokenBoomer, (edited )

Why not both? Direct Action gets results.

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/f187c950-63c5-463e-aab6-90c97c2a2b3d.jpeg

HansSlonzok,

idiots

Kolanaki,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

Again?!

Didn’t another group do this exact same thing last year? I believe it was Stop Oil last time.

You’d think they just stop anyone with a thermos or other vessel capable of holding soup.

cosmicrookie, (edited )
@cosmicrookie@lemmy.world avatar

I believe that they did it to a Van Gogh painting which actually was more note worthy as that was not behind bullet proof glass

c0mbatbag3l,
@c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world avatar

Im almost positive this is either the same exact story being posted a year later, either way I distinctly remember the same argument of “it’s behind glass, dumbasses” being mentioned last time.

doubletwist,

Unless they get to the point of doing full strip and cavity searches, there’s no way to prevent someone from bringing in a Ziploc baggie full of soup.

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