Music Videos in Museums

A revelation has come with the new music video for the song “Dorado” by Italian rapper Mahmood. In it, the artist is shown in various locations – one of which is the “Gallery of the Kings” in the Museo Egizio in Turin. This dramatic hall is the perfect setting for Mahmood to dance and rap in part about Egypt – where his father was born. What a fabulous collaboration between modern music artist and museum! It’s beneficial to both sides. Mahmood’s video gets an evocative setting, and the museum is benefitting significantly from the press about the video. Museum director Christian Greco even gave Mahmood a tour around – another great photo op, of course, and great publicity for the museum. It shows not only the museum’s openness to allowing filming on their premises, but active embracing of the vibrant arts community.

Perhaps most famously, The Carters (Beyoncé and Jay-Z) shot the music video for their song “Apeshit” in the Louvre. The video is a smart and visually stunning statement that certainly won over new fans for the museum.

This week the French artist Jain released a video shot in the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya. The project was supported by YouTube and the museum itself is featured on Google Arts and Culture – indicating a new way to produce cultural content in future that reaches potentially huge audiences worldwide.

K-Pop (Korean pop) legend BTS released a music video for their song “Blood Sweat & Tears” that includes a scene in a museum – but no one has been able to find out what museum it might represent (the V&A is indeed similar but has a different floor and objects). Perhaps it was a specially constructed set.

Tim Baker released a music video for “Dance” last year that was shot in the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa, Canada. The video is such a beautiful sonnet to the museum that it could be made into powerful advertising – although the museum’s website sadly doesn’t seem to mention it.

In earlier history, German electronic hip hop band Deichkind filmed part of their 2014 music video for “So ‘ne Musik” in an art museum – but which one? Perhaps somewhere in Hamburg, the band’s hometown?

Finally, museums can reach new audiences through music videos created by visitors themselves. Both the Children’s Museum of the Arts New York and the Smart Museum of Art in Chicago have offered family workshops on the topic. A fun idea. Now we can hope for more music videos shot in museums in future to push this movement forward!