Side Step 2019 | Mette Ingvartsen: 69 positions

The sexual utopias of the 1960s counterculture manifested in the performance art of the time through excess, nudity, ritualistic pleasure and political engagement. Mette Ingvartsen's 69 positions is a guided tour through archives of sexual performance art, a lecture made of texts, videos, images and performances, where Ingvartsen explores the potential of sexuality in the history of performance art and in her own works. What could be the radical, subversive sexuality of today?

The performance reconstructs the past relying on a cast of one woman, imagination, and the collective body of the audience. In Ingvartsen's performance, the naked woman is the authority, the guide and the transmitter of knowledge. The social reality of the guided tour proves how notions of sexuality are not merely part of the private sphere but created collectively. In 69 positions nudity is sensual and intimate; it bears ritualistic and political power.

The performance is part of Metter Ingvartsen's series of works where she explores unresolved issues relating to sexuality, nudity and the borderline between the public and the private sphere. The other instalments of the series are the ensemble piece 7 Pleasures (2015), to come (extended) (2017) and Ingvartsen's solo performance 21 pornographies (2017).

www.metteingvartsen.net