photo: Nonothing.
Pornceptual is launching its fourth magazine issue FUCK 2020 – a sentiment many of us can relate to – bringing us inclusive pornographic artwork by over 100 contributors from 33 countries and 5 continents.
Without a doubt, the pandemic has had a profound impact on our relationship with intimacy, human touch, and sex this past year. Through the lens of pornography and art, FUCK 2020 explores such topics by providing a platform to artists whose voices are not always heard, especially as the threat of online censorship continues to grow.
“Although turbulent, last year was historic, but sex was not always part of the narrative,” wrote the Pornceptual editorial team. “We can’t let these stories be forgotten, in particular the ones of marginalized sexualities.
Read on…
by Aisha | Pandemic, Photos, Products
photo: SCANROULETTE @herpeslabial_
The lockdown has really put a damper on the sexual expression of Berliners in a major way. Unless you are lucky to live with your partner or with a flatmate with benefits your sex life most likely had to take a back seat in the last weeks. No Tinder or Grindr dates, no hooking up in bars, no kinky adventures in Berlin’s nightclubs. You really have to get creative to get your sexual kicks these days or at least seek some inspiration on any sex toy site of choice.
Our friends from Pornceptual were struck really badly by the pandemic. Their parties are on hold until further notice, and the WHOLE festival which they co-organize has been canceled for this year. But like many creative people in the city, the quarantine has also created new ideas and opportunities for them to make the best of the situation. One of those ideas that recently saw the light of day is their new platform Isolation Porn which is an extension to their Pornceptual blog dedicated to artworks and creations that have been produced in response to the lockdown.
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by Frank | Art, Pandemic
These ten women and men aren’t afraid to expose their naked bodies to fight against stigmas around sex, gender, and sexual orientation.
It’s a struggle for freedom of expression on a slippery slope. With their work these brave ten blur the lines of art, pornography, sex work, political activism, or what’s considered “professional” work. They face the dangers that come with the openly sexual nature of their work or digital persona. Their explicit representation on and offline is not a green card to sexual consent, what sounds like a no-brainer is something many people do not understand. “I’ve found myself in some very dangerous, and uncomfortable situations,” our cover model Sam Morris told Gay Times, “I have been sexually blackmailed, assaulted, verbally harassed, and raped. These situations have involved photographers, prolific magazine editors, and other gay men I’ve met along the way.” Physical harassment, slut-shaming, and tensions in personal relationships are something all of them have encountered but they found ways to deal with these situations. For erotic filmmaker and performer Anarella Martínez-Madrid, it’s as simple as this: “If being a slut means being able to enjoy your sexual life, and get to know yourself better, then I am a slut”.
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by Andy | People
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.
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by Andy | Art, Party
photos: Maxime Ballesteros
Ever since the French photographer Maxime Ballesteros got his first camera when he was a teenager, he hasn’t stopped taking pictures. Carrying a camera always with him, in order to be ready for when he sees something interesting to him, rather than documenting everything, Ballesteros uses photography as a tool to visualize his own subjective view of the world. His first monograph, Les Absents was released this month by Hantje Cantz Publishing, and produced in cooperation with the visionary culture and fashion network Sang Bleu in London, including various texts and poems by the artist himself. It takes us on a strong, emphatically physical, and a bit surreal journey into the artist’s world.
His photographs show a section of the world where day and night, dream and nightmare, the subjective and the objective are of equal importance. He compares his conception of his photography to the way our brain keeps both reality as well as dreams and nightmares in the same space; the same way, the artist’s imagination takes shape and comes into existence through the camera, making it real. He shoots in the moment, following his protagonists to wild parties, private apartments, and the beach at dawn—shimmering and excessive, sharp and always in style. Read on…
by Stella | Art, Books
ALFA / Ich – Ein Groupie
‘Tis the season! Once a year, Berlin becomes the host for a film festival of a different kind. So all of you sexy people, sex lovers and kinky minds beware. While the Venus Sex Fair focuses on the kind of Porn that is rather sexist, the Porn Film Festival offers an alternative to normative stereotypes. In Germany’s oldest cinema, the Moviemento, they show serious documentaries about the work and life in the sex industry. They show movies with a more humorous approach to sex, with conceptual aesthetics and extraordinary stories. Pornographic films can be more than mainstream. The ones shown during this festival are all about authentic lust, sexy non-normative bodies, queer sex and erotic encounters between emancipated individuals with empowering narratives.
There are stories about fetishes, about homosexual pleasure and intimacy as well as short movies about the lives of refugees. Sexual assault and trauma are another aspect of sexuality that the festival also addresses. Wherever there is sex there is also issues of power and dominance. Where there is intimacy there can be pain and it is especially significant how this film festival gives a holistic view on sexuality with all its extremes. The dark ones as well as the euphoric ones. Besides showing movies the festival also offers a great range of events all focusing on sex, porn and politics. There are workshops, panels, readings and performances. Get a first glimpse here.
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by Guest Author | Videos
photos: Manuel Moncayo
There are these moments, where all you want is simply to pause your life, take a deep breath, clear your head from all the annoying and time-consuming distractions that you let govern you and just exist without thinking that you are running late on your schedule. All that is needed is just these few minutes, where you get to really think about what you are doing and/or what you have become, not necessarily in an existential or an overanalysing way, but in the fashion that suits you best. How often do we even stop for a moment to observe our surroundings, appreciate what we have and realize that the majority of what we like to call “problems” are very insignificant considering we only live just a couple of decades? While pausing your life might not be possible, escaping from its worries just for a bit might prove just as rewarding.
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by Nikos | Books, Photos, Stories
Today we would like to introduce you to the work of visual artist duo Schall & Schnabel. They moved in with us at Blogfabrik last year and ever since we always enjoyed watching them work over their shoulders. Just like us they have a thing for animated GIFs. With their photo work they always like to play around with distortion, lights and non-digital effects. Their new “concrete series” actually combines both real-life and digital effects that look absolutely stunning. With the series they found a very contemporary version of classic nudes, twisting the bodies, overlaying the skin with harsh concrete structures, playing around with lights that are broken through prisms. It’s really a wonderful aesthetic that invents its very own sensuality.
After the jump you’ll get an exclusive view with a couple of animated GIFs. Enjoy!
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by Frank | Art
photo: Jean-Baptiste Huong
For the longest time showing the beauty of the human body was a bit of a taboo in art and artistic photography. What was completely natural for the old masters is now deemed to be too commercial to count as art. Art should not be appealing, let alone be beautiful. This is something for advertising, or in the case of the human physique: erotica.
It’s a shame really, because the human body is as good of an object for art as any, and not just as something abstract or for the sake documentary. I’m glad that the art world seems to slowly but steadily overcome this prejudice. More artists experiment with nudity, sex, even pornography. Even galleries are picking up on this. Now more than ever artists who dedicate themselves to the beauty of the human body are no longer just considered photographers, but actual artists. I think this development is very positive and we should embrace this positivity.
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by Frank | Art, Books
photos: Bettina Stöß
While growing up in East Germany but coming from Italy, I had quite the strange childhood experience. I was the first kid with a “migrant” background at my school and everybody treated my like some sort of alien (even if my father is German). I remember one of my teachers touching my hair and looking into my eyes and saying: You are like the “little Muck” from the fairytales from Thousand and one Nights. She had never seen a kid with my skin and hair color before. Personally, I was always a little attracted by the ancient Arabic world, the beautiful illustration and wonderful symetrie of the architecture. Also, I know from several sources that sex was not always a tabu topic in the Arabic culture. I think the famous book One thousand and one Nights is actually the most obvious proof that there where once more playful sexual behaviours then nowadays in the Arabic culture.
The recently premiered ballett The Nights by the Staatsballett Berlin is showcasing several choreographies inspired by One Thousand and One Nights by the same choreographer who chreated the amazing Snowhite Ballet. Read my impressions of this ballet after the jump.
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by Claudio | Theater
