Brussels, the capital of Belgium, is home to many museums, including one dedicated to a fascinating pair of subjects: mythology and sexuality.
Founded in March 2012 by Dr. Guy Martens, the Museum of Erotics and Mythology (or MEM for short) is a unique, lesser-known gem. It is housed in a charming 18th-century building in the Sablon district and showcases the founder’s private collection of diverse antiquities and erotic art through the ages.
For thousands of years, sexuality and eroticism have been recurring themes of art, whether humorous or arousing. The collection that Martens has amassed includes a vast array of genitalia, lovemaking, and bodily aesthetics in every medium and material. Once you enter, you will be surrounded by phallic shapes and yonic images, while statuettes perform Kama Sutra positions in ivory, bronze, and wood, as Greek gods and Aztec warriors and Japanese courtesans.
The museum also boasts an original bronze sculpture by Salvador Dalí and regularly holds temporary exhibits focused on different aspects of erotic art. If you have any ounce of interest in sexual ethnography, don’t be shy and pay this gem a visit.
