Exploring the intimate at the Museum of Decorative Arts

© Museum of Decorative Arts – C. Toraldo di Francia Superstudio, Archivio Filottrano.

The Museum of Decorative Arts tidies up its Department Store and unveils a new, ultra-sexy exhibit starting October 15. An installation that explores the evolution of the notion of intimacy, from the 18th century to today, as intimacy is a subject at the heart of our lives, from the bedroom to social media, through makeup, sexuality, surveillance drones, and facial recognition! Shall we take you there?

What is the common point between a drone, a powder compact, a camera, and a bed? All these elements touch upon a form of our intimacy. Through decorative art objects, contemporary works, everyday items, and recent technologies, the new exhibit at the Museum of Decorative Arts shows how the notion of intimacy, born in the 18th century and reinforced in the 19th century, has completely transformed over time. The themes covered are highly diverse, ranging from the bedroom seen by Henri Cartier-Bresson, to the zinc bathtub, to beauty through the ages, to sexuality.

The 14 rooms making up the exhibit are packed with more than 470 works and common objects you’ll 100% recognize from your daily life: lipsticks, mirrors, steamy books, beds from the most modern to the oldest… and even sex toys! You will surely recognize yourself in some of the intimate objects whose journey explains their emergence, origin, and evolution.

In this anti-boring exhibit, some parts are even interactive. Camera phones are available for taking selfies, while designer perfumes from various periods are displayed in showcases with a small button so you can smell the delightful scents. Our favorites: Opium by Yves Saint Laurent, launched in 1977, or J’adore by Dior, dressing women’s skin since 1999! Some (quite explicit) photographs are also displayed, so be careful when choosing your +1…

At the end of the exhibition, you might come across blank books to write in, but be warned: they’re not guestbooks, but actual works of art. The instructions? You must write your own vision of the notion of intimacy on these pages. The Museum of Decorative Arts, more than just an exhibition venue, turns out to be a true space for reflection.

The intimate, from the bedroom to social media. Museum of Decorative Arts. From October 15, 2024, to March 30, 2025. Online reservations.

© RMN, Grand Palais (Musée d’Orsay) Hervé Lewandowsk – MAD, Paris, Ph. Laszlo Horvath – Zanele Muholi, Bona Charlottesville, Galerie Kvasnevski.