The Origin of the World and Beyond — From Repressed Gazes to a New World

In 1866, Gustave COURBET painted The Origin of the World, a strikingly realistic depiction of the female genitalia. Commissioned by Khalil BEY, a collector and diplomat Ottoman of Egyptian descent, the painting was kept hidden behind a curtain for decades. Today, it hangs openly on the walls of the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, no longer viewed as pornography but celebrated for its boldness and modernity in the history of painting.

The exhibition confronts this long history of visual repression. Today, the female body is no longer seen as something to be hidden, but as a subject that demands the right to be shown and seen on its own terms. The depiction of the vulva becomes not just a matter of visibility, but a declaration of agency, a redefinition of eroticism, and a provocation to rethink the politics of the gaze. From the place where life begins, a new world may emerge. This is where the exhibition begins.

Featured Artists

Man RAY was an early 20th-century artist who experimentally explored the boundaries of the female body, desire, and identity through photography. Coat-Stand, created during his involvement with Dadaism and Surrealism in Paris, addresses issues of gaze and sexual identity by blending the human body with everyday objects.

Hans BELLMER was a German artist who fled to France in 1938, resisting the authoritarian body ideology of Nazi Germany. He created, assembled, disassembled, and reassembled life-sized female dolls to explore distortions of the body, and self-published the photo book Die Puppe (1934). Ten black-and-white photographs unfold in a dramatic tableau vivant, evoking themes of sexual repression and the unconscious.

Nobuyoshi ARAKI is a leading contemporary Japanese photographer, known for his unique work that weaves everyday life, sexuality, and death into a single narrative. This exhibition features works exploring the traditional Japanese bondage art Kinbaku (緊縛), his autobiographical series Self Life Death, as well as Polaroid works.