Objectum Sexuality: Married to a Famous Structure
There are various fetishes and different kinds of love, there’s nothing new about that. However, as much as we’re used to the myriad kinds of sexual and love preferences, it’s still unusual to attach indeed real, and strong emotions at that, to form attachments towards inanimate objects. Those who have been struck by such an unusual fate are dubbed objectosexuals and the movie “Married to the Effiel Tower” is dedicated to them. The movie was shown within the interesting exhibition Extravagant Bodies: Extravagant Minds, within this year’s festival of contemporary art, held in Zagreb this past October and organized by the Dumpster Association (Udruga Kontejner).
The movie follows various women’s stories from different parts of the world who believe that inanimate objects have a life of their own and a sort of independent consciousness which enables them to communicate and feel love. Thus, not only do they love these inanimate objects, but their love is requited, the objects have the ability to love them back. These women are excited by the objects’ diverse shapes and forms, as opposed to human bodies, and their obsession with them isn’t only of a sexual nature but is complemented with real emotions to boot.
The pioneer of objectum sexuality is Eija Ritta Berliner Mauer, a Swedish woman who felt her love toward the Berlin Wall long before Germany was united. She symbolically married the Wall in the 70s, even though it was a detested symbol of oppression and occupation, where many people died trying to cross over from the east to the west side. She went on to attach Berliner Mauer to her name, meaning, of course, the Berlin Wall. She didn’t take to Germany’s uniting too well, as her object of affection, her “husband” was brutally demolished and only rare memento remains were preserved, and tiny pieces of her love are still sold for around 15 euro with confirmation of authenticity.
Her fellow citizen, Berlin-based Sandy K. experienced a similar trauma. Namely, she was enamored from a young age with the New York Twin Towers, who unfortunately ceased to exist following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Sandy K. states that she never felt anything even remotely similar towards a human being. However, the movie’s main protagonist is Naisho/Erica, a 36-year-old from San Francisco, who also wished to marry a world-famous object – non other than the Eiffel Tower. “There is a huge problem with being in love with a public object,” she says sadly. “The issue of intimacy – or rather lack of it – is forever present.
However, there are objectosexuals who aren’t quite such megalomaniacs in their choice of partner, thus they manage to achieve “intimacy”. Hence Bill Rifka, a student (of psychology, no less) is in love with his iBook. Considering massive Apple fans, he probably isn’t the only one, while others don’t exactly deem it love and don’t attempt to specify their computer’s gender as Rifka did. He concluded that his laptop is male and that they’re in a gay relationship. As the number of objectosexuals is progressively on the increase they’ve started gathering on Internet forums to exchange views and opinions in an understanding non-judgmental environment with like-minded individuals.
Volkmar Sigusch, the former director of the Frankfurt Institute for Sexual Science, attempted to offer a scientific explanation to objectum sexuality, and concluded that it happens as a result of society’s growing asexuality.
The Zurich-based interdisciplinary Studio BHSF also engaged in similar research, and even filmed several video-clips entitled ”Housefucking”, where they in effect mock building fetishes, as we featured here.
