Sex & Revolution: A Photographic Journey Through Sexual Liberation at Palazzo Magnani

The exhibition 'Sex & Revolution' at Palazzo Magnani in Reggio Emilia traces the history of the sexual revolution through photography, literature, film, and fashion. It begins with Wilhelm Reich's 1940s theories on sexual liberation from capitalist repression, then moves to censored authors like Joyce, Miller, Genet, Sade, Brancati, and Pasolini. In the late 1950s, Herbert Marcuse and Norman Brown pushed the debate on homosexuality, swinging, open couples, and free love. The 1968 feminist movement demanded abortion legalization and the pill. Simone de Beauvoir advocated love free from duty. Pornography magazines like Playboy, Penthouse, and Playmen spread explicit content. Olympia Press published Lolita and Naked Lunch. Cinema became more sexually explicit. Pier Paolo Pasolini's 1965 documentary 'Comizi d'amore' explored Italian sexuality. Hippie and beat culture amplified sexual freedom. Rock music and fashion liberated the body. A ground-floor section on pornography reflects on the revolution's dark side: conservative backlash, feminist concerns about objectification, and the uncontrollable porn market. The exhibition presents authentic bodies as modern Adam and Eve in a disfigured Eden.