photos: Pornceptual
Their art made you gasp, their parties made you sweat – and always left you craving for more. For almost 5 years the Berlin collective Pornceptual has been disrupting the worlds of art and porn; first Berlin then the world. But don’t you think they’re out of breath, after half a decade, they are only sharpening their teeth and getting ready to fight: Fittingly, their freshly launched third magazine is called “Guerilla”.
Over 50 visual artists are featured in “Porn Guerilla”, well-known names such as Erika Lust appear alongside young queer and feminist artists from all over the world. Styles, subjects and explicit depictions vary, but throughout the work is connected by themes of unconventionality, struggle, and fight, using erotic art as a tool of resistance against oppressive power structures and censorship.
photo: Rony Hernadez
photo: Ana Hell
illustration: Marcello Almeda
photo: Lianna Hecht
photo: Keta&Unicorns
photo: Jessica Rispal
“Can pornography be a weapon of social justice?” Eric Phillips, brother of co-founder Chris Phillips and featured artist, asks in the preface. “Many societies across the globe have made progressive steps forward. Yet, as of recent, it feels as though much of this work is being swiftly unraveled at the hands of a privileged few.”
This anger finds its visual climax in the picture series “Fake it ‘till you make it” by Paul Bujis where two models with masks of Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump can be seen “engaging in fetishes often described as obscene – just like their politics.” Just by reading the titles of the different picture series in Porn#3, “Fuck the Fascism”, ”Maketheclitgreatagain”, ”Pussies Rioting”, you can sense the spirit of uproar conveyed by the visuals.
photo: Iuri Lis
photo: Giselle Galvao
photo: Carlos Pareja
photo: Carlos Pareja
photo: Andrés Rangl
photo: Andrés Rangl
photo: Ana Hell
The magazine is an affair of the heart. No advertising interrupts the visual flow of the thick publication printed on glossy paper. It was financed out of their own pockets, with money the collective earned throwing their infamous, bi-monthly party nights at Alte Münze. If you want to support their work, get your limited copy at their launch party this Saturday, or get to the next PORN by PORNCEPTUAL at the 10th of February.
