Beate Absalon researches ‘other states’ as a cultural scientist, such as childbearing, mourning, hysteria, sleep, radical happiness & collective joy or sadomasochistic practices. After first investigating how ropes can induce active passivity – through bondage, but also in puppetry or political activism – she is currently doing a PhD on inventive forms of sexual education beyond clear instructions, experimenting with wayward life designs that do not exclude insecurity, vulnerability, contradictions and pleasurable effervescence. Her essays appear on www.luhmendarc.com/the-pillow-blog. Her theoretical interest is fed by practice, as she likes to put herself and others into ecstatic states. She designs her workshops and sessions as a shared experience in which seemingly silly questions are encouraged and failure is permitted, in which the search for one’s own style and for connections is promoted – and resisted against being taken in.
Matís d’Arc: rope, BDSM and play enthusiast, workshop facilitator, sex worker, coach and sometimes artist & performer. After studying contemporary literature and working in the fields of contemporary music and dance theater Matís found an experiential home in Berlin’s Schwelle7 where choreography and performance art fused with Kink. Since then he has been carried by the conviction that the conscious and practical exploration of body, intimacy, sexuality and power play not only gives a lot of pleasure, but at the same time can open a special access to one’s own personality and a path to its development. To explore this potential and offer others the opportunity to try out and discover new things, he developed the label luhmen d’arc in 2013 to create playspaces, jams, workshops, sessions, lectures and artprojects; mainly in Zurich and Berlin, but also abroad.
Workshop
HOW TO BECOME A BETTER LOVER? I – “Details”
The devil is in the details. No matter how many tantra courses we book, how many sex tips we read, how much we shape our bodies – lovemaking can still suck because we are missing the very small and simple delights. The focus on big spectacles – on perfect bondage skills or squirting-guarantees – can sometimes even distract from intimacy and rather serve to hide behind it. In this workshop we will explore the micro-pleasures of seduction, because sometimes a special look is enough to enchant and delight somebody…. We will also exchange radically honestly about what good loving means for us – and whether feeling safe and at home as a basis for arousal is a state that paradoxically unfolds if we leave us and each other alone with all of this optimization mania of wanting to become a better lover…
Workshop
HOW TO BECOME A BETTER LOVER? II – “Contexts”
The exact same thing can be fun and exciting in one moment, and annoying and aggressive in the next. That’s why applying great sex tricks is useless if the lights are too bright and the background noises too loud, or if your lover is still stressed from work. That’s why paying more attention to creating comfortable environments is essential – environments in which the bodies can feel safe and only then get deeply aroused. What things accelerate pleasure? What functions more as brakes of lust? So what should we invite into and eliminate out of our spheres when having a date come over? In this workshop we will playfully become the architects of sexy contexts, going through the individual pillars and foundations of stimulating spaces (which can be in and around us) and finally create and try them out!