Performance Evening
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Dr. Peter B
His Workshops:
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In September 2009, Peter B defended his Ph.D in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures at New York University. His Ph.D dissertation, “The Forgiveness to Come: Dreams and Aporias”, addresses the difficulties posed by the Holocaust for a thinking of forgiveness inherited from the Abrahamic (i.e. monotheistic) tradition.
In the course of his education, he has worked under the guidance of some of the major figures of contemporary philosophy within the European tradition, including Jean-Luc Nancy, Werner Hamacher and Avital Ronell. He has published several articles in academic journals both in French and English on the work of figures such as Maurice Blanchot, Jacques Derrida, Martin Heidegger and Jean-François Lyotard, and has also been the recipient of fellowships from the DAAD, the Leo Baeck Intitute in New York and the Free University in Berlin. More information about his published and unpublished writings, as well as his dissertation, can be found at www.peterbanki.com
Peter has also invented several workshops and other events at Schwelle7 in Berlin. These include Fear Rituals (2006), The Reading Group (2007), Cultural Trauma (2007-2008), Queer Weekend: Romantic Life Performance (2008), Plush Animal Fetish (2008), The Poetry of Listening (2010). With the assistance of Felix Ruckert, he turned Ph.D research into a performance lecture entitled To Forgive the Unforgivable: A ‘Philosopher’ Who Wants To Dance (2009). To Forgive the Unforgivable has been performed several times at Schwelle7 and also in Sydney at the Medium Rare Art Gallery in Redfern.
Prior to working with Felix Ruckert, he worked in New York with Daniel Lepkoff, one of the founders of contact improvisation. He began dancing in Sydney in 1997 with Annetta Luce, who taught him to feel his feet. Since 1999 he has sustained a regular practice of Iyengar Yoga. He is currently learning the Bossa Nova repertoire on guitar with Mestre Jerônimo in Sydney, with whom he has played Capoeira for many years.
He is also the artistic director and producer of the Festival on the Art of Lust - Xplore Sydney
Smell Taste Touch
According to recent research, we possess since the beginning of time the so-called Jacobson or Vomeronasal organ, which is responsible for instinctive perception, the unconscious smelling of air-carried messenger substances, the pheromones.
It seems to represent a second smell system operating independently from the normal olfactory system. It might be the cause behind several perceptual phenomena (smelling danger, having a nose for something): what we call a 'sixth sense'.
We will set up in this workshop a series of test arrangements, dedicated to instinctive perception, mainly smell but also taste and touch. Our suspicion is that attraction is a reflex.
This workshop has been invented by Felix Ruckert for 2010 xplore in Berlin. Delta and Peter proudly offer it for the first time in Sydney.
The Last Taboo: Money
In polite culture, it is often considered to be a taboo to talk about money. However, for many of us money is more intimate than sex.
It might be easier and more socially acceptable to challenge ourselves erotically than it is to question the conditions under which we make our living—or fail to make our living.
If the purpose of xplore is to cultivate expansion beyond traditional relationships, then the question of money must at some point also be raised. What relation does my intimate life have to the material conditions of my existence?
In this workshop, I will discuss some of the ethico-political considerations related to the financial aspects of producing the inaugural xplore festival in Sydney, Australia in April 2011. I will also propose some exercises adapted from BDSM, whose purpose is to provide a frame to experience unconscious emotions around money, hierarchy and the social/sexual order.
The Bordello
Who in our society has not sold themselves?
There has always been a stigma around sex work and prostitution. It is considered base and degrading to sell sex for money. And yet it can be argued that prostitution pervades our whole culture.
I personally am not a sex worker, and yet like most people I have occasionally used sex, or the promise of sex, to get something that I have wanted or needed.
In this workshop, we will xplore sex work and prostitution through role-play. We will set up a bordello, where participants can chose to be either clients or prostitutes. The bordello will have a madam. Clients will use monopoly money.
Besides being an opportunity for some hot and sexy play, this workshop seeks to give people an experience on which to reflect on our fantasies and presuppositions about sex work and prostitution, and to appreciate the complexities in terms of gender differences, class, the exchange economy and empowerment.
Being Bad
“Supreme delight lies in the certainty of doing 'evil' - and men and women know from birth that all pleasure lies in evil.” - Charles Baudelaire
Being bad—flirting with evil—belongs to the repertoire of BDSM and, I would argue, sexuality in general. And yet, it is something many are frightened to explore, because understandably there is a fear of evil and being evil.
A lot of the sexiness of BDSM comes from the allure of being bad, of taking the risk of crossing borders of conventional morality and politeness. In this workshop, you’ll have a license to be bad. How bad can you be? How much bad will you allow to be done to you? What finally do you hold to be unacceptable? And why?
Finally, what role does forgiveness play in sexuality and BDSM?