Bodies of Pleasure is a platform which offers artists a space to explore sexuality and sexpositive practices in a performance context. It has been convened and is facilitated by choreographer / curator Jarkko Partanen and the artists involved are Julius Elo, Jan Loukas, Camilla Rantanen, Kauri Sorvari and Olga Spyropoulou. The invitation has been for each artist to work with their own project and through their own interests and desires. The platform has offered recurring communal studio sessions where the artists have been working together as sounding boards for ideas and shared their practises, worked as substitute bodies and test audiences, and have given each other peer support. Many of the projects presented are first tries hopefully on a longer path in the future.  

Bodies of Pleasure at Museum of Impossible Forms opens up this exploration for the audience. In the program you can find different kinds of entry points and ways to explore and experience sex positivity in performance. There are intimate participatory encounters which invite you into play, non-participatory performances to witness from within a larger crowd, workshops to participate in, and a chance for discourse and dialogue.  

We want to offer both the artists and the audience members a safer space to explore and to look for intimacy, desire, and even arousal. This happens only through the culture and practice of consent. Please note that different performances offer diverse levels of participation and each work needs their own way of communicating and negotiating consent.

You do not need to be an expert in art or sex to participate. No special skills or experience in either is needed, just curiosity! Just please be respectful to everyone in the space and come with an open mind.

All the events of the platform are free of charge, but please note that for some performances you do need to sign up beforehand.

Welcome!

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The Bodies of Pleasure platform is supported by WAUHAUS, Museum of Impossible Forms, Arts Promotion Center Finland and the Finnish Cultural Foundation. It is part of Jarkko Partanen’s MA Thesis at the Praxis Master programme in Curation and Exhibition Studies at the University of the Arts, Academy of Fine Arts.

For more info please email: info.bodiesofpleasure@gmail.com‍‍

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PROGRAM‍

> Thursday 20.10
· 6pm Opening party

> Friday 21.10
· 5pm About consent - workshop
with Jarkko Partanen & Camilla Rantanen (sign up via info.bodiesofpleasure@gmail.com)

· 7pm Meditating on Expectation
with Jan Loukas

> Saturday 22.10
· 2pm-5pm Spell it out for me please!
with Olga Spyropoulou (sign up here https://doodle.com/meeting/participate/id/dyr46Wze )

· 6pm-9pm Bambi’s dollhouse
with Julius Elo (sign up here https://doodle.com/meeting/participate/id/dBLGKLJa )

> Sunday 23.10
· 2pm-5pm Spell it out for me please!
with Olga Spyropoulou (sign up here https://doodle.com/meeting/participate/id/dyr46Wze )

· 6pm-9pm Bambi’s dollhouse
with Julius Elo (sign up here https://doodle.com/meeting/participate/id/dBLGKLJa )

> Friday 28.10· 6pm Performing gender - discussion
with Anna Cadia & Jan Loukas

· 7pm Meditating on Expectation
with Jan Loukas

> Saturday 29.10
· 2pm-4pm Hot wax ritual - workshop
with Julius Elo (sign up via info.bodiesofpleasure@gmail.com)

· 5pm-8pm Submission
with Olga Spyropoulou & Julius Elo (sign up via info.bodiesofpleasure@gmail.com)

> Sunday 30.10
· 2pm-3pm Suutelo (demo + discussion)
with Kauri Sorvari

· 4pm-7pm Submission
with Olga Spyropoulou & Julius Elo (sign up via info.bodiesofpleasure@gmail.com)‍