BEATE ABSALON

Would you like to do something together? Get (back) closer to each other, nurture your bond, break out of stuck routines, or have fun that can be meaningful? In everyday life, we often lack the leisure and ideas to do so. Don't despair! We have put together two well-thought-out days in which we will explore what it means to be in a relationship in a playful and embodied way.

We usually tend to squeeze relaxing activities into our free time. We schedule yoga, drive to the sauna, force ourselves to read a book or meditate. Yet we still feel stressed. Perhaps the important thing is to do nothing. Let's get drunk on relaxation.

Are you dissatisfied with your sex? Perfect! Because problems* can be a blessing and show you valuable things - if only you finally stop wanting them to go away! If we listen to them, magic happens. In this workshop, our problems turn into our muses. They inspire us to live intimacy differently: more coherently, more connected, more freely. A weekend for individuals, couples, polycouples or friends (plus). This way, for a love life that goes far beyond sex :)

We usually tend to squeeze relaxing activities into our free time. We schedule yoga, drive to the sauna, force ourselves to read a book or meditate. Yet we still feel stressed. Perhaps the important thing is to do nothing. Let's get drunk on relaxation.

Do you need a break from sex? Do you feel lustless, bored, frustrated? Are you (wondering if you are) asexual? Or is it just not worth the bother? Abstinence could be like fasting or detoxing or like going on strike. Or like coming home. Or it could be incredibly hot to resist temptation. Whatever the angle - could there be abundance in abstinence?

An evening for tantric practitioners exploring the joy, the juice, and the sometimes itchy truths of this profession.

What about this practice, which is usually considered "real" sex? Do you like it or not - or does it matter? Let's go inside! And find out what "penetration" and "receiving" can mean beyond "penis in vagina", because there is a wide field of overlooked pleasures! Especially as the other person is not only passively penetrated - they are actively embraced, held, circled, bagged,...! We only talk about it far too rarely.
It gets physical, emotional, playful. With and without touching, with or without genitals, always in consensus. Humor, curiosity and deceleration create space in which new forms of connection can be experienced.

Do you need a break from sex? Do you feel lustless, bored, frustrated? Are you (wondering if you are) asexual? Or is it just not worth the bother? Abstinence could be like fasting or detoxing or like going on strike. Or like coming home. Or it could be incredibly hot to resist temptation. Whatever the angle - could there be abundance in abstinence?

A retreat, in the mountains, with massage and movement and breathwork and theater and discussion - inspiration for the soft, squidgy, sexy bodywork encounters. Using tantra massage as a springboard into the clumsy, complex world of human relations, we welcome you to TWAPOS.

We usually tend to squeeze relaxing activities into our free time. We schedule yoga, drive to the sauna, force ourselves to read a book or meditate. Yet we still feel stressed. Perhaps the important thing is to do nothing. Let's get drunk on relaxation.

Maybe you're curious to see what happens if you take a break from sex. Maybe you feel fed up with sex - lustless, bored, frustrated? Maybe you (wonder if you) are asexual? Or is it just not worth the bother? Abstinence could be like fasting. Or like going on strike. Or like coming home. Or it could be incredibly hot to resist temptation. Whatever the angle - there is abundance in abstinence.

When was the last time someone really gave attention to your mouth... in a massage? Somatically, the mouth and face are full of nerve endings and sensitivities. Socially the face is highly charged. We communicate with it, we try to control it, some cover it in makeup and/or stylized facial hair. And our mouth is this fascinating gateway to our insides, a deliciously wet cave with...

When was the last time someone really gave attention to your mouth... in a massage? Somatically, the mouth and face are full of nerve endings and sensitivities. Socially the face is highly charged. We communicate with it, we try to control it, some cover it in makeup and/or stylized facial hair. And our mouth is this fascinating gateway to our insides, a deliciously wet cave with...

"A festival with unrestrained debauchery", says the Duden, "nocturnal Bacchus celebration; sacred act; mystical service; cultic secret meeting at night", says the etymology, "debauchery, revelry, licentiousness; (elevated) excess, excessiveness", says the synonym dictionary, "communal acts that deliberately violate morals", says the Wikipedia entry. An orgy! So legendary and yet so simply beautiful, or also quite crude. In any case, our cultural unconscious is full of nebulous ideas about what an orgy can be. Not for nothing is it on the bucket list for many. Wait no longer! Our three-day...

It's getting cozy at Juicy! We are delighted that Beate Absalon will be visiting the Juicy sex store to read from her book "Not giving a fuck. Von lustlosem Sex und sexloser Lust" and invites you to a conversation.

The cultural scientist and workshop leader Beate Absalon reads from her book "Not giving a f*ck" and invites you to talk openly about sex and our difficulties with it in a relaxed atmosphere.

A benevolent discussion group to talk about discomfort, to ask difficult and seemingly forbidden questions, to breathe a sigh of relief because you are not alone and are not simply broken, uptight or otherwise wrong. It will go beautifully wrong.

"A festival with unrestrained debauchery", says the Duden, "nocturnal Bacchus celebration; sacred act; mystical service; cultic secret meeting at night", says the etymology, "debauchery, revelry, licentiousness; (elevated) excess, excessiveness", says the synonym dictionary, "communal acts that deliberately violate morals", says the Wikipedia entry. An orgy! So legendary and yet so simply beautiful, or also quite crude. In any case, our cultural unconscious is full of nebulous ideas about what an orgy can be. Not for nothing is it on the bucket list for many. Wait no longer! Our three-day...

Intimacy with many - a luxurious abundance of bodies, looks, touches - ecstatic loss of self - an orgy... Anyone who has ventured into such a situation knows how varied and unpredictable such an experience can be. If it's not always easy with just two people, how can it succeed with more? What wishes and needs, hopes and expectations do I bring with me, how do I deal with them? And how do I deal with those of the others - and with all the bodies?

In her search for de-stressing, Beate Absalon takes a culturally and historically informed look at the secluded but only supposed opposite side of sexuality: Unlust, asexuality, celibacy and dysfunction, which gleefully refuse to obey the sexual duty of service and open up unheard-of scope. Beata reads from her book and we talk about what we have heard from her.

Bodies...what can they do? Bring your body to us and we will find out. Using tantra massage as a springboard into the clumsy, complex world of human relations, we help you expand your carnal knowledge. This intense form of intimacy, a massage technique performed and received in the nude, contains so much human potential. This luxurious act gives democratic attention to all body parts, allowing space for whatever wants to come up. With care and attention, we guide you through movement and meditative mornings which bring you into closer contact with yourself. From there, with humility and humor, we ask the question: is today's erogenous zone your eyelashes or your ears, your feet or your asshole? Do you need a break or a debate, a hug or a slap in the face?  

We are delighted that Beata will be presenting and reading from her book NOT GIVING A FUCK at the QueerBooks bookstore in Bern! But above all, we want to chat with you - after all, the topic is based on our many personal experiences of sexual pressure to perform and erotic attempts at pleasurable refusal of duty.

Touch & Play is a sexpositive and BDSM-friendly Contact Improvisation Festival in Bavaria, Germany. On this years topic: Authenticity is a confusing labyrinth. What seems shallow at first may reveal profound truths, while the seemingly genuine can turn out to be a mere facade. So is the unperformed always already performed? What does it mean to "fake it until you make it"? And if all the world's a stage - how to enjoy the show without falling into the traps of harmful illusions? When am I really myself? What do you truly desire? How can we connect on a deeper level?

Bodies and sex are unruly. Don't always do what is asked of them. Become flaccid. Don't feel like it. Shut down. Too. Nope. No thanks! Fuck you - you can have me! That's what we're trying to do on this evening, when we view so-called "dysfunctions" as pleasurable improprieties. As clever refusals of sexual duties. Beate Absalon and Eva Hanson will guide us through this evening, in which we can let our hair down. In an atmosphere of cozy laziness, they will read from Beate's debut non-fiction book "Not giving a fuck. On listless sex and sexless lust" and Eva's response "In praise of the flaccid penis"...

The bookshop LITERATURENSOHN not only has an ingenious name. Its owner, Coco, is fulfilling her dream of only selling books that she has read herself and appreciates so much that she can wholeheartedly recommend them to others. You enter the store like a carefully curated Pinterest board of exquisite queer-feminist literature. It's a great honor that NOT GIVING A F*CK is not only sold here, but also invited to a reading with an intimate conversation and refreshments.

Intimacy with many - a luxurious abundance of bodies, looks, touches - ecstatic loss of self - an orgy... Anyone who has ventured into such a situation knows how varied and unpredictable such an experience can be. If it's not always easy with just two people, how can it succeed with more? What wishes and needs, hopes and expectations do I bring with me, how do I deal with them? And how do I deal with those of the others - and with all the bodies?

The Berlin cultural scientist BEATE ABSALON has been a guest in Zurich for several years with workshops under the label LUHMEN D'ARC. She published her first book in May and is now taking the opportunity to combine practice and theory: after a weekend with the (AN)OTHER ORGY workshop, she is presenting her debut work at GLEIS with a reading and discussion with the audience.

"A festival with unrestrained debauchery", says the Duden, "nocturnal Bacchus celebration; sacred act; mystical service; cultic secret meeting at night", says the etymology, "debauchery, revelry, licentiousness; (elevated) excess, excessiveness", says the synonym dictionary, "communal acts that deliberately violate morals", says the Wikipedia entry. An orgy! So legendary and yet so simply beautiful, or also quite crude. In any case, our cultural unconscious is full of nebulous ideas about what an orgy can be. Not for nothing is it on the bucket list for many. Wait no longer! Our three-day...

Stranded on a lonely island a bunch of horny people are prohibited to make out and therefore glimpse into desire's intriguing ways. They not only get miraculously more turned on, but are also challenged with their subconscious patterns. Inspired by the infamous Netflix show of the same title, this intensive will care-, nerdy- and playfully explore its arousing balancing acts between: a) teasing with denied fulfillment b) doing what one shouldn't be doing c) overcoming the previously ambiguous.