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THE BINOMIAL OF ART AND SEX

As an expression of contemporary art, even today, the combination of art and sex continues to be surrounded by taboos. What is "shocking" and "perverted" to some is not so to others; what is erotic in one era is merely banal in another. Undeniably, concepts change. And, in the present, new ways of being and existing in the world demand artistic proposals that speak to their bodies, their desires, and their pleasures.

As historical and social agents, artists represent bodies based on what they see, feel, know, and believe. The body, historically viewed as a theme, becomes a medium and material for poetic creation. Thus, all manner of distinct bodily practices, sexual impulses, transgressions, and carnalities emerge. Free bodies and sexualities endowed with pluriversal dimensions are exposed.

In line with this trend in contemporary art, the third edition of the Vórtice Festival, curated by artists Leonardo Maciel and Paulo Cibella, features the work of 100 Brazilian artists who explore the relationship between art and sex. All of these creators break through the wall of silence built by a hypocritical society and employ a libidinous grammar, seeking to fuse the body, sexual discourse, and gender issues in their artistic practices.

Alongside the exhibition and circulation, the Festival raises the debate in the artistic community: what are the limits of this production? Commonly, prudish critics try to fit these works between the erotic and the pornographic—and here, regarding pornography, there is strong resistance to the idea of its interaction with art.

The term pornography (from the Greek "pornôs" = prostitute and "graphô" = to write and record) refers to the pictorial genre that dealt with the representation of prostitutes. Intolerance towards pornographic works became more emphatic from the Renaissance onwards, in the 17th century, with the Protestant Reformation. The term erotic is derived from Eros (in Greco-Roman mythology, the god of love). The concept of "Eros" has also been used in philosophy and psychology in a broader sense, almost as the equivalent of "life energy."

Gradually, pornography came to refer to any representation of something "obscene," vulgar, or abject. At the same time, eroticism and erotic emerged as references to representations of the body in a lofty (or intellectual) sense. But why restrict artistic expressions to being erotic or pornographic? What values are at stake in this distinction? If contemporary art is against the obvious and escapes classification, it can be pornographic and erotic (or neither). In fact, it should speak to what it means to be human.

The process of in-depth discussion about the binomial art and sex, about pornography and, consequently, about the erotic and eroticism, indicates an important change in society, forced to review a history of censorship and silencing. The works exhibited here can be considered poetic representations of the body and sexual license that together orchestrate a vigorous critique of the status quo. Ultimately, art reveals sex as it is—something vital. And, therefore, dangerous.

ALECSANDRA MATIAS

PhD in Visual Arts (ECA-USP). Postdoctoral degree in Visual Arts (UNESP). Independent curator. Professor at CELACC (ECA-USP). Researcher at the Mario Schenberg Center for Documentation and Research in the Arts (ECA-USP). Specialist in Cooperation and University Extension at the Museum of Contemporary Art of the University of São Paulo (MAC-USP). Member of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA). Columnist for Jornal da USP, editor of Revista Arte & Crítica, and contributor to DasArtes. Author of the books Schenberg: Crítica e Criação (EDUSP, 2011) and Memória da Resistência (MCSP, 2022).

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