A museum’s feminist artwork excludes men. One man therefore went to court.

A wall of vulvas. A performance with a recently slaughtered bull. A ‘poo machine’ that mimics the journey of food through the human body.

The Museum of new and old art, or MONA, in Hobart, the capital of the Australian state of Tasmania, is no stranger to works that can shock or appall, or the criticism they can provoke. But this week it defended an unusual claim: a work of art, one visitor complained, broke discrimination laws.

The Ladies Lounge – soft green curtains, lush surroundings, original works by Picasso and Sidney Nolan – is an installation by American artist and curator Kirsha Kaechele. It opened in December 2020 and, according to the MONA website, is open to “all ladies” – and to exactly zero men, apart from the solicitous butlers who serve the women inside.

Like other men, Jason Lau was not allowed to enter the installation when he visited the museum in April 2023. Mr Lau filed a complaint with Tasmania’s Anti-Discrimination Commissioner, saying he was discriminated against because of his gender.

The case was heard by the Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal in Hobart on Tuesday.

“I visited MONA, paid 35 Australian dollars,” or about $23, “expecting to have access to the museum, and was quite surprised when I was told I would not be able to see one exhibit, the Ladies Lounge” , Mr Lau said at the hearing, according to Australian news media reports. “Everyone who buys a ticket expects a fair delivery of goods and services.”

In an interview, Ms. Kaechele said she agreed with Mr. Lau but that his experience with discrimination was central to the work.

“Given the conceptual power of the artwork and the value of the artwork within the artwork, its harm is real,” she said. “He’s confused.”

The work was necessarily discriminatory, Catherine Scott, Ms. Kaechele’s attorney, has acknowledged. But, she argued, by denying men access, they could still experience it, albeit in a different way.

During the proceedings on Tuesday, Ms. Scott cited a legal exception that says discrimination can be acceptable if it is “intended to promote equal opportunity for a group of people who are disadvantaged or have a special need because of a prescribed characteristic.”

“This case asks the tribunal to realize that art can in fact promote equal opportunity in a different way, in a way that is more on a conceptual level,” she said in an interview.

Ms. Kaechele, married to David Walsh, the museum’s founder, appeared at Tuesday’s hearing, followed by a phalanx of 25 women in pearls and navy suits, many of them also artists, who silently read feminist texts and posed: beating their legs crossed and applied lipstick at the same time.

In August, another male visitor filed a complaint of gender discrimination over the job, a museum spokeswoman said. That led to a dialogue with Ms. Kaechele.

“I said, ‘Well, you did get to experience the work of art, because the exclusion of men is the work of art,’” Ms. Kaechele said. “So he appreciated that, he understood it, and he dropped the case.”

The Ladies Lounge draws inspiration from men-only spaces in Australia past and present, she said. In Australia, women were not allowed to enter public bars until 1965, and were often relegated to the so-called ‘ladies lounge’, a smaller space where more expensive drinks were often sold.

But discrimination against women is not just a matter of historical data. Australia still has that a pay gap between men and women of approximately 20 percent, women are still underrepresented in leadership and management positions in almost all industries, the Australian government saidand a number of elite gentlemen’s clubs, such as the Melbourne Club, still exclude women from membership.

These clubs exist to connect important men and strengthen patriarchal power structures, Ms. Kaechele said. “In our lounge we just drink champagne and sit on the couch. I don’t think there is a big parallel.”

The work was meant to be funny and the sense of humor came from the fact that women remain marginalized in Australian life, she added. “It’s meant to highlight the past and be lighthearted,” she said, “and we can only do that because we are women and we lack power.”

Mr Lau, who could not be reached for comment, has asked for a formal apology and for men to be given access to the Lounge or pay a reduced ticket price to compensate for their losses, which Ms Kaechele has refused. “I’m not sorry,” she said, “and you can’t come in.”

A tribunal decision is expected in the coming weeks.

For MONA and Ms. Kaechele as an artist, even the possible closure of the exhibition had some benefits, says Anne Marsh, an art historian based in Melbourne.

“Noisy art is good art, loud feminism is good feminism,” she said. “It will be on the agenda.”