Erotika Biennale Diverts the Male Gaze and Builds Empowered Community

Man's desires and expectations have dominated the world of erotic art and media for far too long. Thankfully, the founders of the Erotika Biennale are working to shift that lazy, boring old male gaze and elevate female and queer perspectives with engaging erotic art, sensual performances, culinary experiences, sex coaches, workshops, and more.

Curators Gladys Garrote Rigau and Tam Gryn are working to expose, if you will, new people to the erotic community in South Florida. The events kick off Friday, February 2, at the Wilzig Erotic Art Museum (WEAM) in Miami Beach and continue throughout the month at various venues around the city.

Before recently moving to Miami, Garrotte Rigau was an art history professor at the University of Havana. She and Gryn met in the crypto-art world. "We connected through NFTs and through our common interest in eroticism and cultural practices," she says. In 2021, as Clit Splash Collective, the pair launched the festival with a focus on minority and queer artists in crypto-art.

The Biennale started as a metaverse group show during Miami Art Week that year, showcasing erotic digital art pieces that included "everything but the male gaze," Garrotte Rigau says. They hosted the next edition during Pride Month as a digital show that included live performances, poetry readings, and comedy. But with this current endeavor, they wanted to bring it citywide. Decentralizing it gives partners autonomy on how they want to present the events at their spaces, including artists with open studios.

"We are interested in creating safe spaces and educational moments," Garrote Rigau explains. Because of her background in academia, she says, she knows that being able to name things — things we want and things other people want — allows us to better understand them. The aim is to start conversations that foster empathy. "In a moment where there is so much hatred, being able to expand this knowledge of what other people enjoy and like" is key, she emphasizes. Given that the Biennale empowers people whose desires have historically been overlooked, the art, workshops, and other experiences will show guests a whole new way to view eroticism as a tool for expression and also as a political statement.

"Eroticism is quite broad a spectrum," she explains. "It depends as well on context and the moment in history; it depends on our culture. We don't experience eroticism in the same way that someone 100 years ago did or someone in Japan does, or even within our own context. We're trying to create a biennale for everyone." That includes lower-stakes events like art shows or indie erotic films by Swedish director Erika Lust, as well as more risqué experiences, like a swingers' party at Miami Velvet and a sensual concert during the afterparty at ZeyZey (as if Miami weren't steamy enough!).

Tickets to the Erotika Biennale grant entrance to the afterparty and WEAM and a month of free membership to Miami Velvet. The whole affair will get your chest heaving and the little wheels in your brain moving, and you just might meet a new community of like-minded folks ready for new adventures and more female gazes.

The Erotika Biennale. Friday, February 2, through Thursday, February 29, at various locations; theerotikabiennale.com. Tickets cost $60 via shotgun.live.