Watch me work
Watch Me Work addresses the not-easily-accessible subject of client-worker interactions within the sphere of sex work, and the positionality of the worker within it. Liad works at an Israeli erotic chat website, where clients pay money by the minute to see her conduct live intimate performances and one-on-one erotic conversations with them. The piece is composed of real-time erotic conversations and performance with real, live clients, which are viewed through projections. Different cameras and projections enable the audience to have an inside perspective of the inner workings of the sex industry, including the behind-the-scenes perspective of erotic labor.
Watch Me Work is an attempt to move beyond well-known-to-the-point-of-overused key phrases associated with sex work in the social sphere, such as ‘exploitative’, ‘misogynist’, ‘empowering women’s sexuality’, ‘immoral’, ‘exciting’, ‘dehumanizing’, ‘valid/invalid form of work’ and present a more complex level by addressing the central element of sex work that cannot be reduced to stereotypes – the interaction between the sex worker and the client. The emphasis on the sex worker-client interaction comes as a reaction to the discourse about sex work, which evades addressing this central element simply because it is inaccessible to the public eye and, therefore, to public discourse. The performance reveals the singularities that the sex work experience holds as being a more complex system than is conventionally addressed, presented as ‘sex work realism’. (Liad Hussein Kantorowicz)
The performance is in English.
Performance and Concept: Liad Hussein Kantorowicz; Technical Direction and Design: Maria Mitsopoulou; Translation: Idan Sagiv Richter.
Organisation: City of Women; In collaboration with: Old Power Station – Elektro Ljubljana.
Free entrance.
