De Morgen — Porn, sexual violence or art? Left-wing student films a sex date with a right-wing philosopher

Background — Film. JC and JPE. 28 October 2021, 17:22.

Despite protests, the controversial film Honeypot premiered in the Netherlands yesterday. The film shows a sex date between right-wing philosopher Sid Lukkassen and a left-wing student. According to several organisations, Honeypot is ‘the glorification of sexual violence’.

A right-wing conservative philosopher tries to win the heart of a left-wing student through his chivalry. When he enters her boudoir, he finds himself in a literary, enchanting and unpredictable world, where the student begins to undress him. As the philosopher does his best to get closer to her, he realises that she has lured him into a trap.

It could have been the plot of a romantic comedy, but it is anything but. Honeypot, which premiered yesterday, is a project by the Dutch art criticism platform Keeping It Real Art Critics (Kirac). With its web series on YouTube and Vimeo, Kirac does not shy away from controversy, and with this 23rd episode it reaches unprecedented heights.

It all began last summer with an appeal from Jini van Rooijen, 22, on the Dutch current-affairs website GeenStijl. The left-wing philosophy student from Amsterdam was looking for ‘right-wing men’ who wanted to go to bed with her on camera, in her words to ‘overcome polarisation through porn’. Right-wing philosopher and writer Sid Lukkassen accepted her invitation.

The result is Honeypot. The title refers to a Cold War term for female secret agents who use sex and love to gather intelligence. Honeypot shows the not particularly successful sex date between the student and the philosopher, as fiction and reality merge in the film. Lying half-naked on a mattress in Van Rooijen’s apartment, Lukkassen changes his mind halfway through the film. He asks for it not to be broadcast.

Although he initially took part in the project voluntarily, he can clearly be heard saying that he does not want the footage used. It was to no avail: Honeypot premiered yesterday in a sold-out venue in Amsterdam.

Criticism

Lukkassen was far from the only person who did not want the film shown. Following a try-out at Amsterdam debate centre De Balie earlier this month, the project had already caused considerable controversy. According to several organisations, De Balie’s decision to give the art collective a platform was part of ‘the glorification of sexual violence’. On top of that, during the presentation Kirac had invited the Hague artist Julian Andeweg as a special guest. He is under police investigation following dozens of reports of sexual and other violence and abuse.

The feminist organisation Wonda Collective and the Revolutionair Verbond then launched a petition to boycott the film. It was signed more than 1,700 times and handed over at a protest on Monday evening. But the filmmakers and organisers stood their ground.

Lukkassen himself also spoke out on the eve of the screening. ‘It was an impulsive act,’ he wrote on the right-wing weblog De Dagelijkse Standaard. ‘Perhaps I shouldn’t have done it, but I still think it is valuable to open myself up to people with other political views. I find it bizarre that Kirac is releasing the film without my consent. At the same time, I can see how counterproductive it is to argue with them about it.’

Were boundaries crossed?

Meanwhile, supporters and opponents, left and right, were falling over one another. Lukkassen had been set up, said the right. He knew what he was getting into, said the left. An autistic man had been exploited, said the right. The man went to university and worked at the European Parliament, and now we are supposed to treat him as an autistic person who cannot be held responsible for his actions? the left retorted.

Had this film crossed the boundaries of what is permissible? De Balie director Yoeri Albrecht put that question to Kate Sinha of Kirac during a panel discussion before the screening.

‘For us, this whole discussion, this uproar is about defending the work of art,’ Sinha said. ‘The moment Sid says he no longer gives permission for the film to be shown is also the moment Jini rejects him. Our impulse then is to hold Sid to his original reason for taking part in this project: he felt he was going to experience something interesting with Jini. He should have the sense of honour to see the whole thing through with us. That is his responsibility as a philosopher: if you begin an investigation and something happens other than what you had hoped for beforehand, you shouldn’t say: “I don’t want to do this any more, I quit.” You have to keep going. If Sid cannot do that himself at that moment, we will hold him to his calling as a philosopher.’

Artist and director Stefan Ruitenbeek added: ‘I sometimes think: “What have I got myself into?” But you cannot withdraw your consent. You can say you do, but you can’t. You may regret it afterwards, but you cannot withdraw your consent. That isn’t how it works. Sid wanted to go to bed with Jini on camera, and I think he would have been very happy with the film if he had given Jini a good fuck, but that didn’t happen. That is part of life too.’

Linda Duits, an academic at the University of Amsterdam, then said she hoped Lukkassen would file a complaint so that a judge could rule on the issue. ‘Fine,’ Sinha responded. ‘I hope there is a court case too. It is not a sword of Damocles hanging over us as makers; if it happens, it will be interesting.’

‘No regrets’

Jini van Rooijen, the student with whom it all began, says she has no regrets about the film being shown. ‘I think he needs to tell himself: come on, I’m Sid Lukkassen, I knew I would be filmed,’ she says in an interview with Folia, an independent news website for University of Amsterdam students. ‘He came to us of his own accord; he took part of his own accord. Sid Lukkassen is tough: after all, he himself says women should be distributed among men. I find it pathetic that he is acting so pathetic.’

She took part in the project to promote her OnlyFans channel. OnlyFans is a social platform where people can sell nude photographs and videos. During the coronavirus pandemic, the platform increasingly became synonymous with sex work. ‘I was looking for men to make porn with,’ Van Rooijen says in the interview. ‘At the same time, I have always been interested in the tension between left-wing women and right-wing men. I find the idea that left-wing girls want someone to dominate them in bed interesting.’

Honeypot premiered yesterday and will soon be available on Kirac’s website, Vimeo and YouTube.

What is Kirac?

Keeping It Real Art Critics (Kirac) was founded in 2016 by artist Stefan Ruitenbeek. Together with his partner, archaeologist and philosopher Kate Sinha, and artist Tarik Sadouma, he makes critical, provocative, disruptive, populist, postmodernist online reflections on art, subsidies and other matters about which they wish to vent their spleen.

Kirac operates between art criticism and art. Shortly after its foundation, a jury chaired by NRC arts editor Sandra Smallenburg awarded Kirac an encouragement prize in the ‘Innovative Criticism’ category of the Young Art Critics Prize. That same year, after an initial rejection, Stefan Ruitenbeek received a €40,910 grant from the Mondriaan Fund for his video series examining the ‘socioeconomic context in which artists operate today, and how this is expressed in the art they make’.