“Vienna strips on OnlyFans” (“Vienna strips on OnlyFans”): this is the name of the campaign launched by the Tourist Office of the Austrian capital. While promoting the works of art that tourists can admire in the city, the aim is to expose the arbitrary censorship of traditional social networks.
British daily The Guardian identifies, in an article published on Saturday, the disappointments of several Viennese museums. Last July, for example, the Albertina Museum saw its TikTok account suspended and was forced to create a new one for showing photographs of the Japanese Nobuyoshi Araki. On one of the pictures, a feminine breast, however obscured, appeared.
The canvas “Les Amoureux” deemed “potentially pornographic”
Also this year, a video from the Leopold Museum was attacked by Facebook and Instagram because it was considered “potentially pornographic”. In question: the woman’s nipple represented on the canvas Liebespaar (Lovers) by Koloman Moser.
Faced with this kind of absurdity, the Vienna Tourist Office has difficulty promoting the current exhibitions. “Some works of the current temporary exhibition of the Albertina Museum, painted by Amadeo Modigliani, are too explicit” to appear in advertising campaigns, explains to Guardian Helena Hartlauer, spokesperson for the tourist office.
Benefits for subscribers
Hence the idea of falling back on OnlyFans. Often dubbed “the Instagram of porn,” this platform is famous for sexually explicit photos and videos posted by creators for paid subscriptions.
The first and first holders of an Austrian adult account subscription will receive a Vienna City Card giving access to preferential rates at the museum ticket office or an entrance ticket to discover one of the works.
“The” Vienna undresses … “campaign was not set up only to encourage tourists to come, the aim is also to make as many people as possible aware of the censorship criteria. [des réseaux sociaux] that contemporary artists face, ”adds Helena Hartlauer.