ABOUT
OUR WORK…
THE CREATORS…
FORMATS AND TOPICS…
– COMING SOON –
(ART) PROJECTS…
– coming soon –
NETWORKS…
– coming soon –
OUR WORK…
"I’m just saying, I really like sex. We have no idea what sex would be like in a world that viewed it basically as a good. A weird good. A good that can sweep you off your feet and make you want to do strange things. A good that can reveal your incoherence, your love of a little disorder, your love of a little control (adjust the dial as you like). A good that can make you happy, for a minute, before the cat starts scratching the corner of the bed, or the phone rings, or the kids mew, or you’re hungry and sleepy, or you need another drink, or the taxi arrives. [...]
[It’s] playful, if you can remember that part; it’s also ridiculous and hilarious, if you can remember to notice that. It can also be very interesting and varied, if you want it to be [...] Who knows what sex could be like if people were encouraged to enjoy it as play rather than as a drama. [...] It deserves better."
— Lauren Berlant – read on >>here
Our work is fueled by a passion for encounters in which sexuality—whatever that may mean—took on meaning in a playful, experimental, friendly, and uninhibited way. Spaces where tribute was paid to the entire spectrum of intimacy, sensuality, and desire: their beautiful, strange, cheerful, exciting, unsettling, trivial, complex, silly, frightening, and inspiring aspects. This list of adjectives could go on forever. Because sexuality simply cannot be definitively defined. The more one engages with it and lets oneself be drawn into its vortex, the more questions arise—and the more enthusiasm we feel to keep asking, feeling, thinking, and sharing with curious openness. That’s why, for several years now, we’ve been creating spaces where this is possible together with other explorers. These exploratory spaces include workshops, sessions, play parties, and performances; dedicated to the diverse aspects of intimacy and desire, to inventive forms of encounter and communication, and to the discovery of new sensibilities and boundaries. Why all of this? Because narratives about what sexuality is shape our society—and in a world that profits from self-doubt, alternative approaches can serve as a form of resistance and empowerment.
MATÍS D’ARC
(Zurich & Berlin – Founder & Managing Director) is a lover of rope play, BDSM, and role-playing; a seminar organizer and facilitator; a sex worker; a coach; and, at times, an artist and performer. A degree in literary studies and cultural work in the fields of contemporary music and dance theater took him from Munich to Argentina and finally to Berlin in 2010. There, while exploring the fetish and queer kink scenes, he discovered his passion for rope and BDSM and eventually found an experiential home at Felix Ruckert’s “ Schwelle7.” Ever since, he has been driven by the conviction that a conscious and practical engagement with the body, intimacy, sexuality, and BDSM not only brings great pleasure but can also open up a special connection to one’s own personality and a path to its development. To explore this potential and offer others the opportunity to experiment and discover new things, he co-founded the labelLUHMEN D’ARC with Klara Luhmen in Berlin in 2013, which conceives and produces events and art in various formats—workshops, performances, lectures, jams, and play parties. Matís d’Arc has been living and working in Zurich and Berlin since 2016.
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BEATE ABSALON
(Berlin) Beata designs workshops as spaces of possibility for discovering how to live well with complexity. Complexity does not need to be resolved; rather, it can be understood as an invitation to play and be inventive. We can find comfort and deep joy when we bear witness to one another in our ordinariness and disorder. As a cultural theorist trained in various somatic fields, Beata draws attention to social contexts, ambiguities, and the aesthetic qualities of intimacy. Skeptical of promises of transformation, she currently recognizes non-cathartic feelings (such as awkwardness, shyness, laziness, listlessness, etc.) as worthwhile. All of this informs not only her workshops but also her doctoral dissertation on the exploration of consensual sex in queer-feminist educational formats, her non-fiction book *Not giving a fuck: On Listless Sex and Sexless Desire* (published in May 2024), and her work on various academic, artistic, and cultural projects.
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THE PARTICIPANTS
Photo: Ian Douglas
ANNA NATT
(Berlin) Anna’s multimedia work explores the intersection of dance, performance and visual arts. Her video works, stage performances and interactive pieces have been shown internationally in theaters as well as galleries and alternative spaces. She was trained in traditional flamenco dance in Seville, Spain from 2000-2005 before moving to Berlin, where she is currently based. Since 2017 she has focused on creating interactive spaces, curating the durational role play performance at the Berlin Xplore Festival and offering immersive workshops in both on- and offline contexts.
Photo: Andrea Lei
DANIELA REINA TÉLLEZ
(she/no pronoun – Bremen) is a brown body of culture; she is an experimental artist, dancer, sacred activist, and somatic sexual learning guide.
Photo: Evert Smit
Filippa Frick
(Zurich) is a physical therapist trained in various massage techniques, such as Lomi Lomi, Thai massage, and medical massage. For over ten years, she has been exploring the diverse forms of touch and their nuances. Most recently, she completed training as a holistic bodyworker.
NATHALIE DREIER
(Zurich) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Zurich. Her work incorporates photography, sound, performance, body installations, video, and text. Interested in the topics of identity, group dynamics, intimacy, incorporeality, and sexuality, she draws inspiration from all facets of these themes. Her current work explores the human body and the psychosomatic experience as both subject and medium.
REBECCA FRANCES
(Berlin) Rebecca is a writer, bodyworker, and workshop and breathwork facilitator. She earned a degree in languages from Cambridge University and draws on her interest in the various forms of communication and the power of language—both to shape and to limit experience—as inspiration for her experimental physical practices. As a massage therapist based in Berlin, she explores hands-on philosophical and poetic approaches to the body. Her sessions combine massage, breathwork, and hypnotic meditations. Group sessions focus on individual agency, finding comfort in challenges, and undogmatic experimentation.
ROPU NAWA
(Basel) RopuNawa first encountered Shibari/Kinbaku in 2008 during a performance in Australia. This experience followed him all the way to Switzerland, where he began his journey with rope. He laid the foundation for his bondage art at that time based on the style of Osada Steve, which was taught in Switzerland. However, he did not limit himself to this one style, but drew inspiration from many other teachers.
>> More about RopuNawa
Photo: Anaïs Stein
ABCDE FLASH
(she/her – Basel) is an exploratory, conceptual artist whose work focuses on challenging her own mental and physical boundaries and barriers. She addresses and defies her own limitations through conscious and reflective play with partners, and she uses various media as a way to both document and give shape to these intimate encounters. Whether through film, still images, or text, abcde Flash candidly shares her processes of navigating different sexual curiosities with equal parts vulnerability, authenticity, and humor.
DAVID BLOOM
(Berlin / Zurich) is a choreographer, dancer, teacher, father, filmmaker, pianist, bodyworker, Jewish mystic, and tea collector. He graduated from the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Frankfurt and holds an M.A. For the past decade or so, his work has revolved around questions of desire, intimacy, boundaries, power relationships, consent, and group dynamics. Other interests include cross-pollination, pleasure, space, cellular structures, the digestive system, fermentation, sourdough, beauty, breath, time, spirit, time, and transformation.
JANNA SCHNEEWITTA REHBEIN
(Zurich / Hamburg) Janna, a certified art therapist and holder of a Master of Art in Context degree, supports people during life transitions and sabbaticals, guides them through the grieving process, and, above all, creates spaces for communal grieving in various formats, such as multi-day memorial fires and mourning rituals. For her, the grieving process is a profound path to joy and vitality and follows a natural intelligence.
SAARA REI
(Berlin) is a workshop facilitator and performance artist with a background in music, dance, education, and public speaking. Saara’s work generally centers on exploring suffering, both physical and emotional. With a Ph.D. in mathematics, Saara’s academic background adds an intellectual dimension that complements their performative approach to bodywork. Playfulness and humor are central to Saara’s personality and outlook on life, giving their workshops a very engaging and lighthearted atmosphere, even when addressing some of the most challenging topics.
SWAN
(Ibiza) works in the fields of artistic direction, performance, research, and coaching, and specializes in expanded states of consciousness. Swan earned a Ph.D. in philosophy and divinity from the University of Cambridge, trained at the Jacques Lecoq School of Physical Theater, and has received certifications in yoga, tantra, and pranayama. Swan has been guiding and leading individuals and groups for more than 10 years, has curated events in 13 countries across three continents, and founded the Institute of Devotional Arts.
CLAUDIA LÖWEN
(Berlin) has been enthusiastically exploring the connections and possibilities between body and mind, touch and relationships, freedom and connectedness since childhood.
Having grown up around horses and their subtle nonverbal communication, as well as with belly dancing in a culturally diverse home, life has repeatedly shown her the central importance of the body and its sensations for our personal development. She has studied various massage rituals and their philosophical and spiritual foundations in depth.
She loves connecting with others, entering trance-like states and experiencing the limits of consciousness; she loves to play and to dream while wide awake. In particular, her years of engagement—or rather, deep immersion—with Tantra, BDSM, Shiatsu, and Lomi Lomi massage, as well as her diverse experiences at the Schwelle7 Berlin, form the foundation of her current profession as a creator of sensual massage rituals and a facilitator in seminars.
FELIX RUCKERT
(Berlin) is a dancer, choreographer, conceptual artist, and curator. Between 1993 and 2008, he created more than 30 full-length performances for his Berlin-based company, some of which toured worldwide. He has had a profound influence on the performing arts by extending the stage to the audience’s physical bodies and giving them an active role in his performances. Over the past twenty years, he has become known for his practical and theoretical exploration of BDSM and his research into the connections between BDSM techniques and artistic practices, through which he has developed an art of touch and a philosophy of sensual communication.
NICOLAS YOROÏ
(Brussels) has been practicing rope bondage for more than 20 years. His work is based on his study of Japanese kinbaku/shibari as well as various physical practices: aikido, Thai massage, contact improvisation, System A, etc. He lived in Japan for four years, where he met his master, Arisue Go, and devoted himself to aikido and the study of rope bondage. He also studied with Kinoko, Ottonawa, Kazami Ranki, Felix Rucker, Shadow, Pedro, and many others. Nicolas’s style is generally described as minimalist and organic in its movement.
SAKO
(Berlin) (no pronouns) is a somatic practitioner, artist, and event organizer in the field of care and intimacy, as well as an alternative practitioner specializing in acupuncture and bodywork. Their creative and practice spaces are OMA OM in Rixdorf and IKSK, the Institute for Body Research and Sexual Culture at Holzmarkt.
Photo: Maxi Hirthe
SHARKA REY
(Basel) is a Czech-born, Basel-based conscious sexuality educator, bodyworker, yoga teacher, performer, and organizer of international retreats and workshops with experience in and a passion for body mechanics, movement, dance, contact improvisation, theater improvisation, and martial arts.
TAMANDUA
(Berlin) is a full-time professional kinbaku artist and instructor who is invited internationally to share his approach to Japanese rope bondage.
“I have a passionately sadistic streak and a deep love for the aesthetic realm of kinbaku. For me, the essence of kinbaku lies in the intersection of aesthetic expression and the emotional or erotic intent behind the practice. And the more one’s tying skills develop, the more seamlessly these elements can blend together.”