Founded in 1968 by Steve Orlow, it comprised of a dancefloor, a cabaret lounge, sauna rooms, steam rooms, a roman swimming pool, an upscale restaurant, a hair salon, 400 individual rooms, two large orgy rooms, and an STD clinic. The de-sexualization of disco and house music and their mutations into the official anthem of ‘happy globalization’ have obscured their origins, which were notably embodied by the Continental Baths in the basement of The Ansonia Hotel in New York City. Has New York become the puritan heaven described by some? While the Venetian version of the project connected minimal art with BDSM and architecture, this chapter is rooted in the libidinal history of club culture. From this intricate and changing relationship between cruising, sexuality and space, Cruising Pavilion, Venice investigated the different directions in which cruising practices have evolved.Ĭruising Pavilion, New York looks at the city’s conflictual architectures of cruising, both lost, living and potential. ‘Cruising’ usually describes the quest for sexual encounters between homosexual men in public or dedicated spaces, but it cannot be reduced to either men or gays. The exhibition presented different understandings of cruising by looking at the various spaces and architectures that are either appropriated, like public sites, or designed, like sex clubs and dating apps. The first chapter of Cruising Pavilion opened in parallel to the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. In this third and final edition, Cruising Pavilion focuses on the intersection of sexuality and the architecture of the city. 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. Cruising is at once revealed as a resistance, an avant-garde and a vernacular, with an active relevance in and beyond LGBTQ+ circles.Ĭruising Pavilion at ArkDes is the culmination of two years of research. The exhibition presents cruising as the producer of a non-hetero architecture that closely mirrors the patriarchal nature of the built environment. Geospatial technologies have generated a psychosexual geography that spreads across digitally-connected homes and profiles.
The combination of digital hook-up apps, urban development, and the commodification of LGBTQ+ (Lesbian, Gay, Transgender, Bisexual and Queer +) cultures means that traditional cruising grounds are continually adapting.
Presenting the many facets of cruising culture through the work of international architects, designers and artists, Cruising Pavilion explores a sexual and spatial practice that spans historical and contemporary culture.