For the past sixteen years Jerry Vile has promised his fellow Detroiters that their Valentine’s Day would most certainly be filled with eroticism. Erotic art and performance, that is. Since its inception in a small office building, Vile’s exhibition entitled, Dirty Show, annually outgrew its venue capacity before it landed in the Russell Industrial’s Exhibition Center 2014. Sure to keep pouring in the exponentially booming audience is this year’s special opening night event. Famed cult filmmaker John Waters will be headlining Thursday’s preview with his one man show, “This Filthy World.” Though the success has led to a “touring version of [Vile’s] show to Los Angeles, Chicago and Miami, and holds sister shows in Zurich, Sydney and Vancouver” [Metrotimes, 2014], the archetypal Dirty Show has not yet reached the shores of the East coast.

Ten years after attending the Dirty Show, Jason ‘DirtyBoogie’ Rivera looks back on the experience with elation; recalling his first impressions of the wall-to-wall and stage-to-stage display of “sweet perversion” as if he were a bright-eyed virgin. DJ DirtyBoogie moved from Detroit to NYC in 2006 where party production led to the founding of his lifestyle brand, Get Summered. While planning for the company’s annual Valentine’s event he realized that pairing a visual platform like the Dirty Show’s with a prime musical selection of “sexy slow jams” would ensure a long night of grooving bodies and dancing imaginations.

Rivera originally had been on the hunt for a raw space that would “keep the aesthetics of the original Detroit [based] show.” However, just as Vile’s show had evolved, Get Summered realized its concept had outgrown the taste of a traditional DIY space. Candice Fortin, who began curating nationally in 2012, had been in the development stages of a monthly series of events at The Museum of Sex when she learned of Rivera’s search for a location to host his. She immediately joined Get Summered as co-curator of DIRTY: The Lover’s Hangover, which will come to fruition in the museum’s lounge, Play, for one evening.

The roster includes erotic art veterans such as photographers Reka Nyari and Insuh Yoon, and embroidery artist Meghan Willis who, Fortin explains, have “been dedicated to liberating stigmas with nudity.” Jeweler and Deputy Director of PLAYGROUND DETROIT, Samantha Banks, may be considered what Riviera refers to as one of the “novices” here. She will be displaying the first from a series of kinky body adornments. Though Get Summered and Fortin have not focused on performance like the archetypal iteration of Dirty, graphic designer and multimedia artist Lee Trice, painter Erik Foss, and sculptor Pasha Setrova are another 3 of the 30 participating, denoting the range of mediums included.

DIRTY may be the first event Detroit has directly inspired Rivera to produce for Get Summered but he continues to carry a bond to the Motor City. He hopes to introduce a bit of his New York dance scene with plans to bring Get Summered to Detroit this spring. With both Vile and Rivera’s events on tour, there is plenty of love to go around.

Jerry Vile’s Dirty Show runs from 7pm- 2am February 12-15th, and February 20-21st at the Russell Exhibition Center, 1600 Clay St., Detroit; tickets are $30 in advance.

Get Summered & Candice Fortin’s DIRTY: The Lover’s Hangover, runs from 5-9p on Sunday, February 15 at The Museum of Sex’s Play, 1 East 27^th street. Entrance is free.

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