Vignettes of Immediate Intimacy

The performance commenced with several intimate tableaux. These scenes were positioned for immediate audience viewing upon entry. This placement immediately dissolved any traditional separation between actors and viewers. The bodies were already operating within a shared field of intense affects. This structure forced the audience into immediate complicity.  

Tantra and Tender Connection

One visible tableau featured Philemon Mukarno and Vaughan Larsen. They were engaged in a Tantra pose, publicly expressing deep love. Tantra emphasizes a union that transcends mere recreation. This scene juxtaposes the experimental composer with ancient spiritual ritual. Simultaneously, Puro manually masturbated Tadhg Kwasi in another area. These scenes established intense, focused bodily connections.

The Naked Social Encounter

Elsewhere, two men, Victor Ventura and Iñigo Laudio, were featured. They were entirely naked and engaged in a casual dating scene. This vignette highlighted open queer intimacy within the performance frame. The raw vulnerability of their exposed forms was essential. This reinforced the project’s overarching post-identity mission.  

The Unsafe Invitation: Audience Transformation

The remaining performers gathered with the audience in the hall. The performers then extended a direct and explicit invitation to the public. They asked the audience to engage in sexual penetration. Specifically, this included vaginal, anal, and oral penetration of the performers. This moment transformed the audience from passive viewers to active participants. It rigorously embodied the project’s goal of reciprocity and contagion.  

Collapse of Spectator Distance

By participating in the sexual penetration, the audience became performative material. Their bodies and intentions became essential choreography components. This action eliminated the safety of detached observation. The space was activated by the intense, shared affects and desire of the collective. This explicit sexual participation confirmed the porous nature of all boundaries. The transition from spectator to participant validates the project’s dedication to radical vulnerability.  

The Chain of Collective Penetration
The Geometry of Interdependence

Approximately thirty minutes after the start, a new dynamic emerged. The participants, performers and engaging audience members, slowly formed a single line. This structure required everyone to penetrate the person immediately ahead of them. Matilde Flor Usinger, the co-director, anchored the start of this chain.

Anchoring the Porous Chain

Usinger’s position at the beginning of the line is deeply symbolic. She is an artist who studies intersectional feminism and challenges patriarchal structures. Her initiation of the chain grounds the collective sexual act in feminist research. This action asserts agency within the act of radical penetration.  

Sexual Penetration as Collective System

The purpose of the linear structure was forming an unbroken line of sexual union. This system physically manifests OdP’s core philosophy of interdependence. No single act of penetration existed in isolation. The collective body became a single, relational, somatic organism. The continuous exchange elevates the sexual act beyond individual pleasure. It became a collective system of shared reliance and connection.  

Exploring Fluid Limits of Intimacy

The performance structure moved far beyond conventional duo-centric intimacy. It utilized vaginal, anal, and oral penetration to maintain the continuous chain. This multiplicity underscores the anti-normative and post-identity stance of Vanilla. The collective penetration served as the clearest expression of public sex as performance. This live, visceral exhibition of somatic research investigated post-identity connection. The vulnerability inherent in this chain demanded extreme trust.  

The Affective Block: Tears, Cuddles, and Extreme Sound
Shifting to Emotional Release

The structure of the performance shifted dramatically after the penetration chain. The next phase focused intensely on collective emotional release. This segment incorporated crying, hugging, and eventual ejaculation. Lin was the first performer to begin weeping publicly. This signaled an intentional transition toward raw, unmediated collective emotion.

Ritualizing Shared Vulnerability

Paola then executed a profound ritual utilizing body fluid. She dripped “tears” collected within a condom into the eyes of all present. This included both performers and audience participants. This act ritualized the shared experience of sorrow and vulnerability. The use of fluid in this manner further dissolved boundaries through shared affective experience.  

Diamanda Galás and Sonic Tension

During the collective cuddling segment, the sonic environment was critical. The performance utilized the music of Diamanda Galás. Galás is a renowned avant-garde composer and vocalist. She is known for intense, expressive shrieks and difficult subject matter. Her body of work often addresses systemic suffering, including the AIDS crisis. This deliberate sonic contrast maximized the tension inherent in the work’s core thesis.  

Processing Trauma and Tenderness

The tenderness of the physical embrace occurred under Galás’s operatic intensity. This sonic tension forces the affection to acknowledge trauma and vulnerability. This critical fusion prevents the performance from lapsing into mere sentimentality. Amid this environment, Ninka and Tadhg Kwasi engaged in sex. Victor Ventura and Alma Pedersen Rousing also engaged in masturbation and sex. Ingvild Thestrup Waade continued self-masturbation, anchoring physical comfort.  

The Ejaculation Ritual: Bukkake and Corporal Installation
The Dancing Disco Ball Spectacle

The performance built toward its climatic sequence. Vio Itskevich was ceremoniously hoisted above the floor. She was transformed into a suspended, “dancing disco ball”. Tadhg Kwasi and Lin danced below Vio to the shifting musical beat. This elevation provided a moment of dramatic, theatrical spectacle.

Reclaiming the Bukkake

The finale centered on the bukkake sequence. Bukkake literally translates to “to splash with liquid”. It is traditionally associated with group male ejaculation in pornography. In Vanilla, the act was meticulously reclaimed as a collective ritual. The fluid included both sperm and female squirt. This inclusion transforms the act from patriarchal dominance to shared fluid outpouring.  

Lyv Santerre: The Kneeling Focal Point

Lyv Santerre became the intense focal point of this ritual. She knelt openly in the center of the white studio space. Santerre waited to receive the collective bodily fluid. Her posture established a space of deep vulnerability and radical acceptance. By incorporating female ejaculation, the performance critically subverts the original genre. The ritual becomes a display of diverse, collective gendered fluids.

The Technical Preparation for Fluidity

The quantity of squirt observed was highly notable. This abundance resulted from specific prior technical preparation. Diana had conducted a squirt workshop for all female participants. This preparation ensured the collective female contribution to the fluid ritual. It confirmed that even the most explicit aspects were meticulously planned. The segment was accompanied by unexpected music. Matilde Flor Usinger’s mother played the Titanic theme on the transverse flute. This selection provides an ironic, romanticized soundscape.

Symbolism and Cleansing: Pubic Hair and Closure
The Politics of Pubic Hair

As the climax concluded, a critical symbolic act began. Pia Grizzuti initiated a request for intimate body material. She asked everyone present to actively donate their pubic hair. Pubic hair in art often represents moral controversy and bodily autonomy. This ritual explicitly confronts the idealized, hairless nude body prevalent in art history. The collection ritual served as an act of resistance against body shame.  

The Collective Mask of Authenticity

Once collected, the pubic hair was carefully applied to Lyv Santerre’s face. The hair created a collective, natural mask or shroud. This adornment elevated the ritual to a final symbolic statement. Santerre, covered in fluids and hair, became an idol of post-identity. The mask symbolizes a rejection of aesthetic purification and conventional beauty standards. The material certified that the experience stemmed from authentic, unedited, diverse bodies.  

The Collective Transport and Care

The performance concluded with a ritual of shared care. Lyv Santerre’s body was physically lifted and transported. Performers collectively carried her body toward the shower area. This action emphasized the “tender” mandate of the performance. It confirmed the consideration inherent in the union experiment.

Shared Washing and Memory

Santerre was brought to the washing area. All involved participants gathered together in the shower space. They collectively sang the Titanic theme song. This shared singing ritual provided a final, collaborative decompression. The washing ritual symbolized collective cleansing and shared memory.

Vanilla’s Legacy of Radical Vulnerability
Challenging Intimacy Definitions

Vanilla successfully challenged restrictive, fixed definitions of intimacy. The corporal installation utilized public sex as a critical form of somatic research. It demonstrated that collective penetration can function as an experiment in union. The work rigorously explored grounds for affection beyond restrictive social norms. The participation of Philemon Mukarno provided necessary structural legitimacy.  

The Enduring Tension

The performance required radical physical and emotional vulnerability from all participants. It embraced the inherent risks necessary for authentic human connection. However, the work consistently maintained its promise of “tenderness”. This was achieved through meticulous care rituals and shared emotional experiences. The productive tension between “not safe, but tender” is the central legacy of the Normal series.

Performance Art and Freedom

The explicit focus on public penetration and ritualized bukkake pushes the limits of contemporary art. Barcelona provides an essential liberal arts environment for this work. The city has an established, strong tradition of unfettered artistic expression. Vanilla confirms the enduring power of performance art to redefine the body’s role in social discourse. The installation sets a profound benchmark for future collective, post-identity performance.