"Sexwork: Art Myth Reality"

"Sexwork: Art Myth Reality"

NEUE GESELLSCHAFT FÜR BILDENDE KUNST
Oranienstraße 25
December 16–February 25

Unlike pornography, prostitution does not lend itself to the virtual pleasures of the Internet, which has taken porn from shady shops to private desktops and pop culture over the last decade. While some critics are discussing the spread of porn—see Texte zur Kunst’s current issue—the exhibition “Sexwork: Art Myth Reality” charts the globalization of an industry that seems to move both prostitutes and clients around the world with the same ease as spam.

Featuring works by thirty-five international artists and collectives—including practitioners—the sprawling exhibition is divided into three locations and themes, which attempt to avoid voyeurism while offering a realistic picture of prostitution today. It’s a difficult balance to maintain, and the curatorial team—Stéphane Bauer, Boris von Brauchitsch, Katharina Kaiser, Maika Leffers, Jörg Leidig, Judith Siegmund, and Ulrike Solbrig—made the wise decision to offer a surplus of images and information at each location in order to thwart the bodily intimacy promised by the sex-trade encounter. There is simply too much for the eye of any beholder, whether regular client, voyeur, critical feminist, or aficionado of dark, crowded rooms. Even habitués of the white cube are likely to be frustrated by the often-chaotic installation. Yet frustrating visual pleasure—preventing an exhibition about prostitution from slipping into porn—is part of the show’s critical message and a measure of its success.

Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien tackles the theme “Migrant Labor, Human Trafficking, Sex Tourism” with labyrinthine documentation of sex workers’ itineraries, which confound global and local, exotic and intimate. Viviana Bravo Botta’s photo sensible/beautiful place, 2004–2006—made in collaboration with a group of Latin American prostitutes living and working in Frankfurt am Main—charts an unusual city tour, including “the sexy shoe store,” the Colombian consulate, a Chinese fast-food outlet, and the municipal health board. The prostitutes’ desires recorded in Botta’s piece—such as “Regreser a mi país” (Return to my country)—poignantly demonstrate that the ultimate destination is not even on the map. A highlight of “Self-Awareness and Respect” at Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst (NGBK) is Bianca Bodau and Alberto Simon’s video Our Lady on the Rocks, 2000, which travels to the former mining boomtown of Butte, Montana, where the oldest brothel in the United States has been turned into the headquarters of the International Sex Workers Foundation for the Arts, Culture, and Education, to the delight and chagrin of locals. Cristiano Berti’s Memoria (Memorial), 2001–2002—a group of color photographs taken by Piero Ottaviano of places around Turin where prostitutes have been murdered—is marked by a banal tranquility that augments the violence forgotten at each site. Unfortunately, the series is divided between NGBK and Haus am Kleistpark, which deals with “Clichés and Realities.” But then again, moving around seems to be part of understanding the sex trade in a global age.

This exhibition is also on view at the Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien and at the Haus am Kleistpark.