The exhibition entitled er*ticAM_Secret Room II, which is on display in the Contemporary Art Museum(CAM) in the town of Casoria near Naples, is based on images adapted from some of the er*tic frescoes (mural paintings) from Roman times.
The audience are invited to leave comments on the works by either writing or drawing directly onto the pictures.
‘There is nothing here that you would not see on Facebook or daytime television,’ said Antonio Manfredi, the director of CAM, who also models for the exhibition.
‘Even today when we talk about er*tic works, it is difficult to show them. But as a politically incorrect museum, we thought that it was really interesting.’
The exhibition was conceived by TEAM[:]niel, an Austrian artist collective comprising Claudia Feyer, Daniel Feyer and Veronika Bayer, who came up with idea of inserting photos of models onto photographs of the er*tic frescoes from Pompeii and Herculaneum.
The exhibition had initially been backed by the Italian Culture Ministry which gave the artists permission to photograph the ancient drawings. However it later withdrew its approval when it realised what their ultimate aims were.
Artist Veronika Bayer from Austria, who features in a sexually graphic image, said: ‘Since I regard myself to be a strong woman, I said this is my picture, I want to make this, and I’m proud of myself.
‘It’s very aesthetic. It’s not cheap p****graphy, although you see everything. But yes, it’s a kind of a statement for me.’
Mimmo Femiano, an Italian visitor to the museum, added: ‘p****graphy is abnormal, while er*ticism, on the contrary, is art.’
The museum said in a statement that the idea behind the exhibit was to ‘transfer these works into the present.’
This isn’t the first time that the CAM in Casoria has attracted controversy. In April last year it burned work from its collection in protest against the government. The museum receives no public funds and survives on donations and ticket sales.
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