“This Is Not Sex” explores the intersection of sexuality and performance art. Influenced by Rene Magritte’s “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” (This is Not a Pipe) and a book-length analysis by Michel Foucault, this series also looks at image, text, and reality. Originally part critique of language and representation, we recontextualize an analysis by replacing the subject, a still image, with moving images. Bringing simulation and performance into the discourse around signs and arbitrary symbolic systems, “This is Not Sex,” plays with myriad layers of representation.
Rinat Schandower’s work presents some of these layers by using a static shot of the well known art historical Gustav Courbet painting, “L’Origine du monde” [The Origin of the World]. Once a scandal, Schandower, uses this image as a starting point of a circular conversation feeding into these several notions of representation. The painting, a representation of a female anatomy, is manipulated by the addition of human movement to simulate sexual foreplay. Pedro Matias presents a visual disjuncture through the use of scale and perspective to effectively confound the viewer. Is that a giant penis or a mutilated appendage? His twisted blowjob, inadvertently creates an image of fantastical measures that looks at the human desire for connection. Emma Varker’s work explores gender roles, female sexuality and subversion of sexual power. A vodka bottle becomes a prop for penetration while Varker examines notions of consent, dominance and submission. Justyna Gorowska’s intimate interaction with her dog, also confounds the viewer. The exchange of fluids with an animal substitute, in place of a human partner, could be seen as playful or grotesque. While Krefer and Turca’s work could be viewed as the most literal depiction of a sexual act in this series, their engagement becomes merely a means to an end. Merging sexual and artistic expression, the pair uses materials (blood and wax) to create “action” paintings as the residue of this sexual encounter.
WED 1 JUN 2016
- Justyna Górowska “Iris and Reks“
- Krefer & Turca “Action Painting No. 1 / No. 2“
- Pedro Matias “Untitled“
- Rinat Schnadower “This is Not Courbet’s Cunt“
“Action Painting No. 1 / No. 2”
Sex as a mutual creative gesture. In “Action Painting No. 1”, she responds to his movements by scratching his back and leaving blood marks. In “Action Painting No. 2”, he drips candle wax on her back during the sexual act.2014 00:06:45.
Krefer & Turca (Brazil)
Krefer & TurcaKrefer (1987 Brazil) is a filmmaker and visual artist. His work blends the modern tradition of avant-garde cinema with the aesthetic potential of sex and its intersections with violence and fetishism. Exhibitions and screenings include the LOOP Barcelona, Incubarte, Instants Vidéo, SomoS gallery, Oscar Niemeyer Museum and a retrospective at the Rio de Janeiro International Short Film Festival.
Turca (1989 Brazil) works as a production designer and art assistant for films and video installations. The “Action Painting” series is her debut as a director, being awarded at the Curitiba Biennial and shortlisted to the Transnumériques GIF Awards at Videoformes.
“This is Not Courbet’s Cunt“
The work This is Not Courbet’s Cunt is based on Gustave Courbet’s painting from 1866 The Origin of the World, but it relates directly to all paraphrases of Courbet’s work created till date. Nevertheless, for the first time, it gives the simple option of the female pleasure as an end rather than means, which returns the vagina back to its legitimate owner: its lady, through the act of female masturbation. 2012 00:03:31
Riant Schnadower (Mexico/Israel)
Rinat Schnadoweris an artist born in Mexico City (1978) and lives and works in Tel Aviv. She works mainly in the fields of photography, video and performance, and has exhibited her work in group and solo exhibitions worldwide (Tel Aviv, Berlin, Mexico City, Marseille and Detroit among others). Besides her work as a visual artist, she is an author, a literary translator from Spanish to Hebrew and the chief photographer of the National Institute of Forensic Medicine in Israel.
“Untitled”
Untitled is about embracing the external. An ovation, a prey, a twisted blowjob. ‘Having no name’, like God, this piece reflects upon relation and connection, devotion. A looking up to the, until then, unknown. How does my body connects with yours? Do we connect at all? Are we one? From the perspective of curious child discovering the world and the other, Untitled explores the mutilated body and the multiplicity of layers in caring, in love. Untitled is about uncanny and awkwardness, it is about discomfort but mostly about him. 2012, single channel (16:9), HD minidv video on DVD, no sound, 00:00:32
Pedro Matias (Portugal/Netherlands)
Pedro Matiaswas born in Lisbon, Portugal, in April of 1984. He lives and works in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, since August of 2010. Pedro’s connection with physical activities goes back to when he was a young athlete in competitive swimming. In his practice, Pedro tries to combine his conceptual approach with minimalistic body movement, connected often with repetition and obsession.
Since 2010 Pedro is part of the Driewieler Collectief. Together with Angelo Gens they founded the collective when they moved to Amsterdam. Willing to expand further their collaborative work Arthur Guilleminot joins the collective in 2014.
“Iris and Reks”
Iris and Rex are dogs with whom I associate a strong emotional relationship. I recorded on camera our sensual and highly sensitive play in which I’m not afraid to lose my autonomy. The presented video performance is accompanied with the classical music opera Duo des fleurs. 2009, video, 3:4 PAL, 1’56” vimeo.com/84772535
Justyna Gorowska (Poland)
Justyna Gorowska(b. 1988) is a graduate of the Faculty of Intermedia at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow. Górowska is a performance and video artist, a sculptor and a photographer. Awarded the main prize of the 7th Samsung Art Master competition (2010), and the Grand Prix of the 3rd Festival of Young Art “Przeciąg” in Szczecin (2011). Her works have been presented at the Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw (2010, 2014), the Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko (2011), the Freies Museum in Berlin (2009), the Barbur Gallery in Jerusalem (2010), and the Leonardo da Vinci Museum in Milan (2011). She has also participated in many international festivals, such as the the “Inspirations” Festival in Szczecin (2012, 2014) and the International Performance Festival “RIAP” in Quebec (2014). In 2010/2011 and 2012/2013 she received a scholarship from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage. In 2014 she was awarded by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage. As of 2014, Górowska is represented by lokal_30.