Lust is an English word that translates as lujuria. Lust, one of the seven deadly sins, is defined, according to the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), as the "excessive desire for sexual pleasure." Can one desire something excessively? Where would the difference between lust and addiction lie? If we desire excessively, and this is a sin, we deduce that it is wrong to desire too much pleasure and, from there to addiction, there is only one step.
The word lust takes me to the movie The Great Gatsby, where there is an excess of everything, and desiring and enjoying that desire, with a touch of extravagance, would be the right measure of lust. The right measure of excess. As the English expression sweet spot defines it, which would be the ideal point or the right measure in which an experience or lived experience has already given you the maximum learning it could offer and, no matter how much you want to live more of the same, it no longer brings you anything new.
In Barcelona there is also an erotic, sensual and hidden part of the city. That liberating, necessary, and desirable part that opens at night and is usually accessed through the back door and without cell phones. The lustful Barcelona, the sexy and daring Barcelona that seduces curious minds and awakened bodies. This part of the city also generates the Barcelona brand, and combines perfectly with culture, music, gastronomy, artistic expressions, the most rogue creations and the street life of the different neighborhoods.
A city like Barcelona demands a free and daring offer to expose eroticism and sensuality, just as it was a pioneer in Spain legalizing nudist beaches, it must be a destination of freedom, regulated; if this oxymoron can work. In fact, the first immersive erotic cinema experience, called House of Erikalust, is in Barcelona, specifically in the Poblenou neighborhood.
To begin the visit, you must commit not to take photos during the tour. To let yourself be seduced by this mysticism, they place suggestive blindfolds on you while you taste a glass of cava. During the tour, you can observe sensual, erotic, beautiful and suggestive images, but always in this just measure. You go as a couple, someone goes alone or in groups, although, curiously, most groups are of girls.
At no time did I feel intimidated or violated by the images; on the contrary, the entire journey is very suggestive. Everything is meticulously cared for: the light, the music, the images... Through the exhibition, you understand how adult film productions are made and how they respect and care for the work of the actors and actresses. Afterwards, you put on 3D glasses and enter a hyper-realistic world where you could perfectly feel like you are inside a movie. And you finish, an hour later, with a wonderful projection in the large hall of IDEAL. Wrapped 360 degrees, with a meticulously cared-for aesthetic of bodies, colors, music, lights, and rhythms. With all this, you manage to understand what feminist adult cinema is like.
Barcelona is the city that must offer that lust, that invites you to enter an unknown world and fantasize for a while. It is the right measure to then decide, privately, if you want to experience more or if this is already your sweet spot. A good experience to combine the romantic with the erotic, the friend with the lover, those two faces of Barcelona that are the same city, that are the same woman.