mumok Kino: Beth Stephens & Annie Sprinkle

With a poetic mix of curiosity, humor, sensuality, and concern, Water Makes Us Wet – An Ecosexual Adventure tells of the joys and the politics of water from an ecosexual perspective. The film accompanies the two artists, Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens, together with their dog Butch on a road trip through California. On this tour of the golden state, they use their mobile E.A.R.T.H. Lab to explore various meanings of water. Ecosexuality shifts the metaphor of “mother” Earth to the “Earth as a lover,” creating a mutual and more empathetic relationship between humanity and the natural world.

Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens interact with performance artists, biologists, workers in water treatment plants, scientists, and others, with the film reaching a climax in a shocking event that confirms the power of water, life, and love. The artistic works of Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens reflect two trends within radical feminist art. While Stephens (born 1960) has been working in the field of video art since the late 1980s and has confronted the genre with various expressions of lesbian and queer culture, Sprinkle (born 1954) has been working since the 1970s as a porn actress and activist to undermine dominant forms of representation in pornography, as well as campaigning for the rights of sex workers. Together, Stephens and Sprinkle founded the Ecosex movement. They are married to earth, heaven, sea, ground, and a large number of natural creatures.

Program

Beth Stephens, Annie Sprinkle, Water Makes Us Wet – An Ecosexual Adventure, 2017, 75 min

Presented by Fanny Hauser (Contemporary Matters), followed by a conversation with Brishty Alam, Simeon Gazivoda, and Magdalena Stöger, moderated by Fanny Hauser

Brishty Khatun Alam graduated in natural sciences in London and studied art and photography at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Presently, she is working as an independent artist as well as teaching at the University of Applied Arts. Her most recent publication C.A.T.: Catastrophic Animals on Terra, appeared in mid-2019.

Simeon Gazivoda studies German Philology in Vienna. As a queer performer and environmental and LGBTIQ activist, he organizes the event series Drink & Draw & Drag and benefit events for queer political aims, such as Anything Goes. Since 2019, he has also been an active member of Die Grünen Andersrum, Vienna and Grüne Margareten.

Fanny Hauser studied art history and comparative literature in Vienna and Paris. She worked as a curatorial assistant for the Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary in Vienna and for documenta 14 in Athens and Kassel. She is the co-founder and co-director of Kunstverein Kevin Space in Vienna (founded in 2016), and co-initiator of the platform Contemporary Matters.

Magdalena Stöger studied art history and communication studies in Vienna and Berlin. She has worked as a curator in various institutions, including 21er Haus, ZKM, and Secession, as well as freelance as a curator and art historian. She is co-initiator of the platform Contemporary Matters and currently working at the Department for Art History at the University of Vienna. 
 

This film evening marks the beginning of the symposium Biodiversity and the Cultural Landscape, which will take place in the Aula am Campus of the University of Vienna on Wednesday, January 15, 2020.. The symposium addresses the subject of biodiversity from the perspectives of art, activism, and cultural studies, and is organized by Contemporary Matters.