Esther Arribas
The act of rubbing
'This is a call to reclaim the act of rubbing, as the act of pleasure that most represents us, which many of us started practising at the age of 3 by rubbing our buttocks with those of our cousins, or didn’t you?'
This installation titled 'Dear Rubsters, Tribbers, and All Those Who Want to Sign Up' is a space to experiment with different notions of pleasure through rubbing techniques. With video, text and choreographies they produce an ever-emerging sexuality, a vital force in constant transformation. This notion of sexuality is divergent, queer, and can only exist when identities are questioned. Rubbing is not a specific action but a technology of pleasure. It is the insistent touch that recognises those who act upon their erotic potential, the chaotic capability for pleasure beyond stable identity markers. It’s rubbing like anything and everything. Rubbing to adventurously exist in touch.
Bio
Esther Arribas is an artist and movement researcher who develops installations, choreographies and writing. Their work explores queer approaches to bodies and movement patterns, questioning dominant notions of sexuality and the socius, while creating new forms of relationships. From a critical engagement with somatic awareness and embodied knowledge, Esther develops various techniques that put pleasure at the centre of knowledge production and makes it a tool for political positioning.
