documenta 14, Free Sidewak Sex Clinic

Performances of Free Sidewalk Sex Clinic at Documenta 14, in Athens, Greece & Kassel, Germany
by Annie Sprinkle & Beth Stephens
Costume Design & Styling for performers Annie Sprinkle & Beth Stephens by Christina Dinkel

Annie Sprinkle & Beth Stephens at documenta 14
Free Sidewalk Sex Clinic at documenta14

PRESS:

The New York Times
"The art in Documenta touches on themes from resistance to transgender identity. It begins with an ambitious inaugural program. On Saturday, the artist Ross Birrell is to commence “The Transit of Hermes,” in which equestrians will begin a ride from the Acropolis to Kassel. Beth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle, a self-described “ecosexual sexicologist,” are offering “Cuddling Athens,” a mattress on which they’ll hug visitors. In “Shamiyaana – Food for Thought: Thought for Change,” the British-Pakistani artist Rasheed Araeen set up a tent in an Athens square serving food. It has drawn Athenians and Syrian refugees far removed from the contemporary art world, who gather to share a meal and talk."


Greek, German presidents open art exhibition in Athens
"ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The presidents of Germany and Greece have opened an art exhibition co-hosted by the two countries.

Documenta 14, a multimedia exhibition showcasing over 160 international artists, will run in Athens and in Kassel, Germany.

Germany’s Frank-Walter Steinmeier arrived in Athens on Friday on a two-day official visit to Greece. He met President Prokopis Pavlopoulos and held talks with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras."


Ecosexuals Are Queering Environmentalism
"Kronemyer says that young people are discovering the topic through the conceptual art projects of self-described Bay Area “sexecologists” Annie Sprinkle and Elizabeth Stephens. Sprinkle, formerly a porn star and sex worker, is now a sex educator and artist who has exhibited work at the Guggenheim. Stephens is a professor of art at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who grew up in the Appalachian coal country of West Virginia.

In 2011, the two wrote an ecosex manifesto, and have since made a career of promoting ecoeroticism to the public through activism, symposia, and performance art, including ecosexual walking tours and wedding ceremonies — “We call them sequins of events,” Sprinkle says - for the dirt, sea, and other elements.

“All this wood here is very sensual,” Sprinkle gestures to the rough tables made of recycled pallets, which surround us as we chat in an outdoor cafe at documenta 14, an enormous art exhibition in Kassel, Germany."