We met on the top floor of the Hoxton hotel, in the Poblenou neighborhood, in Barcelona: 360° view, the Sagrada Familia under the last rays of sun… “Look at this city! I came to study there when I was 20, in 1997. I found it great, cosmopolitan, I never wanted to leave”exclaims the Swedish feminist porn producer and director Erika Lust, who has just left her office and arrives accompanied by her husband and partner, Pablo Dobner, who is waiting patiently for her. Order a glass of champagne.
This is not the first time we have met. To tell the truth, this aperitif began the day before, in a completely different environment, at the “House of Erika Lust”, an immersive exhibition in the production company’s art. Before we walked through the black door, we were handed a mask, the kind costume stores call a “sexy Venetian mask.” Inside, erotic scenes awaited us from floor to ceiling, Géode style, with the difference that the audience was an adult. Behind a virtual reality headset, we cleaned a steamy mirror and watched a couple having sex in the shower. Where exactly did the idea of becoming a porn film producer come from?
She laughs. It was not his career plan. In addition, he began studying political science at Lund University, in Sweden. It was there that he discovered that pornography was a subject of study. Since she was little, she has been fascinated by porn. She grew up with a “appetite to understand [s]us body and [s]“sexuality”, Sexual education in school is approached solely from the angle of danger and reproduction. Not a word about full-on movies.
It must be said that at that time, without Internet or computers, “To see it you had to look for it.” It all started with magazines and this sleepover at the house of a 13-year-old friend, who had a surprise in store for her guests: a cassette stolen from her father’s closet. “An exciting moment, but not erotic as I expected. A little disgusting and ugly”summarizes with a smile.
Curiosity and disappointment
Years later, she sees him again with the same concern. “I wondered if it was normal. Most of the women around me told me that they were curious and disappointed. While for men, gay or straight, pornography was considered a moment of pleasure. I was jealous that they were having this erotic experience for themselves. For me it was much more complicated, stigmatizing, loaded with fear, shame…”remember. Could porn be made any other way?
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