The Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) has taken its battle to keep men out of its exclusive ‘Ladies Lounge’ to the Supreme Court of Tasmania.
The museum’s appeal comes after the Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (TASCAT) ruled against MONA following a discrimination complaint from New South Wales man Jason Lau.
Instead of complying with the TASCAT decision, MONA closed the lounge, designed by artist and wife of museum owner David Walsh, Kirsha Kaechele, to everyone.
In court, as reported by the ABC, MONA’s lawyer Catherine Scott defended the Ladies Lounge as a “flipped universe” intended to promote equal opportunity by giving men ‘a taste of the discrimination’ historically experienced by women.
“That’s its purpose, that’s its reason for being,” Scott said.
She highlighted the ongoing inequalities faced by women, including gender-based violence, pay gaps and societal biases, arguing that these factors result in women being “less respected, less valued and less powerful than men”.
Earlier this year, Kaechele expressed her intention to appeal the TASCAT ruling “for the food of art and the law”.
“We need to challenge the law to consider a broader reading of its definitions as they apply to art and the impact it has on the world, as well as the right for conceptual art to make some people (men) uncomfortable,” she said in May.
“Ladies love the lounge, a space away from men and given what we have been through for the last several millennia, we need it.”
Lau was not present in court and is being represented for free by barrister Greg Barns.
