Umberto Eco Signs On as the Louvre’s Guest Curator

Even if you’re a little concerned about your financial future, when you’re the world’s most popular museum, you still have some pretty substantial “getting” power. The “get” we’re talking about here is one Mr. Umberto Eco and the “getter” is the Louvre, who has signed the famous Italian writer on as their new guest curator. For the next few months, Eco will be given free reign to create “art exhibits, concerts, and conferences.” Whatever he’d like to do, really. Apparently he’s spent a good deal of time on the internet or reading the December issues of magazines, as Eco has decided that the thing he’d like to explore the most during his tenure at the museum is “the list.” Everything displayed will involve lists of some kind, a fascination the writer has apparently had for quite a while. Here’s some of what to look forward to:

For example, one event is a conference on 16th century Flemish artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder, whose tableaux of multitudes of peasants can be seen as a kind of visual list. Another is a performance art piece featuring lists that have turned up in literary works from Homer to James Joyce to Victor Hugo to Eco himself.

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