As we understand it, cognitive dissonance is the discomfort experienced when listening to a massively famous professional re-inventor with a fake British accent cover a sensitive singer-songwriter while de-contextualizing the music entirely. We admit it's a rare scenario, but our disequilibrium was on full tilt last night when Madonna performed Elliott Smith's "Between The Bars" at MoMA at the launch party for her new short film, secretprojectrevolution. And she somehow turned a song about alcohol and heartache into a performance art piece about the prison industrial complex. And appropriately, Lindsay Lohan was there!

And ex-husband Sean Penn, Anderson Cooper, and Perez Hilton were all there too.

NEW: Madonna and Sean Penn at the Gagosian Gallery for #SecretProjectRevolution premiere. pic.twitter.com/NeJHXL4h3w — MadonnaInfinity▲SITE (@MadonnaInfinity) September 25, 2013

SURPRESA: Madonna e Sean Penn na estreia do #SecretProjectRevolution em Nova York pic.twitter.com/HjIUU3xhLv — Madonna Online (@MadonnaOnline_) September 25, 2013

Lindsay celebrates Madonna's top-secret film project at the Gagosian Gallery in New York,Sept 24. #LindsayLohan #2 pic.twitter.com/oPtmt3FJJw — Lindsay (@LindsayLSupport) September 25, 2013

For what it's worth, Madonna doesn't sound bad on the song—but it's still just off. Completely and utterly off. Below is the full speech Madonna made last night about the Art For Freedom campaign. "When I say I wanna start a revolution, that is exactly what I mean," she said. "I mean I want to start a movement of people, of artists, who are not worried about winning popularity contests, who are not worried about approval, who are not worried about whether their ass looks good—although it is important to have a good-looking ass..."

The 17-minute secretprojectrevolution film is a collaboration with director Steven Klein, which “questions our governments and our collective thought patterns." You can watch the whole thing below.