Now, Suddenly, I Was A Creature of Vice

“And you’re unsure if you like this change or understand its consequences. But you feel it immediately — a rise in power. A strange force that overpowered me, and overpowered the men, the sudden, brutal shift in my status. Now, suddenly, I was a creature of vice.” – Virginie Despentes

Sex work is the only profession which marks the sex worker (a woman, of course) for the rest of her
life. A mark that undermines her dignity, belittles and twists her work, questions its legitimacy and
exposes the patriarchal power relations in a society steeped in the commodification of bodies and rape culture.

Now, Suddenly, I Was a Creature of Vice is a documentary performance based on interviews with
women who experienced sex work. The variety of their experience and life stories that break with common societal paradigms gives at least partial insight into the status of sex workers in Slovenia. Their fragile, painful, captivating, fascinating, horrendous and at times surprisingly funny stories
reveal their glamorous and harrowing truths. The rawness of the material is mirrored by the unorthodox multimedia presentation, traversing the genres of confession, witness account and
theatre representation; the diversity of contexts and inlets into the represented stories results in a
plurality of signification, identities and profiles.

The performance does not moralise or co-opt the voices of the sex workers but highlights these
stories to create a space where they can freely express themselves.