[artinfo] post / porn / politics / symposium

[tsila hassine]

post / porn / politics / symposium 14-15 October, volksbühne berlin.
<http://www.postpornpolitics.com/>http://www.postpornpolitics.com/

A symposium on the biopolitics of pornography.

Why watch porn?
Why not?
Or why not look for "other" porn?
How theorize sex performances?
How produce other body-technologies?
How celebrate critical pleasures?
How criticise without censorship?
Why affirm the fetish?
Why sexualise alienation?
How intensify the relation between theory & practice?
Why is power sexy?
Why the body a victim of capitalist commodification?
Why not fuck different, instead of idealising a way back to nature?

The term post porn was made famous by the 
sexworker and performance artist Annie Sprinkle 
which established a new level of sexual 
representation: Through identifying with joy, 
independence and agency in sex-performance, 
Sprinkle made us think of sex as a queer/feminist 
counter-pleasure outside the victimising 
framework of censorship and taboo.
Today, queer theorists like Beatriz Preciado or 
Marie-Helene Boucier re-evalue the term post-porn 
to theorise sex in the age of transgender 
subjectivity and disidentification, drag and 
cyberspace. When understanding pornography as a 
central dispositif of late capitalism for the 
normalisation and disciplination of pleasures and 
bodies, political ambivalences and 
counter-strategies are needed to be discussed and 
mapped out without totalising cultural pessimism.
This symposium, which features theorists, 
performers, filmmakers, artists and musicians, 
understands itself as a political intervention 
into both the heteronormative landscape of 
commercial porn production and the discourses of 
the mainstream public which make it impossible to 
think and practice criticism and pleasure at the 
same time.
In two conference-days, a performance night and a 
final party, queer-feminist approaches to porn 
are discussed, reflected, valued and affirmed in 
a wide range of contributions between utopia and 
scepticism.
Participants:
bruce la bruce. filmmaker. toronto.
maxime cervulle. theorist. paris.
shu lea cheang. artist. paris.
katja diefenbach. theorist. berlin.
lee edelman. theorist. yale.
stephan geene. theorist / filmmaker. berlin.
girlswholikeporno. performers / filmmakers. barcelona.
werner hirsch. performance artist.
katrien jacobs. theorist / artist. hongkong.
marije janssen. theorist. amsterdam.
bubu de la madeleine. performance artist. kyoto.
matteo pasquinelli. curator / critic. london.
rhythm king & her friends. musicians. berlin.
elizabeth stephens. artist. san francisco.
annie sprinkle. artist. san francisco.
terre thaemlitz. musician / artist. kawasaki
todd verow. filmmaker. new york.
william wheeler. performance artist. berlin / mississipi.

concept and organisation by 
<http://www.logoparc.com/postpornpolitics/tim.htm>tim 
stüttgen
with the <http://www.janvaneyck.nl/>jan van eyck academy, maastricht, nl.
In collaboration with the 
<http://www.pornfilmfestivalberlin.de/>porn film 
festival berlin and the 
<http://www.volksbuehne-berlin.de/>volksbühne 
berlin.
Presented by <http://www.spex.de/>spex and <http://www.bbooks.de/>b_books.