SNAP Festival – Let’s celebrate the decriminalization of sex work

SNAP – “Sex workers Narratives Arts & Politics” – is a festival entirely dedicated to the discourses, representations, and issues related to sex work from 27 to 29 May 2022 in Brussels.

The Festival is an artistic, festive and political event entirely dedicated to the representations, issues and discourses related to escorting, sex cam, porn, BDSM, among other activities. SNAP programming includes films, round-table discussions, conferences, shows, performances, concerts, DJ sets, exhibitions, and associative stands.

The works presented at SNAP are created exclusively by sex workers or in active collaboration with them. They focus on minorities who work in the sex industry, either on an occasional or primary basis, and on the meaning they give to these economic practices. LGBTQI issues, migration, gender, self-use, precarity: through the life perspectives of sex workers, SNAP! invites a feminist, queer, and intersectional look at contemporary social and political issues.

This first edition in Brussels is made even more important by the political context and the recent decision to decriminalize sex work in Belgium. The program will focus on virtual porn performers and the specificities of these new modalities of practice.

Sex work subcultures will be honored through a large selection of performances and films. Finally, the exhibition “Pute et Peintre” (Whore and Painter), will pay homage to the famous “revolutionary whore” Grisélidis Réal, among other surprising artists.

What is sex work? It is activities related to the creation of sexually explicit images (sexcam, porn), sexual services (escorting, prostitution, BDSM), but also more broadly any type of economical-sexual continuum involving the body and affects in exchange of money or material support. 

Who are the sex workers? They are transgender and cisgender women and men, students, casual workers, migrants, LGBTQI+ people, mothers, people who live with disabilities, people in your family or in your circle of friends, though you may not know it. Sex work is at the intersection of major theoretical and political issues, as well as at the core of reflections on what can be represented, on the ways in which we use our bodies, on relationships to work, to sexuality, to class, to gender.

Beyond the sensationalism usually associated with this type of subject, SNAP is dedicated to exploring sex work and the experiences of those who work in it in accordance with the following ethical principle: NOTHING ABOUT US WITHOUT US: Concretely, this means a program centered around artworks and speeches made by people directly involved in sex work, or by allies respecting a principle of active collaboration with them.

SNAP is a festival open to all. In partnership with UTSOPI.

➔ At the Beursschouwburg & at the NOVA cinema.

Program includes Klou, Marianne Chargois, Romy Alizée, Axel Abysse, Yoshi Kawasaki, Carmina, Prune, Nour Beetch, Lisa Lapierre, King Baxter and more.

More info on SNAP Festival