Participation from the 3rd of September till the 30th of September 2014
“In every region, sex work is closely related to the regional sexual norms and therefore I wanted to know about the sexual education and gender view in Amsterdam”
Maki Miyakai
Maki Miyakai is a performance artist from Kyoto, whose work is aimed at supporting sexual minorities and HIV patients. In Japan she participated in a movement that was working towards sex worker’s labour safety improvement and their health improvement. Towards her, the idea of Amsterdam’s red light district was very interested and she wanted to talk closer to the people that involved and working in this scene. To her even just the outline seemed quite different than that of Japan. She had the following to say about her experience in Amsterdam: “It made it all seem very simple for me; the person that I am, that many people look after one another and to cherish looking at the person in front of you and to listen to them”.
She gave a performance in the red-light district of Amsterdam in which she interacted with the public through certain objects and movements. Her performance was enacted with the intention of shocking people into thinking about sexuality.
Miyakai also organized meetings to hear stories from the Dutch and their opinions about sexuality and learned about the rights and situations of sex workers. It was interesting for her and us, to talk about sexual discrimination and the relation to sex education with other nationalities and the differing situations per country.
“Her fragile figure combined with a strong personality and erotic theme, came at its distressing sensibility during the performance in the red light district in Amsterdam.”
Hannie van den Bergh, artist, designer and curator of Deshima AIR
