Dudu Quintanilha, Erotics in Participation, 2024, video, live soundtrack, in collaboration with Lilli Lake and Antonia Beeskow, followed by a conversation moderated by Victoria Tarak (Kunstverein Bielefeld)

“A phenomenology of the gesture of loving must negotiate two dangers, sensationalism and prudery. (…). We don’t pay attention to most gestures because we don’t pay attention to what is familiar, and so when we concentrate on them, they seem new and surprising.” 

Vilém Flusser and Nancy Ann Roth

Can we be experimental with erotic in society today? Can we speak erotic in times of virtual defensive living and withdrawal of freedom? How the intricate relation between the ways of being together publicly and the virtual sovereign presence affects our sexual and erotic ways of interacting? Where does the erotic power stand in the age of polyamory and safe space and the rise of destructive conservative right wing forces and extreme public violence?

Dudu Quintanilha’s artistic work is based on intensive collaboration with different groups whose interests, wishes, and stories are made visible through workshops, performances, video and sound works. Starting from the charged concepts of eroticism and participation, Dudu Quintanilha has developed a workshop for Düsseldorf in collaboration with choreographic advice by Katja Cheraneva, in which participants try out new gestures of desire and love, but also rejection and fear. Here, the space behind the screen serves as an intimate place of encounter and projection, where movements and touches are translated into silhouettes. The video resulting from the workshop will be presented in the foyer of the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus with a live soundtrack by Lille Lake and Antonia Beeskow. The project was accompanied by Victoria Tarak and is being realised in cooperation with the participatory Stadt:Kollektiv department of the Schauspielhaus.

Dudu Quintanilha (b. 1987 in São Paulo, BR) lives in Berlin and Portugal. In addition to solo exhibitions at PSM, Berlin and the GAK, Bremen (both 2023), Quintanilha has recently participated in group exhibitions at museums such as Museum Folkwang, Essen (2023); Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires (2019); and Kanal Centre Pompidou Brussels (2018).

Thanks to Katja Cheraneva, Bassam Ghazi, Therese Edinger, Julian Kiesche, Birgit Lengers, Philipp Naujoks, Victoria Tarak, as well as the workshop participants Mohamad Abas, Finn Leon Cam, Anahit Grigorian, Rudayna Hussein, Alexa Peschke, Nina Pfafferoth, and Nadine Pitthan

Erotics in Participation is part of the Circulating Copies program.