Vienna museums go to the adult social network OnlyFans to be able to show nude works
“The battle against censorship is not over. With the rise of social media, the problem of restrictions in the field of art has returned to the front page ». Speaking is Helena Hartlauer, the spokesperson for Vienna Tourist Board, the Austrian tourist board. «The artistic institutions of the capital are victims of this new wave of modesty». And that is why four gods Vienna’s most important museums have decided to bring their works of art to OnlyFans. So even those showing nudity can be by users.
OnlyFans was born in 2016 with the aim of being a permissive platform, to give space to all types of online creators who can receive funding directly from users. During the pandemic it became popular in the adult entertainment industry and reached 85 million people. Last August, the social network tried to impose stricter rules for the dissemination of sexually explicit content but the protests of the members led to an immediate change of direction.
The case
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What happened also underlined the importance that social networks have for those who spread their works online. Contrary to speeches, in fact, only the most well-known platforms such as Instagram and Facebook have very strict sexually explicit ones that know more and more frequently and indiscriminately even those who, like artists, do not offer sexual material.
In fact, it has already happened that some important artistic institutions in the Austrian capital ended up being censored. Among these theAlbertina Museum whose TikTok account was suspended and then blocked for sharing the works of Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki showing a darkened female breast and the Leopold Museum. Facebook and Instagram have instead refused to publish a promotional video for the twentieth anniversary of the Vienna museum, containing “Lovers” by Koloman Moser, because it is “potentially pornographic”.
In 2018, Facebook had called porn, and thus removed, the photograph of the statuette of the Venus of Willendorf, almost 30 thousand years ago, which is kept in the Natural Museum of the capital and in 2015 France history had ended up in court the story of “The origin of the world” by Courbet porn from the site as content.
“At each age its art, art its freedom” we read at the entrance to the Secession Building, one of the best-known symbols of Jugendstil Austrian. Vienna is the home of many of the most important artists who with their languages have gone beyond the boundaries of what was considered acceptable in art and society.And it is precisely for this reason, as Hartlauer pointed out, that the opening of the @ viennatouristboard on the platform for adults is more than just a marketing campaign aimed at promoting tourism, and it mainly aims to offer awareness and open the debate on the standards within which contemporary artists work.
Iconic works, crucial for the city and for the history of art, such as the self-portrait of Schiele from 1910, they are now safely displayed and viewable on OnlyFans, while other social networks such as Facebook and Instagram have rejected them.
The obstacles that the Vienna tourism organization found to launch the communication campaign for the dissemination of the works on OnlyFans on other social networks is a further way to detect the power that platforms have in influencing artistic expression. “We also did it out of solidarity with those who have been censored – Hartlauer told CNN – the impossibility of showing works of art on social media can be a hard obstacle to communication and the career of artists”.