SEX AND POLITICS Exhibition in Paris: Recap and Press
SEX AND POLITICS Exhibition in Paris: Recap and Press
Art-Icon | Bastille Design Center | Paris
November 13-16, 2025
Following the selection of my photograph Power's Afterglow for SEX AND POLITICS, the exhibition took place in Paris from November 13-16, 2025, at the Bastille Design Center during Paris Photo Week.
Presented by Art-Icon and curated by Danila Tkachenko and Slavica Veselinovic, the exhibition brought together photography and contemporary visual art examining the intersections of sexuality, desire, representation, ideology, and power.
Power's Afterglow
Power's Afterglow, 2025, depicts sparks drifting through smoke in the aftermath of an intense burst of energy. Within the context of the exhibition, the image suggested an afterglow that could be read as both political and erotic: the remnants of power after upheaval and the lingering heat of desire.
Exhibition Context
SEX AND POLITICS considered sexuality not simply as a private experience, but as a space shaped by cultural expectations, social structures, representation, and power. Bringing together an international group of artists, the exhibition examined the body as both personal territory and a site upon which broader cultural and political meanings are imposed and contested.
The exhibition included work by internationally recognized artists including Roger Ballen, Lars von Trier, Mark Seliger, Santiago Sierra, Antoine d'Agata, Nadya Tolokonnikova / Pussy Riot, Lydia Lunch, and Joel-Peter Witkin, together with a wider international group of participating artists.
Press Coverage
Vogue Adria
The exhibition was featured by Vogue Adria in Teodora Jeremic's article, "Discover the new Paris exhibition that weaves together sexuality and politics," published November 17, 2025.
The feature included a conversation with curators Slavica Veselinovic and Danila Tkachenko and examined the exhibition's central proposition: that sexuality is inseparable from questions of culture, identity, freedom, social convention, and power.
The Venue
The exhibition was held at the Bastille Design Center, a historic industrial building at 74 Boulevard Richard-Lenoir in Paris. Constructed in 1867, the building originally housed a hardware business and retains much of its nineteenth-century industrial character, including exposed structural elements, wooden floors, and a large glass roof that fills the interior with natural light.
Its preserved architecture provided a distinctive setting for SEX AND POLITICS, placing contemporary photographic and visual work within a space still marked by the material history of nineteenth-century Paris.
Installation view, SEX AND POLITICS, Bastille Design Center, Paris, 2025. Photography © Jens Lucking / Art-Icon.
Exhibition Details
Exhibition: SEX AND POLITICS
Organizer: Art-Icon
Curators: Danila Tkachenko and Slavica Veselinovic
Venue: Bastille Design Center
Location: Paris, France
Dates: November 13-16, 2025
Selected Work: Power's Afterglow
Artist: Nicol Hockett