Eva and Adele. Photo courtesy of zeitmaschine.org
Berlin is a city known for sexual freedom and gender fluidity. Combine this with its vibrant creative community, and you have a metropolis in which sex positive art seems very much at home. Different artists will adhere to different definitions of sex positive, but there is a common rejection of gender norms prevalent within all forms of sex positive art.
Berlin-based performance artists are challenging the sexual status quo, be that through gender bending, BDSM or by advocating consensual sexual experimentation which subverts the patriarchal focus on heterosexual male desire in mainstream sex industries. Peaches, Berlin’s patron saint of sex positive pop, recently celebrated her birthday with a show, but who are the other gender bending artists promoting sex positivity?
We take a look at some of the city’s artists using live performance to spread a message of sexual liberation that rejects gender norms.
Le Pustra. Left: photo by Daggi Binder. Right: photo by Felipe Pagani
Le Pustra
Self-acclaimed singer, model, bon vivant and muse, Le Pustra merges the lines between fashion, cabaret and performance art. In addition to being featured in Vogue and Playboy, the creative has also performed at London Fashion Week as well as Berlin Alternative Fashion Week. Le Pustra consistently transcends boundaries at Kabarett der Namenlosen, a show which revives the tropes of 1920s Weimar Berlin in decadently erotic performances that carry a sex positive message. By marrying fashion with performance and cabaret, Le Pustra’s work radically alters conventions of beauty, glamour and sexuality.
The Cunt Lab. Photo courtesy of Facebook
The Cunt Lab
With an aesthetic that combines cabaret and circus with BDSM, The Cunt Lab creates queer cabaret performances in Berlin and has toured to Amsterdam and Poland. This group are a collective of performance artists who work with punk poetry, feminist pole dancing, and burlesque, through the lens of sex positive feminism. Their work is messy, sexy and bravely tackles issues of menstruation and sexual objectification with the aim of reclaiming the erotic female body.
House of Red Doors. Both photos by Krousky Peuteubatre
House of Red Doors
A monthly event held at the infamous Salon Zur Wilden Renate and produced by Bad Bruises, House of Red Doors is a wildly hedonistic event that merges sex, performance art and the surreal. Each event has a different theme, which is explored in many different ways by various performance artists and burlesque performers. Unlike other performance art events in Berlin, this is also a party that invites its guests to leave their inhibitions at the door, explore their fantasies and play. This is not just a sex party. Rather, it is an event that encourages freedom of expression be that through sexuality, performance or costume. Bad Bruises captures the hedonistic spirit of Weimar Berlin and pushes boundaries to show performance art in a new form, for the modern world. From bondage to manipulated religious iconography and fetish attire, this performance art event shows sexuality in a whole new light, celebrating sexual desire with an aesthetic that goes against the grain of heteronormativity.
Eva and Adele. Photo courtesy of leannekiddorivers.files.wordpress.com
Eva and Adele
Eva and Adele are a living artwork, which is perhaps the most concise definition of performance art. Their work is studied in art schools across Germany, praised for their radical rejection of gender norms and they have been advocating the freedom to express sexualities that break the mould of heteronormativity since the Eighties. After all, sex positivity isn’t only about making sex positive art. It is also a way of life, which is why it seems fitting to end with two Berlin artists whose work is much more than an event confined to the gallery.