Backroom, also known as dark room, is a partially or completely darkened place which can be found in some gay bars, nightclubs, saunas or even sex shops.

Its idea is to provide their customers with a possibility of unfettered, free sex, often with unknown people. Backroom may be as simple as a small room enough for two or three persons, or may comprise a large portion of the bar area, with mazes, glory holes, or steel bars resembling prison cells. 

Can this maze, supposedly cramped and dark, lead to delight? What are we looking for in these places, although they’re to the complete opposite of the traditional sense of pleasure? 

But perhaps it is then necessary to go beyond the sordid vision of these places to catch a glimpse of the true essence of their existence… The backroom would then be the scene of many paradoxes that make them fundamentally enigmatic. Sex meets dark and gloomy, which could cause forgetfulness and pleasure, but whatever their purposes are, whatever the intentions of those who pass through their doors, these places are accompanied by a profound freedom. Shouldn’t the vision, the practices and the definition of sexuality itself be a perfect reflection of this freedom? 

This work intends only to note a rarely mentioned reality. [Official Website]