"Enjoy Nude"… French Nude Exhibition Sparks Attention

Lyon Museum of Art - League of Naturists Joint Project
"Focusing on Self-Awareness Alongside Artworks"

The rear part of the French sculptor Antonin Mercier's work "David" (left), exhibited at the Orsay Museum in 2013, and the French painter Pierre and Gilles' work "Hercules Fighting the Hydra of Lerna" (right). EPA=Yonhap News

A museum in France is attracting attention by planning an exhibition where visitors must be completely naked to enter.

The Museum of Contemporary Art in Lyon (MacLYON) announced that on the 27th, visitors will spend 90 minutes appreciating artworks in the nude and then sharing their impressions over drinks, according to the British newspaper The Times on the 24th (local time).

The exhibition is titled "Embodiment: The Body Exhibition at MacLYON," jointly organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Lyon and the "French Naturist Federation." The idea was inspired by the 17th-century French philosopher Ren? Descartes, who said, "I think, therefore I am," and the notion that focusing solely on the mind as the only existence was mistaken. The admission fee is 11 euros (approximately 16,000 won).

A museum spokesperson explained, "Our intention is to observe how bodies in a specific place react to other bodies."

Fr?d?ric Martin, president of the French Naturist Federation, said, "The idea of appreciating art in the nude is interesting," adding, "Visitors will focus on their self-awareness along with the social artwork."

Martin further explained, "Naturists tend to avoid drawing attention in order not to cause fear in a decent society, but now we want to come out from behind the walls and prove that our thoughts are not wrong."

This is not the first exhibition where visitors are encouraged to view artworks naked. The Mayol Museum held a surrealism exhibition last year, offering a session in the evening where visitors could appreciate the artworks in the nude, and it was praised for allowing visitors to realistically experience nude sculptures indistinguishable from themselves. The Palais de Tokyo contemporary art museum also held a nude exhibition in 2018.

The Times reported that among the visitors to the nude exhibitions, besides naturists, there were art enthusiasts curious about what it would feel like to appreciate artworks without wearing any clothes.