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Exhibitions / Cruising Pavilion: Architecture, Gay Sex and Cruising Culture

Cruising Pavilion

Photo: Johan Dehlin. 2019.
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Skeppsholmen, Stockholm

Cruising Pavilion: Architecture, Gay Sex and Cruising Culture

Architecture Boxen Contemporary Public Space

Cruising describes the quest for sex by homosexual men in public spaces. It is an urban pursuit taking place in parks, public toilets and car parks, as well as in dedicated establishments such as sex clubs and bathhouses. But cruising cannot be reduced to neither men nor gays, nor to any definite location. The historical model of cruising is evolving.

Presenting the many facets of cruising culture through the work of international architects, designers and artists, Cruising Pavilion: Architecture, Gay Sex and Cruising Culture explores a sexual and spatial practice that spans historical and contemporary culture. The combination of digital hook-up apps, urban development, and the commodification of LGTBQ+ cultures means that traditional cruising grounds are continually adapting. Geospatial technologies have generated a psychosexual geography that spreads across digitally-connected homes and profiles.

The exhibition presents cruising as the producer of a non-hetero architecture that closely mirrors the patriarchal nature of the built environment. Cruising is at once revealed as a resistance, an avant-garde and a vernacular, with an active relevance in and beyond LGTBQ+ circles.

  • Cruising Labyrinth (2016) by Andreas Angelidakis. Open source.

Participants

Andreas Angelidakis, Monica Bonvicini, Tom Burr, Shu Lea Cheang, Victoria Colmegna, Earl Combs + Steve Ostrow, Etienne Descloux, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, DYKE_ON, Pol Esteve + Marc Navarro, General Idea, Robert Getso, Horace Gifford, Sidsel Meineche Hansen, Nguyen Tan Hoang, Andrés Jaque (Office for Political Innovation), Studio Karhard, Ann Krsul + Amy Cappellazzo + Alexis Roworth + Sarah Drake, John Lindell, Henrik Olesen, Puppies Puppies (Jade Kuriki Olivo), Hannah Quinlan + Rosie Hastings, Carlos Reyes, Prem Sahib, Jaanus Samma, S H U I (Jon Wang + Sean Roland), Max Sohl + Paul Morris, Charles Terrell + Bruce Mailman, Tommy Ting, Madelon Vriesendorp, Steven Warwick, Robert Yang, Trevor Yeung

Photo: Johan Dehlin. 2019. Cruising Labyrinth by Andreas Angelidakis. 2016.

Cruising is not obsolete. Public sex remains a laboratory for political futures and spaces and is central to understanding new ways of thinking, living, loving, meeting, and belonging.

Photo: Johan Dehlin. 2019.
Cruising Labyrinth (2016) by Andreas Angelidakis. Open source.
From the 'NYC Go Go (Postcard from the Edge)' series (2014) by Robert Getso. Courtesy of Timothy Landers.
Still from '“AAFAGC”, Applied Art for a Gay Club' (2011) by Jaanus Samma and Alo Paistik. Courtesy of the artists. Still from '“AAFAGC”, Applied Art for a Gay Club' (2011) by Jaanus Samma and Alo Paistik. Courtesy of the artists.
'Blueprints of The Saint (invitation to the first event)' (1980) by Charles Terrell and Bruce Mailman. Courtesy of The Saint Foundation Archives.
'Reproduction of Flagrant Délit' (1975) by Madelon Vriesendorp. Courtesy of the artist.
'Social Sculpture 9, Butt Shelf' (1998/2019) by John Lindell. Courtesy of the artist.
From 'Lesbian Xanadu (Updated Version)' series (2019) by Ann Krsul + Alexis Roworth. Courtesy of the artists.
'Boiler Club Extension' (2015) by Studio Karhard. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Stefan Wolf Lucks.

Cinema Queer: Cruising Through Time

Since the dawn of time, queers have hooked up for sex in all corners of society: in parks, alleys, on beaches and toilets, in clubs and in basements. With two short film programmes Cinema Queer makes space for some of these stories – some true, and some fiction. From Toilets to Tablets: Cruising Through Time presents the raunchy, the tender, the political, the naked, the power and the resistance inherent in cruising.

Cruising as an Act of Resistance was a conversation between Lina Bembe, Max Disgrace, Johnnie Ray Kornegay III, Jon Voss, moderated by Nicklas Dennermalm. This event took place on September 27, 2019.

  • Photo: Klaudia Rychlik. 2019. Screenings of 'The Sweet Sense of Desire' and 'In the Darkest of Alleys'.
Photo: Johan Dehlin. 2019.

Curatorial note

Homosexuality and other non-normative identities have a conflictual relationship with modern and contemporary architecture. Buildings designed by architects—whether they are houses, prisons, hospitals, factories, bathhouses, and so on—organise interactions between bodies in spaces according to normalised notions of productivity, sociability, and individuality. For these reasons, this history has made made gay sex a target for control.

In many ways, ‘queerness’ is anti-architectural: as a concept, ‘queerness’ resists form; as a practice, ‘queerness’ is labelled deviant and therefore systematically excluded from mainstream architecture discourse. Today, public parks continue to be altered to make their bushes less suited to cruising culture; gaybars1 are pushed into what might be considered undesirable neighbourhoods; private houses are still designed for heterosexual couples with children.

To talk about the architecture of cruising is, therefore, a complex proposition. On one hand, discussion around this theme contributes to the understanding of non-normative spaces. It could be argued that labyrinths, darkrooms, and their spatial devices (such as gloryholes) could be the basis for future architectural intelligence. On the other hand, however, the very act of presenting cruising in a national museum of architecture and design, and in so doing risking its institutionalisation, is contradictory to the essence of cruising. Without repression, without hiding, this sexual subculture would probably not have developed design tactics that are governed by concealment and subversion. In one way, even the exhibition of the ‘unexhibitable’ in a public institution could be considered dangerous for the culture of cruising. As BOXEN is a white cube, The Darkroom2 intentionally contrasts the white cube both literally and politically.

Nevertheless, it is important to search for connections between LGTBQ+ culture and architecture. As the B-side of the modern city, cruising is a thermometer for metropolitan health. Art and theory have paved the way for architecture to appropriate the topic and infuse design with a much needed sensibility. Cruising Pavilion seeks to open a crack, to bridge a gap in a historical narrative that will need a great deal of collective input to counter the forces of erasure that it has been subject to.

  1. 1

    To cruise is to search for like-minded people. Although it is possible to cruise practically anywhere, there are specific environments in which encounters are more likely to take place such as clubs, bars, bathhouses, and bookstores. Although such places cannot be reduced to a single type of architecture, they often feature rooms for socialising (i.e. a lounge or a bar). They can openly advertise as gay or queer venues, and they can also blend into the background of the city as places known only to members of a specific community.

  2. 2

    The spatial layout of designed darkrooms, as well as their materiality, atmosphere and ornaments, have their origins in public spaces. Although in almost every case no architect or designer is formally behind their design, the darkroom, charged by the potential of sexual interaction without the need to undress, is a common architectural feature of gay venues across the world.

The exhibition contains explicit works depicting sex and is not recommended for people under the age of 15.

Photo: Johan Dehlin. 2019.

About the project

Cruising Pavilion at ArkDes is the culmination of two years of research by the curatorial collective Cruising Pavilion. Previous exhibitions of the project in Venice, Italy (Spazio Punch), and New York City, USA (Ludlow38), have explored the different directions by which cruising practices have evolved. In this third and final exhibition, the project focuses on the intersection of sexuality and the architecture of the city.

Boxen at ArkDes

Boxen ↗ was a platform for fast-changing, experimental projects at ArkDes. It provided space for alternative voices to inspire discussions about architecture, design, and their relationship to society by promoting radical and responsive installations, exhibitions, events and dialogues by and between architects, designers, and thinkers. Designed by the emerging architecture studio Dehlin Brattgård ↗, Boxen opened in 2018 and was dismantled in 2023. All materials have been reused in the 2024 redesign of the museum’s spaces, designed by Arrhov Frick ↗.

The following titles can be found in the library at ArkDes:

Berlant, Lauren Gail., Warner, Michael (1998). Sex in Public. Literary Theory: An Anthology. S. 1034-1049

Bronson, A. A. & Hobbs, Peter (2011). Queer Spirits. 1st Ed. New York: Creative Time

Bullock, Michael (2012). Roman Catholic Jacuzzi. Karma

Burg, B. R. (1995). Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition: English Sea Rovers in the Seventeenth-Century Caribbean. Rev. ed. of: Sodomy and the Perception of Evil (1983) New York: New York University Press

Burr, Tom (2015). Tom Burr: Anthology: Writings 1991- 2015. Reims: FRAC Champagne-Ardenne

Chauncey, George (2019). Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940. Second trade paperback edition. New York: Basic Books

Colomina, Beatriz., Bloomer, Jennifer (Ed.) (1992). Sexuality & Space. New York: Princeton Architectural Press

Dean, Tim (2009). Unlimited Intimacy: Reflections on the Subculture of Barebacking. University of Chicago Press

Edelman, Lee (2004). No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive. Durham: Duke University Press

Eribon, Didier (2013). Returning to Reims. Los Angeles, California: Semiotext

Fritscher, Jack., Hemry, Mark (2007). Gay San Francisco: Eyewitness Drummer : A memoir of the sex, art, salon, pop culture war, and gay history of Drummer magazine, The Titanic 1970s to 1999. San Francisco: Palm Drive Pub

Hastings, Rosie., Quinlan, Hannah (2017). UK Gay Bar Directory. London: Arcadia Missa

Higgs, David (Ed.) (1999). Queer Sites: Gay Urban Histories Since 1600. London: Routledge

Hilton, Johan (2006). No Tears for Queers: Ett reportage om män, bögar och hatbrott. [Ny utg.] Stockholm: Atlas

Hocquenghem, Guy (1993). Homosexual Desire. Durham: Duke University Press

Hocquenghem, Guy (1980). Le gay voyage: guide et regard homosexuels sur les grandes métropoles. Paris: A. Michel

Hocquenghem, Guy (2010 [1973]). The Screwball Asses. Los Angeles, CA: Semiotext

Humphreys, Laud (1975). Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places [New ed.]. Chicago: Aldine

Ingram, Gordon Brent., Bouthillette, Anne-Marie., Retter, Yolanda (Ed.) (1997). Queers in Space: Communities, Public Spaces, Sites of Resistance. Seattle: Bay Press

Jones, Angela (Ed.) (2013). A Critical Inquiry into Queer Utopias. New York: Palgrave Macmillan

Kries, Mateo., Eisenbrand, Jochen., Rossi, Catharine (Ed.) (2018). Night Fever: Designing Club Culture 1960-Today. Weil am Rhein: Vitra Design Museum

Löfström, Jan (Ed.) (1998). Scandinavian Homosexualities: Essays on Gay and Lesbian Studies. New York, N.Y.: Haworth Press

Massey, Doreen (1994). Space, Place and Gender. Oxford: Polity Press

Muñoz, José Esteban (2009). Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity. New York: New York University Press

Nguyen, Tan Hoang (2014). A View From the Bottom: Asian American Masculinity and Sexual Representation. Durham: Duke University Press

Preciado, Beatriz (2014). Pornotopia: An Essay on Playboy’s Architecture and Biopolitics. New York: Zone Books

Preciado, Beatriz (2013). Testo Junkie: Sex, Drugs and Biopolitics in the Pharmacopornographic Era.

Rawlins, Christopher Bascom (2013). Fire Island Modernist: Horace Gifford and the Architecture of Seduction. New York, NY: Metropolis Books

Ricco, John Paul (2002). The Logic of the Lure. Chicago: University of Chicago Press

Sanders, Joel (Ed.) (1996). Stud: Architectures of Masculinity. New York: Princeton Architectural Press

Schulman, Sarah (2012). The Gentrification of the Mind: Witness to a Lost Imagination. Berkeley: University of California Press

Stevens, Hugh (Ed.) (2011). The Cambridge Companion to Gay and Lesbian Writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Teyssier, Paul (2010). Maisons closes parisiennes: architectures immorales des années 1930. Paris: Parigramme

Vidler, Anthony (1987). Asylums of Libertinage: De Sade, Fourier, Lequeu. The Writing of the Walls: Architectural Theory in the Late Enlightenment.

West Side Club (2018), conceived by Carlos Reyes for Cruising Pavilion and designed by Dinamo ​with Laurence Favez, is an open source typeface connected to this exhibition.

With support from Institut Français de Suède and thanks to Sexperterna, RFSL Stockholm.

Thanks to: Alfred Agostinelli, Khalid al Gharaballi, Faris Al-Shatir, Martin Béthenod, Michael Bullock, Felix Burrichter, Paul Clinton, Taylor Cornelson, Marion Dana, Blanche de Lestrange, Louis De Belle, Phillip Denny, Kent C. Dillon, Laurent Dumas, Nhu Duong, Maud Escudié, Pol Esteve, Jennifer Flay, Johan Fraisse, Adrien Grigorescu, Corentin Hamel, Joram Harel, Jan Hietala, Lilli Hollein, Eric Hussenot, Peggy Leboeuf, Huw Lemmey, Gaëlle Lauriot- Prévost, Ingrid Luquet-Gad, Jean Makhlouta, Federico Martelli, Giorgio Mastinu, Augusto Maurandi, Thomas C. Mercier, Bruno Mokross, Luis Ortega Govela, Dominique Perrault, Marie Proffit, Adriana Ramić, Shyan Rahimi, Lili Reynaud Dewar, Brian Robinson, Lucio Serpani, Tim Smith, Artie Vierkant, Steven Warwick, Franziska Sophie Wildförster, BOFFO, Breeder Gallery, Fireflies, Glassbead, Goethe Institut (New York City), Spazio Punch

Cruising Pavilion: Pierre-Alexandre Mateos, Rasmus Myrup, Octave Perrault, Charles Teyssou
Curator at ArkDes: James Taylor-Foster

Production Assistant: Elisabet Norin
Editor (Swedish): Annie Jensen
Proofreading: Shumi Bose, Daniel Golling
Graphic Identity: Studio Reko
Light Design: El & Scenteknik AB
Installation: Markus Eberle, Stefan Mossfeldt
Production (Programming): Elisabet Schön
Installation photography: Johan Dehlin