The Lusted Men collective and the 110 gallery invite 8 artists from the French scene who take an erotic look at men’s bodies and offer other paths of desire.
In “Le salon des confidences”, the author and scientific journalist Elisa Brune writes that the erotic gaze unfolds through the exercise of “unusual attention”. This is what the artists presented in this exhibition are committed to: using different mediums and unique sensibilities, they unleash and expand – each in their own way – the field of the desirable.
Contrary to the traditional iconography which, from the History of Art to the advertising industry, has made femininity an object of desire, their work invests, expands and sometimes subverts the field of erotic representations (Alireza Shojaian, Arthur Gillet).
From fantasized forms (Sarah Kalvar, Arthur Gillet) to the documentation of everyday life (Karla Hiraldo Voleau, KIM), the course addresses several themes relating to desire and masculinities. It questions the place of distance and that of language in our erotic lives (KIM), the gendered codes and power relations that act in seduction and sexuality (Karla Hiraldo Voleau, Rebekka Deubner), the desiring gaze at time or within the couple (Mila Nijinsky, Solène Ballesta) – and encourages us to take our curiosity off the beaten track of heteronormativity (Rebekka Deubner, Alireza Shojaian).
Enriching the field of erotic representations of men means collectively giving ourselves images and stories that constitute the binder of our experiences, and influence the possible forms of our erotic lives. It is a question here, not only of reversing our eyes, but also of placing the camera, the brush, the graphite or the pen in other hands than those who have held them for a long time.
A selection of prints by Robert Mapplethorpe is presented as a counterpoint upstairs in the gallery.
110 Galerie x Lusted Men : Désirés
Until February 4, 2023
110 Galerie
110 rue Saint Honoré
75001 Paris
https://le-110.fr/
