Die Wand ist nicht tragend

In my work, I meet people and portray them together with me, whom I got to know through online dating platforms. With the question: How intimate can the first meeting be? How close can we get for a photo?

Die Wand ist nicht tragend

I have always been fascinated by the construct of love and especially that which is spun around love. And yet I would argue that I have never felt the full extent of love, or at least I think there must be more love, because that's what at least society, social media, movies, etc. would have me believe. This obsession on the topic of love that is drilled into women (or as female read person) at a young age. A woman must realize that they are worth less than a man and that no matter how "good" they are, they will never be considered good enough in the eyes of the patriarchal world. Our patriarchal society classifies femininity as worthless or not valuable from birth, which is why women (or as female read person) think they are not worthy of love.

I and also other people suffer from romantic love, we let ourselves believe that love justifies everything because it is sacred. (toxic romance!)

"Political is everything that has to do with contrasts, frictions or conflicts between ways of life, ways of perception, sensibilities, worlds, as soon as this contact reaches a certain intimacy" says Şeyda Kurt in her book Radical Tendernesses - Why Love is Political, but does this also apply when we get to know a person on an online dating platform?

In my work, I meet people and portray them together with me, whom I got to know through online dating platforms. With the question: How intimate can the first meeting be? How close can we get for a photo? Where are the limits, where are my personal limits in particular? And how much does the algorithm influence the search? Is the search for love a necessity or perhaps more of a testing ground? Who or what can I actually love? What does it mean to date as a non-binary person?

I have been using online dating all my life. Somewhere I like this format, at the same time is also bizarre. It's texting back and forth a few times with an unknown person, meeting, and suddenly you're intimate with that person even though you've known them for maybe two hours.

I probably wouldn't enter into this with any other person, yet online dating platforms we often assume love directly. Sometimes you meet with this person for further meetings, often you never see this person again in your life. Is this construct love or is it the idea we have of love given to us by patriarchal society and maybe even by ourselves?