The Louvre museum in Paris France is refusing to accept an installation from the Netherlands, claiming ‘explicit or sexual’ content. It’s amusing to note that the Louvre has tons of explicit material in its museum that children have seen for years, but putting something like this from the Dutch Atelier Van Lieshout outdoors is all of a sudden a no-no.
The large-scale artwork entitled ‘Domestikator’ was set to go on display at the Tuileries garden, a children’s playground adjacent to the Louvre as part of the International Contemporary Art Fair (FIAC) on 19 October, but the museum was reportedly worried about the sculpture being seen by children.
Most young children are not going to get the joke and those who will should be old enough to understand what they’re seeing. And there’s enough naked men and women and sex and what not in the museum already, why is this a problem? There’s enough racy advertisements in France to make this look tame.
Domestikator was the centrepiece of the grounds of Ruhrtriennale, an arts festival in Bochum, Germany, around since 2015. The Germans had no issues with it, but surprisingly the French are going to censor this. Free publicity for Atelier Van Lieshout.
UPDATE: The Centre Pompidou in Paris will show Domestikator.
(Link and photo: expressandstar.com)
Amsterdam’s famous canal ring turned 400 this year and as part of the celebrations an art exhibit is being held in 15 historical canal houses.