Discipline and Display: Replaying Libertine Sexualities and Rococo Aesthetics in Twenty-First-Century Paris

Abstract:This article examines the performance of history in three exhibitions dealing with eighteenth-century libertine desire and sensual rococo art. Curatorial choices discipline the erotic subject matter in order to minimize potentially embarrassing affective responses from spectators, encouraging distanced intellectual responses instead. Yinka Shonibare's Jardin d'amour engages replay as adaptation, staging paintings by Fragonard as sculptures while offering critical difference that may inspire reflection on colonialism. Éros au secret presents the Bibliothèque Nationale's "Enfer" collection, deploying replay as a changed perspective on pornographic materials. Replay functions as palimpsest in Anish Kapoor's Dirty Corner, with vandalism disciplining mixed messages about Marie-Antoinette's sexuality.