MANIFESTO OF A PORNOGRAPHER CURATOR

We want to celebrate eroticism and discover talent, bringing visibility to artists and creating connections with collectors. We aim to give deserved attention to an incredibly rich segment of art that is still greatly lacking in support. Awakening desire, legitimizing the marginalized, exalting the degenerate, simply by admiring quality art is our flame of resistance.

Erotic art should be appreciated and consumed like other art forms: for its poetic, aesthetic, and plastic qualities. As one of the most beautiful manifestations of the individual, in the fullness of sex and love. However, in our provincial and colonial lands, eroticism still shocks an ignorant, prudish, traditional, and dissimulated elite.

In this context, speaking of eroticism inappropriately becomes a political act. It should simply be art, full stop. But thinking that we face various other structural problems makes our considerations seem irrelevant. We cannot forget that we still suffer from censorship and a lack of freedom of expression, even while living in a democracy.

We are very proud today to be leading a Festival whose aim is to foster the sensual, the erotic, and the pornographic within contemporary visual arts. In our first public call, receiving over 200 submissions is a sign that — yes! — there are many artists who need to be discovered and introduced to the world.

Semantics should matter little; content should, as the explicit doesn't always excite, and often only mystery leads to pleasure. The fear some artists have of uttering words like erotic and pornographic stems from a mix of oppression and fear of not being accepted. This needs to change, and everyone will have to accept us: galleries, the market, and institutions. Let's stop the hypocrisy and surrender to our desire, passion, and pleasure! Sex and perversions are part of our wildest instincts, and often repression leads to suffering.

Let's revel! Without fear of being happy!

We have a lot of work ahead of us, and this Festival is just the beginning of a long-held desire to change the world. Many new projects are already being discussed, and we increasingly want to ensure diversity of bodies, ethnicities, and sexual orientations. This involves not only selecting artists and works but also fostering artistic production, which is still polarized by societal demands.

In this second edition, we feature artists who were persecuted and censored in other exhibitions, returning with new works and receiving the space they deserve, free from prejudice or taboos, resisting and challenging boundaries. Others present entirely visceral work in non-explicit pieces, portrayed unfiltered and analogically. Meanwhile, good humor and biscoitagem flirt with classical oil painting techniques, and sculpture takes on a pop and innovative format. The meticulousness in the execution of contemporary realistic watercolors integrates with the fantastic universe of digital arts. All discoveries and contemplations ultimately lead us to a multiplicity of techniques and materials such as ceramics, wood, and tapestry, proving that the erotic universe fully and vibrantly orbits the creativity of all of us.

PAULO CIBELLA