Maintenancer

Sidsel Meineche Hansen & Therese Henningsen

2018, 13 mins, Digital video with sound

Art Sonje Center is screening Maintenancer (2018) by Sidsel Meineche Hansen & Therese Henningsen, one of the participating artists of the current exhibition, Host Modded. Over the years, Sidsel Meineche Hansen has looked at how a person’s attachment style might shape their most intimate relationship to technology. In particular, the artist has focused on robots produced for sex, sculpted dolls, and silicone sex dolls, examining their physical anatomy and technological distribution structure, and the terms and conditions of their use.

Maintenancer (2018) explores sex work and the maintenance of sex dolls in the German brothel Bordoll based on interviews with a dominatrix, founder and madame, Evelyn Schwarz, and her assistant. The film documents the initial transitions into post-human prostitution, where sex work shifts from the physical body of the sex worker onto the sex doll or robot, with the doll as an interlocutor, whose dead weight demands regular lifting, disinfection, and repair. 

Thank you to Evelyn Schwarz, dominatrix, founder and madame at Bordoll and her assistant (anonymous). 

The exhibition Host Modded is open until July 11. 

About the Artist

Sidsel Meineche Hansen lives and works in London. Her solo exhibitions include home vs owner, Rodeo, London / Piraeus (2020); LIVE LIFE WELL®, Center for Contemporary Arts, Prague (2019); Welcome to End-Used City, Chisenhale Gallery, London (2019); An Artist’s Guide to Stop Being An Artist, SMK, Copenhagen (2019); Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2018); End-user, Kunsthal Aarhus (2018); OVER, Index, Stockholm (2018); OVER, Ludlow 38, New York (2017); SECOND SEX WAR, Trondheim Kunstmuseum, Trondheim (2016).