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AMSTERDAM 7.5.200
ZOOTENGENANT


tv footage from the Zoot&Genant action Sex Riot taking place during the 1998 Euro Summit in Amsterdam. The artists announced the sex riot to the press, and hordes of journalist showed up. The actual events then took place around a provocative 'lack of sex' as sex was expected by the media. The action is commented on by the police, angry and amused spectators.

In another clip, an Amsterdam queen explains that she is afraid that the European summits will have a negative effect on Amsterdam's free-thinking sexual politics.


PHOTOGRAPH:

CAPTION: Zoot&Genant, Oysterbapiece, 1996, performance.


QUESTION: One of the first things you staged with Artporn was the Post-Kinky Party (1996). One of the slogans Artporn used was "We are are bored and all our friends have whips." What does that mean, 'post-kinky'?

ANSWER: We call it 'post-kinky' because 'kinky sex' or 'plain sex', once one gets involved in the sex scenes, comes with a number of very rigid rules. We were 'post-kinky' because we wanted to transgress the boundaries associated with the rules of 'kinky.' 'Kinky' means that sex is a little bit exciting. 'Kinky' is associated with spanking, leather and fetishism. But since these cultures were becoming so commercialized it was not really exciting anymore.

QUESTION: 'Kinky' is not a Dutch phenomenon to you but imported from Anglo-American cultures. Were you looking for something more 'Dutch'?

ANSWER: No, we were not looking for something more 'Dutch' but something closer to everyday sexuality instead of sex presented in rigid forms. You can take the role of the 'master,' or you can take the role of the 'slave'. All these cooked out roles. You can be 'gay' or 'lesbian', you can be 'frigid' or a 'nymphomaniac.' And every role prescribed by society comes with a porn movie release, at least here in the Netherlands. And these rigid roles are taken so seriously. We also wanted to state that sexuality cannot be divorced from life, that sexuality melts into the politics of everyday life. What is the influence of politics on the sexuality of a city or a country? Or on your personality, e.g. just the way you are sitting on your chair.

QUESTION: How did you find your own roles?

ANSWER: We arrived at those roles that did not hold an essence. We wanted to return to the essence of pleasure, and at that point it did not matter if you would be 'master' for one second and 'slave' for the next second. However, one essential role one does play when standing on a stage with naked genitals is that of the exhibitionist. Our other roles did not matter so much. We looked for a happening, a space and a concept, took along the media, and then looked for the audience to reveal themselves. It was more important to see what kind of sexual roles other people reflected into the space and the happening.

We did not think it out that way, but felt such a lack in the commercial cultures and role-patterns that we thought: "Where is the human being in all this?" And so for instance, I did not shave my legs and Zoot had a little stomach. We were no beauty ideals. We did not have expensive costumes and we did not have a rehearsed act that we were going through. We went on the stage and we had a certain experience that we shared. It was usually a one-time happening. We were performance artists and did something that we might never have experienced before. It was not about the roles we played but about the happening,so it was a liberation from the roles. For instance, when I stuck a marshmallow up somebody's arse, this might have been something that I had to discuss with this person, because it was something that we had never done before. I had never seen anybody drop marshmallows while I was dancing with them. This was liberating to me because I saw something that I had never seen before and it did not have a role because I could not place it. Perhaps people were already doing this two thousand years ago, but I do not know for sure because I was not there. And I liked that feeling a lot, to experience something that did not become a role. The body has so many more possibilities then that of 'cunt 'and 'dick' and 'tits and ass' and 'blow jobs' and 'excrements'. There is so much more than that.