TEMPTRESS 6 / COUNTERFUTURE

This cover story features an image from Raided, a project by the anonymous artist Counterfuture, built from publicly released law enforcement footage of raids in Ukraine. The viewer is drawn into a forceful intrusion, following masked authorities as they break into brothels and strip clubs, detain alleged criminals, and seize evidence — with little regard for the privacy of those depicted. Stripped of context, these images shift from evidence to fragments that question power, and the act of looking.

Money never shows up clean. It comes with desire, shame, hunger, contracts, fantasies, and a silence that says more than any bank statement. TEMPTRESS — the independent art platform and print magazine founded by Ukrainian artist Julie Poly — dedicates its sixth issue to following money into the places where it gets uncomfortable: bedrooms and strip clubs, legal brothels and dating apps, oligarch summits and bedroom altars, rooftops in Rio and night streets in Warsaw.

The issue features an exclusive interview with Santiago Sierra, conducted by Dasha Anosova, alongside a conversation Anastasiia Kalyta with filmmaker Erika Lust — plus essays, photo series, confessions, and experiments from 25+ contributors spanning Kyiv, Berlin, London, São Paulo, New York, Vienna, Warsaw, and beyond.

This issue includes a special insert for the babes: scented stickers created in collaboration with JOUISSANCE perfumes and TEMPTRESS. Extending beyond the page, the insert connects olfactory experience to one of the essays in the issue, where scent becomes an entry point into memory and desire.