Katia Repina and Luca Aimi
I Don’t Need To Know You
“To remain being a man is not only something absurd, It is also something outdated.” Jordi Roca, 2012
This collaborative project by photographers Katia Repina and Luca Aimi explores cruisi ng in Cataluña, Spain. This process of searching for sexual encounters in public places such as parks, beaches and parking lots, has traditionally been viewed in the context of male homo- sexuality.
I Don’t Need To Know You ventures further in an attempt to reveal and understand the complexity of motivations and feelings that drive the subjects – broadcasting a sense of loneliness, shame, guilt, exclusion, adrenaline, the narrative poses disturbing questions in search for hid- den reasons and excuses. Silence and anonymity are the main characteristics of those engaged in cruising. The practice of cruising is the direct result of a cultural system based on inequality. It responds to the need to create spaces for minorities, where they can satisfy individual desires without the need to explain and justify themselves, or spend any money. Many people who go to cruising areas, do so because they can not go anywhere else. However, there are plenty of men who take up cruising for adrenaline. Almost every participant is not proud of what he does and is scared that somebody will recognize him. Unlike other homosexual places, the practice of anonymous sex in public spaces does not generate a collective identity. Some participants, though they have sexual interactions with other men, claim that they are heterosexual, that they are not really interested in other men and are actively opposed to being identified as homosexuals. Gay men go to cruising areas, on the contrary, as they feel attracted to other men. Sexually transmitted diseases is another important issue to consider when we talk about sex between strangers. Cruising is associated with unsafe sex, as many men who practice it determine the state of health of their partners from appearances. This usually means that more attractive people are blindly perceived as healthy. The extreme simplification of a sexual relationship is natural for some people, and rare for others. Cruising is often practiced by people who lead a “normal” life, who have a family, children, and who fulfill mere fantasies, desires, through these escapades.
The project shows a sexual practice that is unknown to many, giving a voice to people who are hiding because of fear of being recognized or misunderstood. Through watching and listening to these stories we are immersed into the atmosphere of excitement, fear, adrenaline, doubts, shame or absence of it, the silence, the secrets, the curiosity…
After all, these emotions are what makes a human being feel alive.
Bio
Katia Repina is a Russian documentary photographer and visual artist who has been based in Barcelona for the past seven years. She works on documentary projects which focus on intimate stories that spotlight the issues of gender, identity and sexuality. Born in Moscow, 1988. After graduation from State University – Higher School of Economics (Moscow), Katia decided to move to Barcelona. In Barcelona Katia studied documentary pho tography and video. In 2013 she won the GrisArt Documentary Photography and Photojournalism Grant (Barcelona), and got an Honorable Mention at 2013 IPA Awards. Her project “Llámame Marta” won CLIC’14 Fotoperiodisme Jove Multimedia‑contest, the multimedia was screened at the Festival Visa Off (Perpignan, France), the Photón Festival (Valencia, Spain), The Sixth Argentinian Biennale of Documentary Photography (San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina), Minsk Month of Photography (Minsk, Belarus) and was exhibited at DOC Field Barcelona Festival, The Fence Photoville Festival (NY, USA). Her “Bivalino” project was shown at FineArt Igualada Festival 2015 (Igualada, Spain). In 2015 Katia was selected for the Eddie Adams Workshop and for the Angkor Photo Festival Workshop. Her projects were published in PDN, Stern.de, VICE Spain, P3 Publico Portugal, Women in the World (In association with The New York Times), The Huffington Post, The Post Internazionale, Daily Mail, Feature Shoot, Narratively, Roads & Kingdoms, Catraca Livre (Brasil), La Lettre de la Photographie, GUP Magazine, etc.
Luca Aimi is an Italian documentary photographer currently based in Barcelona. His work has been shown in different spaces, like FotoColectania gallery (Barcelona), at the Catalunya área during the Biennale di Venezia. His project “The Walter Benjamin Zone” was exposed in J.E.E.P. (Paris), and during the photography festival Fine Igualada 2015.
An interesting cultural phenomenon prevalent certainly in most of the west, and most probably more globally too.
Also an informative statement that describes The practice and The Aims of the essay well.
So its a shame that the images themselves( which is after all our concern here) are relatively weak compared to this other information. They work perfectly well as direct visual information and as a structure and support for understanding the written information, but shouldnt it be the other way around?
I wonder if there is a multimedia piece on this story as I feel it may convey the sense of events better (at least in the limited format of a WordPress magazine )
I like the idea but like John think the photos could be better.
So whats laking is the excitement and fun these guys must have.
Dear John!
I like what you wrote, it’s important to receive all kind of comments and feedback.
It’s not explained in the article but what you can see here is just a part of the project which consists of photographs, videos and interviews. I absolutely agree with you that the viewer need to feel being in the forest and searching for sex, believe me it’s super exciting. To transmit all the feelings and mood we are working now on a video installation and a short movie.
Please keep updated on my web or my Facebook page, would be great to share it with you, once it’s out.
https://www.facebook.com/katia.repina
Katia
I like the sense of mistery here; the atmosphere is very well conveyed