HIÉROPHANTE — the digital art priest
IS THIS PORN OR ART? DECIDE!
If the digital art priest HIÉROPHANTE combines 250 porn movie scenes to one clip: Is this still porn or does it become art?
Only a few people exist who manage the thin line between erotic art and flat porn.
Valentin Mermet-Bouvier is one of these few.
He shows us the beauty, grace and holiness behind the digital pictures we consume everyday.
This is why Valentin is more than a digital artist.
He´s a modern priest, named after Hiérophante: a particular kind of priest in ancient Greece; and the 5th tarot card, also known as the “Pope”. But the etymological meaning is „the link with sacred things“.
Hiérophante takes thousands of instagram or pornhub pictures and transforms them into art.
Nonetheless he has to hide his art: Youtube would censor his clips, instagram erase his account.
What do you say: Is this still porn? Or is it art, worth to be respected and worshipped?
Give us your opinion by commenting directly in Hiérophante´s insta account: @hierophone
Hiérophante: THE GENESIS OF AN EXTRAORDINARY ARTIST
Hiérophantes background and how he came to what he’s creating
I’ve studied art, then architecture and now I’m a graphic designer.
Those three fields have some differences in mindset and production processes and I think it shows in my works.
In music I actually come from a metal background. And even though I’m not really interested in it anymore, I think I have permanently been influenced by it.
The name Hiérophante
Hiérophante, I know, is a bit pompous, but I first used it to express the idea that an artist doesn’t „create“ stuff out of nothing.
An artist just makes links between existing things.
We tend to idealise too much what being an artist is.
Hiérophante´s one-sentence-description of his art
I can’t find the exact quote, but when the cinema was still a new form of art, soviet filmmaker Lev Kuleshov said about film editing: „The viewer gets more meaning by the interaction of a shot with another shot, than by the shots themselves“.
I think it’s what matters in my works, too.
The impulses Hiérophante wants to give you
Maybe I try to make people have another perspective about common things.
I also like it more when viewers think „I could have done this, but I haven‘t thought of it“ rather than „I can’t do this because it needs too many skills“.
Numbers of used single clips / pictures per art piece
For Cliché I used around 2000 instagram pictures, Reproduction around 250 porn movie scenes.
Hiérophante on SEX & SOCIETY
The difference between porn and art as — society sees it.
I think it depends a lot on what society you are in, since what we define as “porn“ and „art“ changes constantly.
But I think the difference is the purpose of the content created.
Porn is supposed to get viewers aroused. And art, well, is not supposed to serve any direct use.
But art can certainly be pornographic, and porn can be artistic, even if 99% of the actual productions seriously lack imagination and creative meaning.
As you certainly know better than me, more and more creative directors and performers try to do interesting porn production, people like Erika Lust, for example.
The development of sex in society
When I see teenagers / young adults today, they seem way more open that my generation was on questions like sexuality, gender, racism and feminism, so I think, on the long run, we become a more open society.
But we do it surprisingly slowly, which is very frustrating.
I, for example, was shocked 7 years ago, when France legalised gay marriage, to see such a backlash against it, with huge conservative, and let’s be honest homophobic, demonstrations everywhere in the country for something that should have been totally common at the time.
Our greatest problem
I think one of the problems (I don’t know if it’s the greatest) is that most often the productions of every kind are designed to be shared (at one point or another) through media like Facebook, Youtube, Apple, Amazon, etc.
So what’s acceptable in terms of freedom of expression is not anymore defined by laws created by democratically elected people — but decided by a handful of American CEOs.
And it happens that those American CEOs have a different point of views about what’s morally right than most of us Europeans: they are more tolerant about violence and hate speech.
And they are way less tolerant about sexuality.
I’m not saying that they’re wrong and our way of seeing the world is especially better.
But the fact that they alone decide what can be public, outside any democratic process and discussion involving the people, seems wrong. And this has a huge impact on everyone.
That’s one of the reasons I like working with porn material: I try to turn it into something that will be allowed in internet areas that would not usually accept nudity.
Message to a young person making the first sexual experiences through digital media
It depends what you mean by „digital media“.
If it’s about watching porn online, I would just say: This it’s generally not what reality is about.
If it’s about exchanging with someone online, I think the only advice is:
1. Be sure everyone involved is consenting that exchange, and also, sadly,
2. Don’t make any images of you recognisable, because we still live in a society where it can lead to trouble.
And also have fun. But I’m not sure that I’m a good role model for young people.
FINDING HIÉROPHANTE
IG: @hierophone
TW: @hierophante
SOUNDCLOUD: @hierophante
VIMEO: @hierophante
Originally published on BERLINABLE
