At a time when an “epidemic of loneliness” is spreading among the French, the MAD offers an intimate history from the 18th century to the present day through 470 works: paintings, photographs, decorative arts objects, everyday and of design. Signed by the architect Italo Rota (who passed away last April), designer with Fabio Fornasari of the Novecento museum in Milan, the spectacular scenography opens onto a giant keyhole, revealing the objects as much as it hides them. In this permanent game between modesty and unveiling, the whole point of the exhibition is played out, which goes from the closed space of the bedroom to the presentation of oneself on social networks, from the reclusive life to an exhibited life.
A room of one’s own
A painting by Édouard Vuillard, Characters in an interior. Intimacy (1896) opens the tour, representing women in a bourgeois interior. An intimate canvas by Danish painter Vilhelm Hammershoi highlights the melancholy of these women confined in their house, while a photograph by Martine Locatelli depicts a teenage girl in the privacy of her bedroom.
View of the exhibition “Intimacy from the bedroom to social networks” at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris © Museum of Decorative Arts/ Luc Boegly
The bed itself can be an object of political protest, as evidenced by a photo of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Bed-in-for-peace in 1969. It reflects its times, just as the design reflects the evolution of society: the La Cova sofa in the shape of a nest by Gianni Ruffi (1969) evokes the protective withdrawal of the 1950s and 60s, conversely the Bazaar sofa (1969-1970) by Superstudio and the Memphis Ring (1981) recall the desire to come together and share intimacy in the 70s.
View of the exhibition “Intimacy from the bedroom to social networks” at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris © Museum of Decorative Arts/ Christophe Delliere
From bourdaloue to sex toys
The exhibition also gives pride of place to body care, illustrated at the opening by painting Woman sitting on the edge of a bathtub wiping her neck (1880-1895) by Degas. The visitor then discovers practical objects (including the astonishing bourdaloue, an 18th century chamber pot adapted to the shape of women for urinating in public!) then refined beauty accessories: 18th century fly box, powder compacts from Boucheron to Line Vautrin, psyches and hand mirrors, perfume bottles, lipstick tubes…
View of the exhibition “Intimacy from the bedroom to social networks” at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris © Museum of Decorative Arts/ Luc Boegly
The representation of sexual intimacy punctuates the exhibition, with libertine paintings from the 18th century (including The Lock by Fragonard from 1777 on loan from the Louvre Museum) to recent works representing homosexuality, like the drawing In Despair by David Hockney (1966) or photographs of lesbians by Zanele Muholi. An entire window is dedicated to sex toys that have become design objects (8e Ciel by Matali Crasset)
View of the exhibition “Intimacy from the bedroom to social networks” at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris © Museum of Decorative Arts/ Christophe Delliere
Secrets that we show off
Screened in the last rooms, a black and white film by director JK Raymond-Millet from 1947 anticipated with striking prescience the existence of connected telephones and a public life where the screen intruded everywhere. The proof is through images, overexposed in the Instagram accounts of content creators and put into perspective in photographs by Evan Baden. Conversely, calligraphed pages of a private diary are the polar opposite of these “secrets” that we exhibit. A conversation with oneself which reached its peak in the 19th century, the ultimate intimacy.
Evan Baden, Emily, 2010 © Evan Baden
“The intimate, from the bedroom to social networks”
Museum of Decorative Arts 107 rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris
Until March 30
Teaser of the exhibition “The intimate, from the bedroom to social networks” | Museum of Decorative Arts
