L'intime, de la chambre aux réseaux sociaux: the exhibition that questions our secret gardens at MAD

What is intimacy, what are its limits? Who can we tell our innermost thoughts to, and what do we want to show about ourselves and our world? Over the centuries and through social revolutions,intimacy has evolved. The Musée des Arts Décoratifs tells this fascinating story and invites us to look (literally) through the keyhole, to discover intimacy through the ages.

This massive exhibition will run from October 15, 2024 to March 30, 2025, in the nave and side galleries of the museum. For the occasion, 470 works of decorative art, paintings, everyday objects, photographs and historical objects are brought together. We're off on a long journey, from the 18th century to the present day, to discover the secrets and confidential lives of others.

Intimacy can take many forms. The Musée des Arts Décoratifs explores 12 different themes, each revealing a facet of ourselves and our times.

Intimacy is the body. These are the places where we bare it, where we take care of it. From pierced chairs to modern toilets, from urinals to bidets, these enclosed spaces, these secrets that are kept quiet but shared, are still taboo. The artists who take them on play with these norms, these unspoken, incorrect subjects. The body can also be more desirable. Hygiene and beauty come together in bathing and grooming. Gestures and intimate products can become weapons of seduction, beckoning the gaze. We play with mirrors and open doors to shared intimacy.

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In the 19th century, intimacy meant home. This personal world, cut off from work and external appearances, where the woman acts as orchestra conductor. This intimacy often fascinated painters, who sought to capture these domestic interiors. Thanks to the feminist movement, women will gradually be able to detach themselves from this intimacy, and cultivate their own secret garden, inside or outside the home.

For men and women alike, the bedroom is a space that everyone considers sacred. The bedroom, adorned with its bed, is often a singular setting, reflecting the thoughts of its occupant. Colors, objects, furniture placement: every detail is a door opening onto the person.

Of course, intimacy is also physical. Sexual intimacy and identity are often subject to censorship. In the eye of a male artist, female intimacy is staged for male pleasure. Sexualities that differ from these codes are more often than not ignored, hidden or demonized. Homosexuality was not really explored by artists until the 20th century. Objects of pleasure (sex toys and vibrators) were no longer taboo, but became objects of play.

In our modern age, intimacy is changing again. New technologies, connected objects, social networks and the staging of life: intimacy is shared with the public, in its embellished, carefully orchestrated, deceptively natural version. Not everyone, however, possesses the codes of these digital, televisual and photographic showcases. The dangers and excesses of this self-sharing can be severe for those who can no longer control their intimacy.

Phones, surveillance cameras, algorithms: what's left of intimacy in a world where we're constantly being observed? Dreams, thoughts and imaginary worlds make up the most intimate universe possible. Blogs and diaries can reflect these inner worlds, keeping alive for a little longer these intimacies that change and fade.

The Musée des Arts Décoratifs encouragesus to think long and hard about our societies, what we own and what we control about ourselves. With its wide-ranging selection of works, this exhibition should be as fascinating as it is surprising.