BARCELONA — Erika Lust has constructed a profession on the intersection of artwork and erotica — so it’s no shock that after establishing herself as a trailblazer in feminist pornography, she would proceed pushing the boundaries of the medium. Her newest enterprise, Home of Erika Lust (2024), is a sprawling immersive artwork set up that blends Digital Actuality and augmented actuality, inviting guests on a choose-your-own-adventure journey by means of her expansive cinematic oeuvre.
“On the internet, porn is queen — but there aren’t many places to engage with it in real life,” Lust says. “I think it’s fascinating to put sex in an artistic environment as a shared experience. With VR, you’re not just seeing a film; you’re experiencing it.”
Lust entered the business in 2004, when she debuted her first movie, The Good Lady — a feminist twist on the notorious “pizza delivery guy” plotline, flipping the script by centering the angle and character growth of its feminine lead. She based Erika Lust Movies in 2005, and shortly developed a popularity because the main advocate for a brand new kind of porn: erotic but non-heteronormative, creative but unpretentious.
Set up view of Erika Lust, Home of Erika Lust (2024) (photograph by Irene Cabre, courtesy the artist)
In contrast to a lot of the porn discovered on-line, Lust’s work prioritizes practical depictions of feminine pleasure — addressing points like boundaries and consent whereas drawing from lived experiences for inspiration. Certainly one of her hottest sequence, XConfessions (2013–ongoing), reinterprets actual sexual fantasies submitted anonymously by viewers. That is the very first thing guests encounter upon coming into Home of Erika Lust, presently on view in Barcelona’s Poblenou district at a secret location revealed 24 hours earlier than arrival.
Upon entry, I’m handed a masquerade-style masks and inspired to test my inhibitions on the door. Then I’m ushered into the primary room, the place a rotating sequence of XConfessions movies are projected towards the far wall. My favourite is a submission from Stoya, titled “Dick for a Day” (2023) — during which she experiences what it’s wish to, properly, have a dick for a day.
Subsequent is the VR expertise, the place I’m fitted with a headset and let free in a digital mansion paying homage to Sleep No Extra (2011–25). Every room accommodates interactive components: a portrait transforms right into a porn scene with a wave of the hand; rubbing a foggy mirror reveals a pair having intercourse. Within the library, I pull a e book off the shelf — just for its pages to flip open and start taking part in one among Lust’s movies.
Set up view of Erika Lust, Home of Erika Lust (2024) (photograph Camille Sojit Pejcha/ Hyperallergic)
I’m not the one one trying: There are 20 or so different figures transferring across the house, seen to me solely as opaque, human-shaped avatars. We don’t have faces, so it’s unimaginable to establish who’s strolling by me — however I can see {couples} embracing, their clear palms clasped collectively. Guests have 5 minutes to discover every “floor” earlier than the panorama shifts, and a sequence of arrows shuffles us to the subsequent journey.
On the second and third flooring, extra interactive rooms await. In a single, I place my head in a large orb and am transported to a 360-degree warehouse, the place women and men fondle themselves in a circle round me. In one other, a marble sculpture begs to be touched — after which it explodes into shards, every taking part in a distinct scene. There’s a dungeon, and a door that claims “Don’t look.” Once you do, it reveals a keyhole right into a BDSM scene, the place a dominatrix wields a leather-based whip. Between smacks, she checks in together with her submissive, asking, “Is this okay?” This consideration to practical kink dynamics is a trademark of Lust’s work, providing a counter-narrative to the unrealistic expectations usually set by mainstream porn.
Home of Erika Lust affords three setting for company to select from: erotic, express, or “surprise me,” a mixture of each. “Explicit is full on: you’re going to see everything,” Lust says. “Erotic is soft — you don’t have to see penises and vaginas if that’s not your thing. And ‘surprise me’ — well, I can’t tell!”
Erika Lust on one of many installations in Home of Erika Lust (2024) (photograph Camille Sojit Pejcha/ Hyperallergic)
After exploring on the “erotic” setting, I take one other flip, this time on the specific setting. The modifications are refined — like a penis revealed the place there was as soon as simply over-the-pants touching, or the power to tug a sequence to disclose a brand new dungeon scene. After that, I am going by means of once more on “surprise me” — however I’m not terribly shocked, besides once I discover myself interacting with objects that don’t reply. I’m having fun with the expertise, however I do want for extra selection between the settings.
A ultimate room incorporates a 360-degree screening of Lust’s extra suave movies, arrange gallery-style with seating scattered all through. {Couples} lean on one another’s shoulders to observe strangers fuck; creative close-ups showcase the aesthetic potential of intercourse. It’s probably the most confrontational of the rooms, as a result of there’s little believable deniability: We’re just about simply sitting round collectively and watching porn — albeit, not essentially the type we would choose for ourselves.
The set up accommodates a various vary of gender and sexuality, offering a window into different folks’s erotic creativeness. “It’s an individual experience, because everyone chooses their own route through the house,” Lust says. “But it’s also a collective experience, because we are all in the same space.”
Set up view of Erika Lust, Home of Erika Lust (2024) (photograph Camille Sojit Pejcha/ Hyperallergic)
That is the cultural backdrop that informs Lust’s work. Her mission isn’t simply to get folks off — it’s to get them pondering. She believes that pornography must be interpreted like another movie: as a cultural product with aesthetic and conceptual weight, able to shaping our wishes and worldview. And with Home of Erika Lust, she invitations viewers to have interaction with sexuality as they might another creative medium: critically, curiously, and with out disgrace.
Since its debut, the exhibition has turn into a preferred vacation spot for {couples} and ladies’ nights out, prompting attendees to replicate on their very own relationship with pornography. “Many people still feel shame around sex — they have a hard time talking about it, and feel like it’s something forbidden,” Lust says. “What I love most is hearing people start conversations about sex — conversations they’ve never had before.”
