The Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris offers a unique exploration of intimacy across the ages. The exhibition examines our relationship with private life, from the bedroom to social media, questioning the boundaries of contemporary intimacy.
Until March 30, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs (MAD) invites us on a fascinating journey into the heart of intimacy. The exhibition, The Intimate, from the Bedroom to Social Media, designed as an “educational mission to foster better understanding across generations,” according to its curator Christine Macel, delves into the many facets of private life through the ages.
Nearly 490 objects, from art and daily life – paintings to sex toys, furniture to toiletries – reveal the evolution of our connection to intimacy. From the first rooms, visitors slip into the role of a voyeur, discovering the earliest intimate spaces: private bedrooms, recreated or painted, hygiene and beauty utensils, and items associated with sexuality.
But the exhibition does more than reveal these private spaces. It also examines our relationship with intimacy, particularly through the lens of gender. “There is a strong sense of modesty among young people regarding many topics, despite all the neo-feminist liberation discourse,” notes Christine Macel. “It is actually women who grew up at the latest by the 1970s who are more comfortable addressing issues around female desire, for example.”
This focus on female intimacy lies at the heart of the exhibition’s design, which highlights the central role of women in domestic spaces since the 18th century. Conversely, representations of male intimacy are rarer, struggling to emerge against the backdrop of dominant virile ideals.
Throughout the exhibition, intimacy is examined in its many forms, from individual privacy to shared intimacy, celebrated by 25 pieces of design midway through the exhibit. However, the exhibition’s core questions center around contemporary intimacy, blurred and transformed by our modern era.
In an age of social media, surveillance cameras, and artificial intelligence, where do we draw the line between private and public life? “In this digital age, it’s particularly challenging to create genuine, authentic intimate connections,” emphasizes Christine Macel. “Have we become too self-absorbed, too focused on the private self, at the expense of public life?”
The exhibition not only raises these questions but also sheds light on forms of intimacy threatened or denied in our society: the intimacy of the sick, migrants, and homeless individuals, exposed to view against their will. It is an absent intimacy, sidelined by extreme precarity.
The Intimate, from the Bedroom to Social Media is an immersive, reflective experience, inviting us to rethink our relationship with intimacy in a constantly evolving world. By exploring the shifting contours of the private sphere, MAD provides us with a striking mirror of our societies and lives, balancing the desire for privacy with the temptation for exposure.
This is an unmissable exhibition for anyone curious about the new faces of intimacy in the digital era, and the place we wish to give it in our lives and society. As Christine Macel reminds us, “Objects are not insignificant. They reveal a certain level of independence and intimacy. Possessing them is part of building one’s identity.”
With AFP
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