Shame and Transgression

Over the course of history, shame has been a habitual mechanism for social and moral regulation and coercion. A possible exception to this tendency has been found amongst the aristocracy, who have often lived without paying attention to conventions, within a kind of bubble where rules and social pressure did not exist until bourgeois morality began to inspect the actions of the elites. Seeking to live as an aristocrat amongst the petty bourgeoisie, Sade was a personality who did not seem to experience shame, although he did suffer the effects of the morality of his time directly, subject as he was to imprisonment, persecution and ostracism. Both in pre-revolutionary and post-revolutionary France, his transgressive urge was punished in exemplary fashion. Taking Sade as our starting point, in this exhibition visit we explore the function of shame and transgression in present-day society, as well as its effects on the sphere of art and creation. Do we continue to live amidst cultures of shame, even if we may not be aware of it?