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Films in this programme

#102 Pornographic Playground

An exploration of pornography, particularly BDSM, as a site where identity, power, and desire are reshaped through embodied acts and intimacy, dissolving fixed norms and interrogating selfhood.

Pornography functions as a playground for imagination, exploration, and escapism, loosening our ties to normative reality and generating a liminal space in which markers of identity, belonging, and normativity fall by the wayside. Gender and sexuality fracture and recombine, resonances and dissonances emerge, and one is no longer bound by the categories of human, animal, or thing. We are determined less by who we are and more by what we do, oscillating between roles, obscuring the binaries of gender, desire and sexuality, not tied to a direct title or role, but where desire leads us.

BDSM (Bondage, Dominance and Submission, Sadomasochism) is central to this curation, challenging power, cis-heteronormativity, and erotic convention through interviews and sexual imagery. It resembles a form of play, much like sex itself. Rather than a confined or deviant practice, BDSM offers a space to explore comforts and discomforts, preferences and aversions; it transforms, unsettles, and excites. Sexual enjoyment is framed not by the performer’s identity, but by the act itself. Crucially, BDSM is not presented as terror. Instead, the sensitivity, unspoken connection, and communication inherent to the practice redefines it as a labour of pleasure rather than punishment or violence, letting go of control and giving into matters of the body. Sensuality permeates the medium, even in scenes of BDSM, where delicate imagery is rendered through slow-paced, attentive shots. The informal, shaky videography of these encounters encourages intimacy, positioning the viewer as an active participant and challenging our own roles and positionality.

This channel foregrounds the mutability of identity, sexuality, and personhood through its depictions of pornography. Within these representations, power relations, dominance, and submission remain in constant flux, continually renegotiated rather than fixed. Sexual encounters become spaces in which the boundaries of the self can be explored, outlets that are deliberately and consensually embraced. As sexual beings, we are elastic, adapting through intuition and unspoken connection. We move according to the language of our bodies rather than the rigid scripts of social roles, gender expectations, or presupposed identities.

With works by: M.M. Serra, Morty Diamond, Cleo Übelmann, Rose Rosen, Barbara Hammer, and Marina Abramović. This Channel programme was created by Ellen Egan during her internship in 2025/2026

Films in dit programma

L’Amour Fou by M.M. Serra
M.M. Serra
(USA, 1992, video, 16:36)
The use of BDSM by M.M. Serra is deeply thoughtful; this is realised through the use of both erotic scenes and formal interviews with...
TrannyFags
Morty Diamond
(USA, 2003, video, 16:56)
Following a group of transgender men, this piece evokes a playfulness of masculinity, with a deceitfully innocent sitcomesque...
Mano Destra
Cleo Übelman
(Switzerland, 1986, video, 53:00)
Traditional pornography typically centres on two effeminate women, with long hair and longer nails in an uncertain, nearly virginal...
Out
Roee Rosen
(Israel, 2010, video, 33:43)
Roee Rosen is an artist who questions the bounds of gender, performance and identity, such as utilising his former artistic character...
Dyketactics
Barbara Hammer
(USA, 1974, video, 04:01)
Dyketactics (1974) echoes the lesbian commune visions of the 70s, circulating a group of women who embrace nudity in a gentle nature,...
Balkan Erotic Epic
Marina Abramović
(Serbia, 2005, video, 16:00)
Sexuality acts as the protagonist in this piece, moving through different mediums and individuals, from animated depictions to women...
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