Erotic Utopia: SHE’S ON FIRE is a curatorial experiment exploring the Intersection of Visual Art, Pornography and Eroticism through the artworks of Jessica Ekström (SWE), curated by Viola Dóra Lenkey (HU), with creative support from Gustaf Gideon (SWE) and NSFW.
The project explores the tension between intimacy and public display, questioning how pornography and erotica shape our perception of the body across regional, racial, and gendered identities. It confronts the paradox of cultural heat – where eroticism is erased from cultural discourse, yet hypersexualized representations saturate pornography, film, social media, and everyday life.
The trending aesthetics of pornography – and the erotic gaze – are the conceptual entry points for this research. Our question is: Can we reclaim the erotic?
Through curatorial inquiry and artistic collaboration, we explore how these social structures shape our relationship to our own bodies and influence their representation in visual art. We’ve merged our ideas into a shared exploration of power, eroticism, and self-representation – creating a space where pornography and erotica collide, revealing their cultural, aesthetic, and political stakes.
Rather than simply presenting erotic imagery, Erotic Utopia: SHE’S ON FIRE reclaims, redefines, and radicalizes its presence in contemporary visual culture. By confronting the heat of desire and representation, we seek to reframe the erotic as a site of empowerment – not objectification.
We invite you to imagine an erotic utopia with us.
Welcome!
Jessica Ekström, Viola Dóra Lenkey & NSFW
Jessica Ekström (b. 1995) is a visual artist based in Gothenburg, Sweden. She holds a master’s degree in Fine Art Photography from HDK-Valand, University of Gothenburg (2018-2023), and has exhibited in numerous solo and group shows in Sweden and Denmark. With photography as method and artistic approach, Ekström uses her body and the self-portrait as an entry to question the gaze and its impact upon female representation. In her practice, she tends to proceed from herself as the character of a “woman”; the “woman” is a masquerade created by others, for others. ABOUT THE CURATOR Viola Dóra Lenkey (b. 1998) is a curator from Budapest, earned her master’s degree in Contemporary Art Theory and Curatorial Studies from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts (2024). During her studies, she initiated an ongoing research project examining the evolution of female body representation in visual arts. Her focus lies in photography and performance art, particularly in the context of self-representation. Through her research, she explores whether self-representation can counteract exploitation and reduce social discrimination against marginalized bodies. |