French museum visitors to strip naked for new exhibition

Article content

A museum in France is set to host an exhibition where visitors are invited to strip naked to enter.

MacLYON, the museum of contemporary art in Lyon, will feature Incarnations a two-part series that focuses on the presence of the body in the collection’s works.

Article content

Once stripped down, visitors can enjoy the 90-minute session on Thursday that aims to move away from 17th-century French philosopher Rene Descartes’ defining statement, “I think, therefore I am,” the Times reported.

Instead, the works intend to raise questions about bodies in a specific space and see how bodies interact with each other.

Article content

“Our idea is to question the issue of the body in a given space, to see how bodies interact with other bodies,” a spokesperson for the macLYON told the outlet.

“It’s interesting to experience an exhibition totally naked,” Frederic Martin, the branch chairman, added.

“That makes us focus on our own perception of ourselves, with a social artifice.”

RECOMMENDED VIDEO

He added that naturists tend to stay out of view so as “not to cause panic in politer society. But now we are coming out from behind our ramparts to say that the philosophy is doing very well.”

The works on display, some of which dates back to the ‘60s, present the body in its physical truth, a way of experimenting with oneself and the world.

The first act of the body series runs until July 9.

The second act of the exhibition begins in September and will address the confrontation between the body and the environment.