Parisians line up for an hour to see library's forbidden collection of sexually explicit art on display for the first time
THE lighting is bordello red, but the librarians insist their X-rated exhibition is serious.
'Hell at the Library, Eros in Secret', at the National Library in Paris, offers a peek at its secret archive of erotic art, putting on display more than
350 sexually explicit literary works, manuscripts, engravings, lithographs, photographs, film clips, and even calling cards and cardboard pop-ups.
Visitors to the library can listen to a modern-day recording of an 18th-century "dialogue" during sex (simultaneous orgasms included) and watch a six-minute excerpt from a grainy black-and-white silent pornography film made in 1921 (one man, two women, intriguing lingerie).
The handwritten manuscript of the Marquis de Sade's novel Les Infortunes De La Vertu (The Misfortunes Of Virtue) is under glass, as are 17th-century French engravings of "erotic postures", English "flagellation novels" exported to France in the late 19th century; Japanese prints; Man Ray photographs; and a police report from 1900 that compiles the addresses of Paris's houses of prostitution and what they charged.
Sadism, masochism, bestiality, inflated genitalia and the most imaginative sexual fantasies and athletic poses are given their due. To avoid complaints that a publicly supported institution is corrupting the country's youth, no one under 16 is admitted.
"In an era where sexual images are a product for popular consumption, the library has decided to lift the veil on this world of imagination and fantasy," said Bruno Racine, the library director. "The library is a very serious institution, and the project was done with gravity. But we also perhaps are different from what you think – and there is humour here too."
Until now, the only outsiders allowed to view the vast erotica collection of about 2,000 works were legitimate researchers. Certainly the public has responded. The exhibition, which opened last month, is one of the most popular in years. It takes an hour to get in.
The items on display are drawn from a permanent collection created in the 1830s when the library isolated works considered "contrary to good morals". They were put in a locked section with its own card catalogue and given the name L'Enfer – hell. Many pieces have been consigned there over the years by the police.
The exhibition (and its 464-page catalogue) comes at a time when France is struggling with a variety of societal issues: the limits of privacy for its public figures, censorship and the definition of good taste. A one-day scholarly conference at the library about the exhibition included a debate on the meaning of modern-day censorship. Library curators acknowledge that public morality is shifting.
President Nicolas Sarkozy himself is blurring the lines of public permissibility. His decision to revel in, rather than hide, his love affair with Carla Bruni, a model turned pop singer, is, he said, a break with the past and a sign that "France is moving forward".
However, Ségolène Royal, the Socialist defeated by Sarkozy in last May's presidential election, is calling for more discretion in public life. "Nicolas Sarkozy has chosen to turn private events in his life into public events, like Louis XIV: you have the king's breakfast, the king's lunch, the king's bedtime, the king's mistresses," she said last week.
As for the library show, Paris seems proud of it. The metro system constructed a teaser for it on its Number 10 line. Commuters passing by the closed Croix Rouge station get fleeting glimpses of erotic engravings lit in shocking pink and partly hidden behind curtain strips.
The library has taken care not to fall foul of the law, unlike Henry-Claude Cousseau, director of the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, who is facing charges of exhibiting works of "a violent pornographic nature" in an exhibition in Bordeaux in 2000. One painting depicted a young girl, wearing heavy make-up, in a bath. If convicted, he faces a fine of €75,000 (£56,000) and up to three years in prison.
At first, library administrators considered strict adherence to the law, which would ban entry to under-18s. In the end they decided to follow the lead of cable television, which puts an under-16s warning on late-night soft pornography shows.
The library exhibition is not the only sexually explicit show in Paris these days. An animated film that includes sexual intercourse and violence is being screened at the Maison Rouge museum and gallery near the Place de la Bastille. There are no posted warnings, but a lot of very curious young people.
The full article contains 787 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
