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Copenhagen’s
Erotica Museum celebrates erotic and sex. It’s not a
typical celebration with balloons, noise-makers,
party hats and people running around shouting,
‘Whoopee! but the museum does have enough unabashed
exhibits of erotica and pornography to make one
realize it has been a hot topic long before the
internet said: Click here.
Since opening its portals in 1994 the Museum has seen one
million visitors, half of which are to be believed
were women who grace its spotlessly clean
red-carpeted entrance. The museum was founded by
world renowned photographers and artists, Ole Ege
and Kim Clausen. The museum is appropriately
located in
Scandinavia since it was home to the Vikings of the
Vanir cult who unabashedly celebrated
fertility and tied many of their important rituals
to it.
Today even the Danes don’t seem to view human sexuality as
just another aspect of everyday life. After all,
they say, in this enlightened day and age shouldn’t
we all approach the subject of sex with a certain
amount of intellectual objectivity and rational
non-judgmental observation on this all too normal
human condition? Intellectually yes, we should.
Realistically though, we can’t.
It is erotica, for crying or perhaps moaning out loud, and
the museum at 24 Kobmagergade that is just minutes
from Tivoli Garden and halfway down the usually
crowded Stroget (one of the largest series of
pedestrian streets in Europe) will not just educate
and titillate you but just may cause you to snicker,
snort, guffaw, giggle, and/or blush! That’s all part
of the human condition as well; the human condition
that even
St.
Augustine, the famed 5th century
philosopher celebrated when he was quoted as saying,
“God grant me chastity…but not just yet.” If that
was a Saint’s philosophy on the subject then where
does that leave the rest of us?
For some that leaves the Museum and for 100 Kroner
(roughly $19 dollars) you’ll not only get a look at
what made people briefly put aside chastity and howl
throughout several millennia but you’ll get a look
at some things you probably have never seen outside
of sneaking guilty and wide eyed peeks at an
illustrated Kama Sutra at what appears to be a naked
game of Twister. You might even find yourself
muttering, ‘Yowsa, is that even possible?’ or
awarding a score of 9.9 for degree of difficulty.
While the museum’s name and lusty content draws in the
curious those who seem to enjoy it the most, at
least on the day I visited, were a group of senior
citizen women from
England who seemed to be humorously taken with some
of the more entertaining exhibits.
“Oh my, will you look at that?” laughed one kindly
grandmotherly looking woman who was pointing to a
‘life-like tableaux’ of the secret sex life of a
famous English historical figure, Fanny Hill. This
particular historical figurewas made by craftsmen
from the world famous people of Madam Tussauds,
which I suppose kind of adds another meaning to the
‘Madam’ part of the moniker but perhaps I’m just
waxing on.
The older women seemed to be enjoying themselves more so
than other individuals or couples touring the museum
who at times looked slightly uncomfortable or
embarrassed while the English women were chuckling
at the naughty. Time has a way of stripping away
inhibitions or dulling embarrassments or in the very
least, allowing us to recognize our own culturally
induced prudishness or mores. On another floor the
elderly group of women were parked in front of
another exhibit that pricked their interest.
“I think it says it’s Royal Copehangen!” exclaimed one of
the grandmotherly looking types studying a large and
ornately decorated ceramic phallus. “My tea set is
Royal Copenhagen!”
“It’s enough to make me want to knit another tea cozy…”
chuckled another.
“You’re horrible!” said the second woman in a tone that
suggested she wasn’t.
It is the kind of tourist attraction that leaves visitors
nervously grinning, awkwardly quiet, or even
speechless at times. The brochure promises‘one
visit…will illuminate your conception of eroticism
and pornography forever.’
Illuminate’s fitting because it sheds some light
on the subject with a fairly unbiased and almost
clinical look at erotica from the times of the
ancient sexual acrobatics of the Etruscans, Greeks,
Romans, and every age up until the 1900s with
paintings, drawings, sculptor, photographs, early
‘French postcards,’ and racy whatnot in four remarkably clean
and well lighted finely polished floors. Add to that
the carefully researched information and historical
aspect to the carnal considerations as well as the
private practices of such denizens as Marilyn
Monroe, Sigmund Freud, Adolph Hitler and various
Royals and the ‘sleaze’ factor that often goes with
other such enterprises is dramatically diminished
and overpowered by curiosity.
Marilyn Monroe may have starred in Some Like It Hot
but apparently that seems to be the preferred theme
of the other historical notables as well.
Voyeuristic as it seems the museum is also used for sexual
education purposes for Danish students helping
alleviate any Puritanical or learned guilt for
walking through its doors. You won’t be branded with
a Scarlet Letter for visiting the museum but a quick
tour will definitely make its mark on you regarding
certain people or aspects of history. That
last bit of news either says that the museum is safe
and nice enough for women to attend and that perhaps
women are just as randy as men. Judging from the
museum, its exhibits, and the reactions of some of
the visitors my impression it’s a little bit of
both.
The museum is open daily to the blushing or not so blushing
public.
Erotica Museum
Copenhagen
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