From 2 December 2021 to 2 January 2022, the exhibition in Brussels ‘In The Mood For Love‘ gender, (homo)sexuality, intimacy, consent and love between men. Artist and entrepreneur Jaouad Alloul wants to open up minds regarding male (homo)sexuality.
“Mainstream images regarding male love and / or affection are very aggressive”, Jaouad says in an interview in Gazet van Antwerpen and Het Nieuwsblad. “Men don’t hug, they tap each others shoulder. Men are showed being rough. There’s no room for intimacy.”
A theme choreographer Koen De Preter explored in the dance production ‘Tender Men‘ in 2020.
“Everyone needs love in form or another”, Jaouad says on the exhibition website. “The taboo surrounding sex, especially among men, is still very large. With ‘In The Mood For Love’, I want to give people the opportunity to see their sexuality as a playing field that expands every day.”
Several artists
The exhibition space is a house at Sainctelettesquare 17 in Brussels. It’s the huisvandeMens Brussel, home of Vrijzinnig Brussel, the Flemish Free Thinking Organisation. The liberal movement in the sense of atheism.
Every room will exhibit works by one or other artist. Saskia van den Boom from Amsterdam photographed non-standard gay relationships such as couples with an age difference or thrupples.
“With all due respect for Jani Kazaltzis and James Cooke, but media in Flanders only show one type of gay, while there’s diversity within diversity”, Jaouad says in the newspapers.
Indeed, Flemish television only shows heteronormative gay men: in a monogamous relationship, preferably with a (foster) child or a child wish and dressed conventionally.
Other featured artists include Fullmano who paints bearded men with make-up or the stained glass works by Sander Cornelis. There is also photography by Zheng Chi of China and Leuven, of Tale of Men.
Workshops
Besides the artworks, there are also many sex-related workshops. On Japanese bondage, on PrEP, on chemsex, on queer sex education, on safety and consent, on open relationships and on prevention.
These workshops are given with the help of Sensoa.
With the exhibition Jaouad and his fiancé Jeroen want to support Boysproject, an Antwerp NGO working with cis and trans men who have sex with men for money (M$M). Sex workers.
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