“Naturist Paradise”, at the Mucem in Marseille, a unique exhibition retraces a century of naturism

It is in the Mucem’s DNA to organize unique exhibitions. “Paradis naturistes” is one of them. It traces a century of naturism and mixes all the questions: cultural, scientific, philosophical and political, on our relationship with the body. France is also the number one destination for naturists today.

Take off your clothes, live in symbiosis with nature and free your body from all forms of constraints. Naturism, a contemporary social phenomenon, has been experiencing a real revival in recent years, particularly in France, the world’s leading tourist destination for naturists. And the shores of the Mediterranean particularly attract these fans of life in the simplest of clothes.

For the Mucem of Marseille, it seemed obvious and necessary to look into this social fact and its history. “There has never been an exhibition in France in public institutions on these issues, explains Amélie Lavin, one of the six curators of the exhibition. All the material that we show, the objects, the works of art, the archives, the photographs or the films, almost everything is new material.”

Sculpted buttocks, exposed bodies, filmed bodies, assumed bodies, there is nothing sexual in this exhibition entitled Paradis naturistes. No pornographic images, no. It is above all about deconstructing preconceived ideas and stereotypes about naturism, which is first and foremost a philosophy of life, a family practice bringing together people of all ages and backgrounds, who seek to live simply in contact with nature. Just a question: why and how has France today become the leading destination for naturists?

The history of naturism in France is unique, it was organized around communities that really thought of themselves as projects for reforming life with a dimension of social utopia. These are therefore small utopian cities that were born between the 20s, 30s and 50s.

Amélie Lavin

co-curator of the exhibition “Naturist Paradises”

The exhibition traces the history of the different communities born in the last century to defend and promote naked life.The Sparta Club in 1928 was the first major community to open in France, says Amélie Lavin. It opens in a castle. This is its particularity: it was founded by an aristocrat called Kienné de Mongeot. He was the first supporter of full nudity.”

In 1950, the couple Christiane and Albert Lecoq opened the Centre Hélio Marin in Montalivet and founded the French Naturist Federation a year later. Their wish was to build a real heliomarine complex that would also be therapeutic, a much more popular place to live. The Centre Hélio Marin is today a huge campsite of 200 hectares and 3000 pitches in Gironde.

The history of Cap d’Agde also begins in the 1950s with a major difference compared to other communities that were deployed in natural paradises. Agde is a city within the city, it is a paradise in concrete that is being invented.

Twenty years later, the nude carries a message. 1970, people get naked at PSU congresses, it’s the liberation of morals. In the 2000s, the nude assumes itself beyond the imperfections of the body, it even becomes a political tool like the Femen who demonstrate topless, slogans written on their breasts.

The title of the exhibition “Naturist Paradises” also questions our origins. It is about returning to the sources of a social phenomenon that disrupts aesthetic and normative conventions and injunctions.

“In all the museums of the world, the representations of paradise, of Eve and Adam never deviate from this image. They live naked, in a state of nature, states in an editorial the president of Mucem, Pierre-Olivier Costa. Covering ourselves has probably profoundly changed our relationship with nature, with the fate we reserve for our environment. Covering ourselves has also probably changed the relationship we have with others and, obviously, with our own bodies.”

And to better question this relationship that we have with nudity, the exhibition can be visited once a month undressed, by reservation.