Too risqué for the Louvre, the Domestikator will be shown at Pompidou

2017-10-13T13:36:00-04:00

After the Louvre demurred, an art installation many consider to be sexually explicit will instead be displayed outside the Pompidou Center in Paris.

The Louvre might not want it, but the Pompidou will take it!

The 40-foot-tall, semi-building, semi-sculpture, "Domestikator," by the Dutch art and design collective Atelier Van Lieshout, was intended to be shown in the Tuileries Gardens, next to the Louvre. But the Museum cancelled the project; the Louvre's president and director, Jean-Luc Martinez explained: “Online commentaries point out this work has a brutal aspect. It risks being misunderstood by visitors to the gardens.”

Joep van Lieshout, Atelier Van Lieshout’s founder, replied, “The piece itself is not really very explicit. It’s a very abstracted shape. There are no genitals; it’s pretty innocent.”

While Louvre faced censorship accusations, the "Domestikator" will find asylum at the Centre Pompidou. Parisians and tourists will be able to see the work from October 18 to 22; we hope they don't misunderstand it.

Louvre pulls "sexually explicit" architectural sculpture; faces censorship accusations

2017-10-03T18:15:00-04:00

Officials at the Louvre have been accused of censorship after withdrawing a work from its Tuileries Gardens in Paris for being sexually explicit. The work by the Dutch art and design collective Atelier Van Lieshout, entitled the Domestikator, was due to go on show later this month as part of the Hors les Murs public art programme organised by representatives of the Fiac contemporary art fair (19-22 October).

The Art Newspaper explains: "[...] the erotic nature of the large-scale architectural structure, the outline of which depicts a couple having sex, prompted the Louvre’s decision to bar the work from the gardens which are overseen by the museum."

Louvre director Jean-Luc Martinez tried to defend the decision by pointing to online feedback the installation had received.

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Too risqué for the Louvre, the Domestikator will be shown at Pompidou

Louvre pulls "sexually explicit" architectural sculpture; faces censorship accusations